2015 Cooking Club Week 32: Chicken and Chickpea Curry

biddywiddy

This recipe is originally from BBC Good Food (I think) and is a favourite in our house. I know there are several curries already in the Cooking Club, but this one is a bit different, and a bit lighter, so I thought I'd share it.

I have halved the amount of chicken and chickpeas in the original recipe and kept the ingredients for the sauce the same as we prefer more sauce. You can add more meat, or leave the meat out altogether and bulk up on veggies. This version serves 2 generously.


Ingredients:
2 onions, quartered
3 big garlic cloves
3cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tbsp medium curry powder (whatever you have)
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp paprika
1 fresh red chili, seeded and roughly chopped
20g packet of fresh coriander
1 chicken stock cube
425ml boiling water
2 skinless chicken breasts, cubed
Small can of chickpeas (or half a 410g can), drained and rinsed

You can also add any other veg you have lying around if you fancy it – here I added a yellow pepper and a handful of mushrooms.


What to do:
Get out the food processor. Throw in the onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder, turmeric, paprika, chilli and about half the coriander. Add about half a tsp of salt (you can always add more when seasoning later, but this salt just brings out the flavour and juices of everything in the processor) and a few tablespoons of water. Whizz the lot in the food processor until you get a gritty paste. If it still looks too dry, add a little more water. Note: if you have a nice shiny unstained food processor, and you want to keep it that way, leave out the turmeric from this step and just add it straight to the pot.



Transfer the mixture to a large saucepan and cook over a low heat for about 10 minute, stirring lots.



Crumble in the stock cube, add the boiling water and bring back to the boil. Add the chicken, stir and simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes. Add any extra vegetables now too. It doesn’t look like much at this point, but bear with me.



I leave the lid on for this part, so the sauce doesn’t reduce too much. While that’s bubbling away, put on whatever rice you like.

After about 20 minutes, the chicken should be tender. Add the drained and rinsed chickpeas. Chop the remaining coriander and (reserving about 2 tbsp), chuck it into the pot and stir it in with the chickpeas. Check your seasoning and add salt or pepper if needed. Give it a few minutes on the hob to make sure the chickpeas are heated through.



Serve with rice. Use the last bit of chopped coriander to garnish the dish.

RobertFoster

Tasty! Simple and quick too. I didn't have medium curry powder, so used hot instead... still cooling down

Thanks, biddywiddy.

Dizzyblonde

I haven't tried this yet, but it's on my list and I'll get around to it soon

Curry Addict

It's delicious home style curry. I made it with chicken thighs and in a pressure cooker(20 mins). Really good balance.


Thanks for the recipe.