Biswa’s Winning Chicken Curry

We had a little soup/chili competition at work a while ago and Biswa, one of my coworkers, brought this ah-mazing chicken curry … he won first prize at the competition. EVERYONE (and I mean every single person who tasted it!) was raving about it, so he wrote up and shared his recipe.

The only problem is it was a little hard for some of us silly Americans to follow the recipe. There is a bit of a language barrier at play here. Another of my coworkers Teresa (who is a fabulous cook), decided she was going to make the recipe. Once she had done it a few times, she took it upon herself to try to American-ize the recipe so the rest of us dummies could follow it. She then went out and purchased all the spices and made spice kits for her family and gave it to them for Christmas, along with the recipe. I asked her to tell me where she found all the ingredients so I could make it too and she promised she would. Christmas came and went and I didn’t think much about the curry.

Then, on New Year’s Eve, Teresa totally took me by surprise. I was at work, in the midst of working through some hard stuff with another coworker, when Teresa came up and handed me a brightly colored present bag. I peered into it and it was chock full of all the spices for this curry! And then she also handed me a spice grinder to make the lovely spice mix! Eeeek! I was SO excited … I just HAD to make this curry.

I figured this wouldn’t be something my kids would like, so I called up my friend and told her we needed to make this curry. She and her husband both love curry, so she immediately said yes and volunteered to purchase the chicken and any other ingredients we needed to make it. We originally planned it for New Year’s Day, but then we got busy with other stuff, so we had our little curry party on Jan 2 instead. We listened to music, we drank wine, we talked, we cooked curry … and then we ate. It was a group project and SO much fun!

The recipe as written has a fabulous depth of flavor, but is surprisingly not very hot. You’ll need to add more hot peppers if you want heat. I left it mild for the sake of my daughter, who (much to my surprise) actually liked the curry! She gobbled it up. My friend’s teenage son also confessed at the meal that he really doesn’t normally like curry, but he loved this one. I was so surprised that it passed the teenager test!

I know the ingredient list on this recipe is long, but once you make the spice mix, you’ll have it on hand for next time and you can skip that first step and fast forward right to the cooking of the chicken.

Biswa’s Winning Chicken Curry

• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour
• Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Yield: 6 - 8 servings 1x

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Biswa’s spice mix:

• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 6–8 cardamom pods
• 6–8 whole cloves
• 2–3 dry whole red chile peppers
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seed  
• 2 bay leaves 
• 1 Tbsp whole coriander seed

Chicken mixture:

• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• 2 – 3 dry whole red chile peppers
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seed
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 whole garlic head, peeled and minced
• 2 teaspoons peeled, minced ginger root
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)
• 2 teaspoons cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 2 – 3 teaspoons Biswa’s spice mix
• 1 – 3 teaspoons ground red chili
• 1 pint of canned tomatoes (or a 15-oz. can)
• 3 –4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut in large bite-sized pieces, sprinkled with salt

Potatoes:

• 1 1/2–2 pounds medium-sized red potatoes, peeled and cut into large bite-sized pieces
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon canola oil

To finish:

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 – 3 teaspoons of the spice mix
• Red Robin Seasoning and freshly ground pepper
• A handful of cilantro, chopped

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Instructions

1. First, make the spice mix by toasting the spices in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly. When the color changes to a brownish hue (about 5-10 minutes), remove from heat and place in a grinder or blender. Grind to a fine powder. Store extra spice mix in an airtight container.
2. Now for the curry! In a stockpot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the whole chiles, bay leaves and cumin seed and cook, stirring constantly for a few minutes. When the chilies are browned, add the chopped onion, garlic, ginger and salt, and stir to mix.
3. Add the cumin, turmeric and chili powder and chopped tomatoes, then the chicken, and bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Stirring every 5-8 minutes, simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, toss the potatoes with oil, turmeric and salt until they are coated well. Over medium high heat, cook the potatoes until they are fully cooked and starting to brown.
5. Add the potatoes to the chicken mixture along with the broth, sugar and spice mix. Taste the broth and add more powdered chili, Red Robin seasoning and freshly ground pepper to your liking. Simmer for a while longer until the broth has reduced a bit, then stir in the cilantro. Serve hot over basmati rice.

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Notes

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

© Copyright 2016, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. I love it when you share, but please do not use my images on your own site/page without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. Sharing, pinning, and tweeting is always appreciated as long as the shares and pins link back to here for the recipe. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.

This recipe was shared at Foodie Friends Friday, Gluten Free Friday, Weekend Potluck, Let’s Get Real, Clever Chicks Bloghop and Home Matters.