Sweet chicken curry

This chicken in this Indian curry recipe is roasted on the bone, then heated through again in the sauce resulting in rich intensely flavoured meat. Serve this curry with plain rice, accompanied by a mixed salad with a lemon and thyme vinaigrette dressing.

• serves

  6

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  1:50 hour

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 5 (about 2 kg) chicken marylands, cut into thighs and drumsticks
• 1 tbsp brown mustard seeds
• 2 tbsp coriander seeds or ground coriander
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds or ground cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 60 ml (¼ cup) olive oil
• 5 cm piece ginger, grated
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 cm piece turmeric, grated, or 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 440 g can chopped tomatoes
• 520 ml coconut milk
• 1 lemon, juiced
• coriander and steamed rice, to serve

Instructions

Preheat oven to 160°C. Place chicken in a greased baking dish and roast for 1 hour or until cooked through. Allow to cool. Refrigerate the chicken, then remove and discard the fat, but don’t remove the jelly-like aspic that collects around it.

Heat a small frying pan over low heat. Add the mustard seeds and cook until the seeds pop, then add the coriander, cumin and paprika, and fry for a further 15 seconds or until fragrant. Set aside.

Heat oil in an 8L cast-iron or heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Cook ginger, garlic and turmeric for 2 minutes or until soft, then add onion and fry for 3 minutes or until golden.

Add tomatoes and toasted spices and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the liquid has reduced to a thick sauce. (If mixture begins to stick, add a dash of water and stir rapidly.)

Stir in 1 tsp salt, then add the chicken and 'jelly’. Stirring constantly, add 250 ml water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in coconut milk and cook, uncovered, for a further 20 minutes or until liquid thickens.

Stir in the lemon juice, scatter with coriander and serve with steamed rice.

As seen in Feast magazine, Issue 7, pg107.

Photography by Mark Roper.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.