Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Indian Recipes? Chicken Curry? Chicken Vindaloo!

Chicken Curry: Chicken Vindaloo


 

[caption id="attachment_1667" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Chicken Vindaloo Click To Enlarge"]Chicken Vindaloo[/caption]

Have you ever had Chicken Vindaloo? I have never had Chicken Vindaloo either until this last week! Now it is one of my favorite Indian recipes to make!  It is a delicious chicken curry that fills the senses with aromas and the taste buds with flavors! If you like layers of flavor in the foods you eat then Indian recipes are the way to go!  About two weeks ago I made a recipe called Fresh Spring Onion Pesto for a pasta dish I was doing for this blog. One of my readers and fellow foodies is a guy named Sean and he has a Youtube channel called Seans food. Sean and I are pretty friendly and we communicate often. I respect his cooking ability and dishes and vice verse!

He had left a comment on the dish and said something along the line of "There you go again Rich, another recipe packed with flavor! I bet you like curries don't you? Have you ever had any Indian recipes? Do you know what  Chicken Vindaloo is?" I told him that I do love curry recipes although I have not made very many of them. So then he came back and said I should try to make a chicken curry recipe called Chicken Vindaloo! This is one of manyIndian recipes popular in England where my friend Sean come from. In fact he tells me that Indian recipes are amongst the most popular foods to eat in all of England and that the image of fish and chips is not really how it is at all!

I asked him what kind of chicken curry dish Chicken Vindaloo was and he explained that it was the popular dish eaten by the lads after a hard night of drinking and partying. Well, I was all in for that! I have had many nights of hard partying and some busted up mornings as well in my lifetime so as far as Chicken Vindaloo is concerned I was all in!

So I took it upon myself to do some research on Indian recipes with a focus on Chicken Vindaloo. I come to find that Chicken Vindaloo is not a chicken curry dish that is native to Indian recipes at all. Chicken Vindaloo is a dish that currently hails from Goa and in the part of India where meat is eaten it is a staple of Indian recipes.

I thought it was an interesting fact that the word Vindaloo in Chicken Vindaloo comes from the Portugese language called "Carne de Vinha d' Alhos". This traditional variation of Chicken Vindaloo was made of pork with wine and garlic and that was it!  Over time this dish became an Indian recipe that became the chicken curry dish we call Chicken Vindaloo today!

The dish was changed over time with the addition of vinegar and the subtraction of wine. Also The addition of multiple spices and of course chili pepper for the heat! Traditonally, Chicken Vindaloo is not served with potatoes. Potatoes are something that was added to this chicken curry dish in modern times. The potatoes are used as a thickener and yield enhancer to increase the volume of the dish for sale in restaurants.

So this past week I took it upon myself to learn how to make Chicken Vindaloo! I must say that this is the best chicken curry dish that I have ever had! So please sit back and relax and watch the video. If you are not familiar with Indian recipes and even if you are then you will love this Chicken Vindaloo made my way! Watch and enjoy!



Ingredients For Marinating Process
2 Lbs Chicken thighs cut into chunks.
2 Cups slivered onions.
4 to 8 whole chilies or the equivalent amount in crushed red chilies it all depends on how HOT you like your vindaloo.
4 to 6 cloves of garlic.
1 or 2 Inch piece of ginger peeled and sliced up a bit for processing.
3 Tbsp onion confit. If you don't have any just puree about half a medium onion to put into marinade.
1/4 to 1/2 Cup of White wine vinegar or sherry vinegar for the marinade.
Light squeeze of lemon juice.

Ingredients For Dry Spice Mix:
1 Tsp. Garam Masala.
1 Tsp. Paprika. Not smoked or sweet paprika. Regular paprika. It is used for some color not flavor.
1 Tsp Ground cloves.
3/4 Tsp. Ground Cardamon.
1 1/4 Tsp. Cinnamon.
1/2 Tbsp. Freshly crushed black pepper.
1 1/2 Tbsp. Cumin.
1 Tsp Coriander.
1 1/4 Tsp. Mustard Seeds
3 Tbsp. Honey
4 Tbsp. Olive oil or Ghee.

Method:
1. Take your chilies or crushed chilies, garlic, and ginger and put it into your white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar stir it up well then squeeze some fresh lemon juice into it and let sit for about an hour.

2. After the marinade sits for one hour you can either pour it over your cut up chicken thighs or you can do what I did which was to place the marinade in a food processor and blend it up and then pour it over your cut up chicken things and allow to marinate for minimum of one hour in the refrigerator. I let my chicken marinate for four hours to really suck up those flavors from the marinade! Yum!

3. Now for the dry spice mix take your clove powder, cumin, cardamon, paprika, cinnamon, black pepper, garam masala, and coriander and put them in a bowl and mix them up completely with a whisk!

4. Now after your dry spice mix(your curry is made) Make some simple white rice with some salt and black pepper and put it aside when it is finished. Your Chicken Vindaloo will go on top of the rice.

5. Get a large skillet I like using an All Clad Non-Stick skillet that I love and heat your oil or ghee in it and add your mustard seeds to the skillet. Eventually the seeds will start to pop like popcorn. Once this happens add your slivered onions and and touch of salt and sweat the onions down til you get some browning to them.

6. Once the onions are golden brown it's time to add your marinated chicken using all the juices that accumulated with it and stir it about the skillet for a few minutes getting the chicken and the onions mixed well.

7. Add your dry spice mixture and a pinch of salt and mix the curry into the chicken and onions well. Cook in open skillet for about three minutes continually mixing then add your honey and stir it in then cover the skillet with it's lid and simmer the Chicken Vindaloo

8. Let the Chicken Vindaloo simmer in the skillet until the chicken is done and the curry it is cooking in is nice and thick! Don't forget to stir the vindaloo every so often.

9. Prepare plates or bowls with your rice and then just spoon the Chicken Vindaloo over the rice and serve!
Enjoy!

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