Chicken Curry

There is no denying how fragrant Indian cooking can be. Cinnamon, cardamom, clove, cumin, garlic, chili and black pepper. Add a little ginger and you’ve got a feast for your nose.

As a riff on a curry recipe from Madhur Jaffrey, the queen of Indian specialties, I made chicken curry with legs instead of breasts and a little coconut milk. Her recipe had a few more ingredients like tamarind that I didn’t have on hand. But thrown together in the tagine, it was a wonderful mix of cooking genres.

The tagine, while North African in origin, lends itself nicely to this relatively slow-cooked recipe. My first order of business was to marinate the legs in a tablespoon of curry powder and peanut oil. Let that sit for at least an hour. (Obviously the longer, the better.) Then, I got cooking. A slick of canola on the bottom of the pan, minced shallots and a little garlic kicked it off. Adding a cinnamon stick to get things fragrant, I there in the red chili flakes, too. After a few minutes, I removed the cinnamon and placed the chicken legs in to get them nice and brown. I fit all those little suckers in, but it could also be done in batches. The end result is to cook off the chicken first and then set it aside.

I added cauliflower and Sungold cherry tomatoes along with the coconut milk. Cooking the veg and reducing the liquid, I now had a nice base to put the legs back in and marry the flavors. Let that go with the tagine cover on for another 20 minutes. With white or brown rice, couscous, or even buttered egg noodles, the flavors and fragrance of this dish would go with any base.

Here is the full recipe:

8 chicken legs

1 TB curry powder (for marinade)

1 TB peanut oil (for marinade)

1 TB canola oil

1 shallot, mined

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

1 cinnamon stick

1 tsp red chili flakes

1 tsp Kosher salt

12 oz. coconut milk

½ head of cauliflower

½ c. cherry tomatoes

Place tagine on medium heat. Cook the chicken in the oil. Set aside. Add the shallot, garlic, cinnamon, and chili flakes. After a few minutes, remove the stick. Add in the coconut milk, cauliflower, and tomatoes. Once tender, return chicken to tagine and cook for another 20 minutes or until meat is almost falling off the bone.

Bon appetit!