Hi, this recipe is from BBC Good Food's September 2021 issue, page 36. In fact, it's actually their cover recipe this month. This was a delicious meal and one I hope to make again soon. I loved the spices and flavours of the sauce, it had a bit of a kick to it for me, and when diluted with the chicken and rice it was fabulous! To combat too much spice, you can always add extra double cream, serve with Greek/natural yogurt or serve with a glass of milk. This dish wasn't as hard to make as I was expecting it to be and was super fun to do. You don't end up having much 'standing time' as majority is while the chicken is in the oven, so you will have plenty of time for other things if you wish. Once cooked and rested, you will have to carve the chicken, I am not amazing at this (yet! I'll keep practising) and if you're the same, then I suggest looking at this blog post by BBC Goodfood as it has a useful video and tips for you.
If you are making this for less than 4-6 people (I made for 3) personally, I would recommend not to use chicken thighs in place of the whole chicken, instead make the whole thing and freeze/reheat the next day any leftovers as the flavours are only going to develop further. Also, you get two meals out of one! With our leftovers, we froze about 1, maybe 2, portions of the curry (sauce + chicken) and the rest of the shredded chicken went towards a soup. We didn't keep the bones, but you could always make a stock from them if you wish.
Let me know how it goes for you. Enjoy!
Hazel x
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Serves: 4-6
Prep: 30-40mins
Cook: 1hr 40mins
MORE EFFORT
Dietary Info:
- Unsuitable for Vegetarians and Vegans
{See Good Food's Tips at the bottom of the recipe. Also, in place of the double cream, you could use a vegan plain yogurt or cream substitute, even a splash of plant based milk could work also. In place of the butter, use a plant-based margarine/butter. See below for examples.}
-Contains Dairy
{In place of the double cream, you can buy a plant-based alternative. They are quite easily purchasable from most supermarkets e.g. Tesco: Alpro Soya Cream, Elmea Plant Double Cream or Oatly Creamy Oat. For the butter, use a plant based butter e.g. Tesco: Flora Plant Butter, Tesco Sunflower Spread or Vitalite Dairy-Free Spread.}
-Gluten Free
{Just leave out the naan and use a g-f flatbread}
-Contains Nuts
{Use a shop brought mango chutney, or other preferred flavour.}
-Main Meal
Ingredients:
-2tbsp ghee or butter, softened {I used 2tbsp Clover margarine. Whatever spread you have in your fridge will work fine: butter, margarine, ghee, although maybe not cheese spread!}
-1 medium chicken (about 1.6kg) {Mine was 1.7kg}
-cooked pilau rice and naans, to serve
For the spice mix: {If you are a Good Food subscriber [I am] you will have got a packet of this with this months issue, so no need to make this.}
-1tsp ground cumin
-1tsp ground coriander
-1 garam masala
-1tsp smoked paprika
-1 + 1/2tsp ground turmeric
For the sauce:
-1 {brown} onion, chopped
-4 large garlic cloves {Chopped, although don't worry too much about getting them small, they're all going to be pureed anyway}
-1-2 red chillies, chopped. {I used 2 in the sauce.} Plus, extra to sliced chillies, serve.
-1 large thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
-1tbsp sunflower oil {We had some chilli oil in our cupboard and I used that as I wanted an extra kick, if you don't like too much heat, don't add chilli oil, or add extra double cream. Alternatively, use whatever neutral oil you have.}
-2tbsp ghee or butter {I used Clover margarine, any butter-type spread will work as well.}
-2x400g tins chopped tomatoes, blitzed in a food processor until smooth
-2tsp light brown soft sugar
-3-4tsp double cream
For the chutney:
-30g cashew nuts, toasted and chopped {To toast: put a small frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the cashews (dry frying). Toss and wait for them to turn golden brown.}
-small bunch of coriander. Plus, extra to serve {I don't know exact measurements for the herbs, I brought a packed of coriander and mint from the supermarket and I added according to my personal taste.}
-small bunch of mint
-1 lemon, juiced
-1/2tsp sugar {If you wish, you can use the brown sugar from before here as well.}
-70ml olive oil
Method:
1: Heat the oven to 200℃/ 180℃ fan/ 390℉/ gas 6. If you're making the spice mix combine all the ingredients and set aside. {If you have a premade packet, tip into a small bowl and set aside} For the sauce, tip the onion, garlic, chilli and ginger into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Heat the oil and ghee/butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat and fry the spiced onion puree with a pinch of salt for 12mins. {If it starts to stick, add a drop more oil and turn down the heat} Add 2tbsp of the spice mix, turn up the heat to high and cook for 1min. Tip in tomatoes, sugar and 250ml of water. Bring to a simmer. Season well with salt and turn off the heat. {Also, taste test. It is very important to check as you go along so that you can change it while you have time.}
2: To prepare the chicken, put the remaining spice mix in a bowl with 1tsp sea salt and the ghee/butter, and mash together. Push 2/3rds of the spiced butter beneath the skin of the chicken breasts, then rub the rest over the outside of the breasts and legs. Season the chicken skin with 1tsp sea salt and tie the legs together. {I didn't have any butchers string to tie the legs together with, so I snapped a couple of wooden skewers in half, soaked them in water for 30mins and used them to join the legs together. -> This was a solution from Google.} Sit the chicken in a 28-30cm pan, shallow casserole or roasting tin {I used a roasting tin} and pour the sauce around the bird. Cover the chicken with foil and roast for 40mins, then remove the foil and roast for another 30-40mins, or until cooked through (when you cut into one of the legs, the juices should run clear). {Mine took 70mins total to cook (not including resting) but the skin wasn't crispy, if you want a crispy skin, I suggest cooking for the 2nd time for 40mins.} Stir the double cream into the sauce. Taste for seasoning and leave rest, uncovered, for 10mins. {while resting, my tomato sauce went luke-warm and I would have preferred it to be a bit warmer. I suggest removing the chicken from the sauce and leaving to rest on a chopping board ready to cut, and leaving the sauce in the roasting dish in the oven (turned off, but it will still be hot from cooking) to keep warm.}
3: Make the chutney by blitzing all the ingredients together in a food processor until coarse. Season to taste.
4: Top the chicken with some extra sliced chillies and coriander leaves, then serve with the chutney, pilau rice and naan.
Good Food's Tips:
-LEFTOVERS:
Shred any leftover chicken and stir into the sauce to reheat the next day. Or, pile into a sandwich with mango chutney, or any leftover green chutney, yogurt and coriander. Or, make a quick chana chicken curry. (Strip leftover meat from the chicken and stir it through the leftover sauce. Then, tip in a drained 400g tin of chickpeas and heat over a low heat until piping hot. Scatter with any leftover coriander, then serve with rice and/or flatbreads). Alternatively, use the chicken meat in a chicken soup. {My mum made a soup with it}
-CHICKEN THIGHS:
If you don't fancy cooking a whole chicken, stuff the spiced butter under the skin of bone-in chicken thighs instead. Roast in the sauce for 45mins, or until cooked through.
-PLANT BASED ALTERNATIVES:
For veggies or vegans, marinade a selection of root vegetables or paneer in the spice mix, then cook in the sauce in place of the chicken.
This recipe : While you're here, I have a Pinterest for all my recipes where you can save them to boards for the future and categorise them into different types of recipe e.g Sunday Dinners, picnic ideas etc. My account is @hazellikestocook, or find the link below. Also, I have a whole blog post explaining this in more detail here and https://hazelscookingandbakingblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/pinterest.html.
https://pin.it/5xDvARk - my profile
This recipe :
https://pin.it/4TMY3uy
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