Thursday, September 1, 2011

Mild Orange Chicken Curry



I made this dish mild so to minimize the balking at the new tastes for the little ones.

You can increase the curry and jalapeno to your tastes. I'm also not exact on salt & pepper, as you may have noticed in other recipes. I do this because each of us has our  S & P preferences, as well as desired levels of heat.
If you don't care for purple (red) onions, shavings of a carrot would work well. Just take a potato peeler and shave long strips of carrot into the dish. The carrot will cook pretty quick and add color & sweetness to the dish.

If you don't have/care for broccoli, just about any hearty veggie would do. Maybe cauliflower! It's such a versatile dish and good for stretching a chicken breast and leftover veggies!

So if you have an orange or two hanging around, grab it, juice it and let's make some Orange Chicken Curry!

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in large cubes
  • a Tablespoon or so of veggie oil
  • 2 cups cooked rice, cooked according to directions 
  • 2 cups fresh broccoli florets or thawed & drained frozen broccoli
  • 1/2 purple onion, halved & sliced
  • 1 1/2 minced fresh jalapeno, more or less to suit your tastes
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock (about 4 cubes if you have it frozen)
  • 2 cloves roasted garlic, or one raw, minced
  • 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 Tablespoon honey
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon curry, add 1/2 teaspoon more if you like a stronger curry taste
  • 1/2 t. Worcestershire sauce
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon orange zest, plus some for garnishing (you can't see this in the pic, my orange was wet and the zest melted into the dish)

Brown chicken quickly in oil, add salt & pepper to taste. You don't want the chicken to cook all the way through, so do this over a fairly high flame.

Reduce heat to medium and add onion, stir around until onion begins to soften, add jalapeno and roasted garlic. Stir to combine, salting a bit more.

Add chicken stock, orange juice, curry, Worchestershire, s & p, and honey. Stir.
Add cornstarch to a bit of cold water. Maybe a couple tablespoons of cold water. When cornstarch is disolved, shove veggies and chicken to the side and add cornstarch mixture to chicken broth and orange juice. Whisk until sauce starts to thicken. Reduce heat to medium-low.

Add broccoli. Stir and and cook until broccoli is desired tenderness. Sprinkle in about 1/2 teaspoon or so of orange zest and stir.

Taste for s & p and oj. If you desire a more curry taste, add a tiny bit at a time. Same with orange flavor. If you'd like the orange flavor to be more bold, add a little orange zest at a time until it suits you.

Serve over rice (add lemon and orange zest to the rice's cooking water for a nice citrus rice to compliment this!) and pass hot sauce, if desired!


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