Ground Chicken and Potato Curry

                          A delicious savory curry quick enough to serve for a busy weeknight dinner.
Great over rice or with Roti, and Indian flatbread.
 Flatbread is super easy and only three ingredients: whole wheat flour, pinch of salt and warm water. You don't even dirty a frying pan! Just wipe & go. My favorite type of recipe!
I make the dough and let it sit while I make the curry, remove curry from heat, then make the Roti. Here is a great video and a great recipe: Manjula's Roti  You'll wonder why you didn't try them sooner!

This curry can be made with cubed, boneless, skinless chicken or ground chicken or turkey. I'm not sure I'd use ground beef.
I had a proclaimed raisin hater (lol) say that perhaps it needed more raisins. Of course I artfully dodged the "what are those occasional sweet things?" question, and the said hata never found out I used golden raisins, "it could use a little more of those little things."
I love using golden raisins because they aren't as widely recognized as the traditional dark ones and easier to get past certain people who otherwise wouldn't try them, or come into the dish with a raisin bias. ;)
Ah, great fun.

As with most recipes, you can make it your own by adding more veggies, less veggies, more curry, less curry, etc.
extra virgin olive oil
1 lb ground chicken
2 small diced potatos
1 cup chopped celery with leaves
(I hold the pascal of celery and chop off just the tip to rid it of all the yucky brown cut ends, then thinly slice the whole thing starting at the top until I have the amount I need, sprinkle with water and stick back into the fridge. I don't see the need to take stalks off and then chop. The leaves are fantastic.)
3/4 cup or so of sliced scallions, including the green tops, if they're in good condition.
1/8 tsp red chili flakes
1/8 tsp ground cumin
pinch garlic powder
s & p to taste (easy on the salt)
2 cups chicken stock or broth
1 Tablespoon curry (more or less, depending on your curry and your taste for it)
1 1/2 t. garam masala
(I found mine at Meijer, not in the spice isle, but in the Indian foods section. Only 3 bucks for a huge 7ounce bag. Often, spices are cheaper in other sections of the store than in the "spice isle.")
1 dried small bay leaf
2 tsp cornstarch melted into 1 Tablespoon cold water, mix well.

 1/2 golden raisins
1/4 cup plain yogurt (I used fat-free)

Brown chicken with chili flakes and cumin, in about a Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, over medium heat. Don't fully cook yet.
Add potatoes and celery, pinch of salt, pepper and sprinkle of garlic powder, stir.
Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, depending on size of your potato cubes.
Add scallions, broth, curry, garam masala, and bay leaf, stir to combine.
Turn heat down to medium-low and simmer, covered and stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until potatoes are fork tender, but not mushy.
Add raisins and stir, cook about a minute. Just so the raisins plump.*
Stir in cornstarch slurry, stirring until thickened, about a minute or two, turn off heat and cover while you make the Roti.
Stir in yogurt before serving. :)


 *I was going to add frozen peas here, but I forgot. If you like peas, try adding them here. :)

Serve with Roti to clean up your plate! Super yummy and healthy.

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!