Lemon Curry Chicken 101

Cooking has become an great enjoyment for me the past couple of years. Most people who know me know I'm not a food snob and I tend to eat like a rabbit. I eat breakfast and dinner and that's it. I don't have the patience to sit down and eat lunch. I have too much I want to do during the day and if I sit down to lunch I feel like I need a nap afterward.

Most people tend to boggle when I tell them that but it's not like I don't eat. I eat two meals a day. Breakfast being the most important. But I tend to like dinner a lot more than breakfast and lunch. Just because I think you can be most creative with dinner.

And over the past year or so I've learned how to cook Indian food. It's no secret that I love Indian food and probably have frequent flyer miles over at the India Cafe down in White City. But one day I just decided I wanted to learn how to cook it.

Though, I am in no way a master chef in the slightest. Seriously, I'm sure Gordon Ramsey, Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain would most likely corner me in a back alley and beat the hell out of me if I served it to them. My food won't be on any magazine covers anytime soon. But the people I have cooked for have not complained and seemed to enjoy it. So, I'm doing something right.

Well, recently a friend of mine on Facebook asked me how I make my Lemon Curry Chicken and where do I get my spices. Actually, my preparation is fairly simple. I was using the McCormick Spices for a little while until I discovered India Select Curry and Meat Marsala powders in Shaw's International Food Section. Honestly, I was paying a lot more and getting a lot less for the McCormick's powders than I was for the Indian Select powders. I think the McCormicks were around $8 or $9 and the India Select was $5!! So, needless to say I've been using India Select ever since.

As for the recipes, I actually consolidated two recipes. One I got off of cooks.com:

And one I got off of allrecipes.com:

I took bits and pieces off of each which seem to work the best. You'll find reading the back of the container that a great deal of the spices and ingredients are alredy in the curry powder. So, a lot of the stuff like garlic powder, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground ginger you don't need to add. If you want to give it a bit of an extra kick you can always add a little extra cayenne pepper or a few of the other spices listed on the back.

What's nice about the India Select Curry Powders is that they actually have a recipe for Curry Chicken on the back.

I like to use boneless breast of chicken. It's a lot easier to prepare and dice up into cubes than the chicken on the bone. I've done it both ways and I like the boneless breasts better. I cut up an onion sort of the same way as if I was cutting a potato into flat sections to make home-fries (make sense?) and cook at the same time as the chicken.

As for the LEMON in the lemon curry chicken. I buy those small lemon shaped squeezy bottles of lemon juice and squirt the chicken while it's cooking. I try not to be too overzealous with the way I put lemon on the chicken. I try to do enough to give it a flavor but not too much where you have your guests sucking in their own faces when they dig in.

Once the chicken is cooked all the way through, then I start adding the various spices and vegetables. I usually add a can of diced tomatoes and spinach. You can either use bagged or frozen spinach. I've used both and from personal experience I actually find the bagged spinach more flavorful than the frozen.

This is kind of up to you. If you want it mild, add two tablespoons of curry powder. The directions on the back usually call for at least two. If you want the full experience, add three or four. Just be prepared to be reaching for your beer or water.

If you're not allergic to milk (I am), milk is great at putting the fire out.

Finally add 1 cup of yogurt and stir everything together making sure the powders and the yogurt have been mixed in with everything else. Then put the lid on and put it on a low flame to let it simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve with rice (which you can either make before or while you are preparing everything else) and you're done!!

A friend of mine Devon Kurtz told me about this great place online called Penzeys where you can order fresh spices. Click on the link below to check out their site:

If you live around and about the Woo, there's a great store near Borders (another great store) on 504 Boston Turnpike in Shrewsbury MA called Patel Brothers where you can buy every spice, curry paste and simmering sauce imaginable as well as fresh Indian Vegetables. Here's their website. Even if you don't live in the Worcester, they have stores everywhere so you might be able to find one near where you live:

As for a beer to go with the meal, I highly recommend three great Indian Beers. Flying Horse, Taj Mahal and King Fisher. They're on the lite side but they go really great with curry recipes. The curry somehow really brings out the flavor in those beers.

If you can't find any of those at your local packie, an IPA is a great substitute. Sam Smith, Wachusett and Harpoon make some really great IPA's.