This lovely flavourful chicken curry is a recipe from Bruce’s father, now Bruce Jnr makes it quite often when “the weather” moves in. I actually think it is this family’s favourite family recipe as we eat it quite often. It’s quite a simple recipe but it really works, Bruce had to write it down last night while making it so let’s hope the quantities are correct, as he commented “how do i measure a couple of shakes of chutney….”

For this curry you will need:

8 chicken drumsticks and 8 chicken thighs (the chicken quantity is not really important)
2 sliced onions
4 cloves of crushed garlic
2 tablespoons of hot curry powder (Bruce use Cartwright’s)
sprinkle of chilli flakes
1/2 bottle of Mrs Balls fruit chutney
a couple of shakes of Worcestershire sauce
1 x packet of ministrone soup powder
1 litre of tomato juice
Boiling water
some peas, peeled carrots and a couple of peeled baby potatoes.
200ml cream

Fry the onions and add the chicken pieces. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix together in a bowl the garlic, hot curry powder, chilli flakes, chutney, worcestershire sauce, ministrone soup powder and tomato juice, pour over the chicken.

Add the carrots and small peeled baby potatoes, NOW, quite important, add boiling water to level the sauce with your chicken, all ingredients should be covered with liquid, stir and bring to the boil on top of you stove.

Put the curry in a preheated oven at 170 degrees and cook with the lid on for 2 hours, i don’t stir the curry, just check the liquid every now and then as you don’t want it to go dry, but this should not happen.

For the Condiments we make:

Poppadoms (30 secs each in micro, i don’t like to fry them in oil)
Tomatoe salad
Cubed bananas with a dash of lemon juice
Greek or Bulgarian Yoghurt mixed with Mango Chutney – A MUST

Serve with Basmati Rice.

For the Yoghurt and Mango Chutney, mix about one cup of yoghurt and 1/4 cup of Mango Chutney, it is actually worth buying the bottle of Mango Chutney, it really lasts long and you can keep it in your fridge for ages once opened… I now don’t make this curry without this yoghurt and mango chutney condiment, last night i realised that i did not have any mango chutney left in the fridge and i drove all the way back to the village just for that…

After 2 hours, remove the curry from the oven, it’s heavy and it’s hot so be carefull, add the peas and 200 ml of cream. Stir through carefully just to mix in the cream, and cook for another 20 minutes. The chicken will be so soft that it will fall of the bone, so don’t stir it too much.

Serve with Basmati Rice and the condiments…..

And tomorrow, when you wake up with snow capped mountains, (can you believe it, snow capped mountains on the first day of spring )you have a big platefull of leftover curry for breakfast, that is why i always use 16 pieces of chicken…

Enjoy, we will be making THIS curry untill we are old….