Very nervous about cooking this dish. All the cooking I do is based around flavour rather than wanting to blow my head off with heat and lose the ability to enjoy the meal. When I see those ‘macho’ guys sitting in a restaurant trying to convince their friends and family they are enjoying the meal with beads of sweat running down their forehead and constantly taking a drink I just think……loser!!!

This is the first time I’ve cooked using ‘scotch bonnet chillies’. I did actually change the recipe I was using and dropped out quite a bit of heat. I did the sensible thing and used gloves during the prep again to limit the pain as lets just say I’ve learnt from experience the hard way!!

This dish actually was a wonderful piece of cooking if I do say so myself. Perfect for a Friday night chill and a cold beer. I will be having the left overs on the Saturday night in a wrap served cold!

Such a quick meal to cook as well which makes the difference during the week.

Ingredients –

For the sauce – 2 tbsp of rapeseed oil, 2 onions finely diced, 2 tbsp of garlic & ginger paste, 1 tsp of turmeric, 2 tsp of chilli powder, 1 tbsp of ground cumin, 1 tbsp of ground coriander, 1 tsp of paprika, 1 tsp of garam masala, 1 tsp of ground black pepper, 1 tbsp curry powder, 1 tsp of sugar, 200ml of chopped tomatoes (1/2 a tin), 375ml chicken stock.

For the curry – 2 tbsp of rapeseed oil, 6 green cardamom pods, 2 star anise, 1 bay leaf, 2 green finger chillies finely diced, 1 scotch bonnet chilli finely diced, 500g / 800g of chicken breasts diced into bite sized pieces, 2 tbsp of white distilled vinegar, 1 tsp of dried fenugreek leaves, good pinch of salt, small handful of chopped fresh coriander, juice of 1/2 a lime.

Method –

For the sauce – Heat the oil in a heavy based pan. Once the oil is hot add the diced onion and fry off for between 5 / 7 minutes to colour the onion.

Add in the garlic and ginger paste allowing it to cook for 30 seconds or so.

Add the ground spices – Turmeric, chilli powder, curry powder, garam masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, sugar, paprika & pepper.

Stir all the spices around the pan to ensure the onion is coated with the dry spices. At this point they will start to add their natural oils to the onion mixture.

Add in the chopped tomatoes…….

Followed by 125ml of the chicken stock. Bring this to a simmer.

Remove the sauce from the heat and transfer to a bowl. Allow this to cool a little and blend the sauce mix.

Wipe the pan clean. Return it the heat and add some more rapeseed oil. Once its come to the heat add in the whole spices – cardamom pods, bay leaf and star anise. Allow these to sizzle in the oil for 30 seconds or so.

Add in the chopped chillies. Fry again for 30 seconds or so.

Empty the blitzed sauce into the pan……

Followed by the rest (250ml) of the chicken stock. Allow this to come to a simmer.

Once the sauce is simmering add in the diced chicken. Cook until the chicken is cooked all the way through which should take about 8 minutes or so.

Add in the distilled white vinegar and dried fenugreek leaves giving the pan a good stir.

Season with the salt and add the chopped coriander.

Finish the dish with the lime juice and serve.

I served mine with steam basmati rice & a shop bought naan bread.

This was a beautiful and a dish full of flavour.

Thank you for reading my ramblings if you have, I know from the stats not many do but I’m going to keep writing.

The recipe was from Dan Toombs which I modified as I reduced the heat. If you want more heat just add in another scotch bonnet chilli and another tbsp of chilli powder.