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The Chicken Curry Recipe That Two Can Do!

(Kari’l-Dijaj) Original recipe by Nawal Nasrallah

 

This is a doubled version designed to give you lots of food!  About 8 servings.

 

Person 2 actually has the same amount of work as person one,
it’s just that person #1 has a long list of ingredients and person 2 has a few steps that are very labor intensive.

 

Note: You may have to go to an ethnic store to pick up all the ingredients.

 

 

Person #1:

 

Part 1:

Combine the following onto a little plate or bowl:

 

4 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon ginger

2 teaspoons salt

 

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon whole mustard seeds

½ teaspoon whole fennel or aniseeds

 

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 – 2 teaspoons chili pepper, or to taste (recommend 1 ½ to start with)

 

4 – 6 pods cardamom (or ground if not available)

 

2 bay leaves

 

Part 2:

Combine the following onto another plate:

 

4 cloves of garlic, grated

2 teaspoons curry powder

½ teaspoon turmeric

 

Part 3:

Coarsely chop two medium sized white onions. 

 

In a large pot, sautee onion in two tablespoons of oil, and stir until onion is somewhat transparent, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic/curry/turmeric mix about a minute before the onion is done.

 

Part 4:

Add the first seasoning mix, 1 ½ cups of hot water and 2 scant tablespoons of Taramrind concentrate, mix well and add the chicken.

 

Bring to a quick boil, then reduce heat to medium low and let simmer until the sauce is of medium consistency and chicken is cooked.  (about 30 minutes) 

Person #2

 

Cube 2 lbs. of chicken, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.

 

Add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to the chicken, mix in with your hands in a large bowl.

 

Add one tablespoon of oil to a skillet and brown half the chicken, squeezing in the juice of one lemon along the way.

 

Set aside and brown the other half of the chicken cubes.

 

Assist person #1 with part 4.

 

Start rice cooking.   Try Indian basmati rice to go with this Indian dish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

 

As an alternate method, you can fully cook the chicken in the pan and add it in to the sauce mix 5 minutes before completion.   However, we’ve found that cooking the chicken primarily in the sauce saves time.

 

1 ½ teaspoons of chili pepper provided a spicy but not too hot flavor for the sauce.  Too little and it gets very bland, too much and the hotness is all you can taste.

 

When we say “simmer on medium low” paying attention to the word simmer is more important than medium low.  On a gas stove, we had to turn it all the way down to the lowest setting once the entire pot had come to equilibrium.    If you cook it too much the flavor will boil away.

 

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