Thursday, January 29, 2009

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Cooking Chicken Curry

By KC Kudra

Chicken curry, or curry chicken, is a much-loved dish all over the world and is a great way to use boneless chicken. There are lots of different kinds of chicken curry dishes including Indian curry, Thai curry, Chinese curry and more. Curry can be a lot of fun to experiment with and you can vary the balance of spices or try different spices. You can use different meats or vegetables or add fruit and nuts if you want.

Different Types of Curry Recipes

In India, a curry is a meal with a soup-like consistency. It is made with spices, chickpea flour, clarified butter, and yogurt. The word curry, when used in Thailand, means vegetables, fish, or meat cooked in a spiced sauce.

Different regions make their curries with different ingredients. For example, a Malay curry will have bay leaves and coconut milk in it. A Tamil curry will be a combination of shallow fried fish or meat and vegetables cooked with dry spices. A Punjabi curry will have a lot of butter and cream and use wheat instead of rice.

Some curry powder mixes contain turmeric, which makes the curry yellow. Pepper, coriander, ginger, tamarind, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, garlic, chilies, and nutmeg are also popular curry recipe ingredients. Indian and Thai curries can be green, yellow, or red. Green curries are made from green chilies, red chilies are made from red chilies and yellow curries are made mainly with turmeric and cumin but might contain hot peppers or pepper flakes as well.

Some chicken curries can be described as fruity, others might spicy, and some are hot enough to almost blow the top of your head off! Nevertheless, how do you go about transforming some boneless chicken, vegetables and spices into the perfect curry?

Tips for Making Curry

One of the best tips for making chicken curry is to use authentic ingredients rather than a readymade curry powder or paste. It is not hard to find the right chicken curry ingredients because most of them are available in large general grocery stores as well as Asian grocery stores.

Feel free to experiment with curries. Curry has been experimented with throughout history and it is a good idea to become familiar with spices so you can make your own tasty curry recipes. In addition, if you run out of a spice, you will know which other spice is similar in aroma and flavor.

Curry is usually served with rice but you can serve it with Indian bread such as roti or naan or with Indian spiced potatoes if you want a change. You can also make a dry curry coating for a boneless chicken recipe rather than a curry sauce. Then you can eat the curried chicken cold the next day or use it for a packed lunch or picnic. No wonder curry is loved all over the world. Its great flavor and versatility make curry a surefire winner. - 15634

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