Yellow Chicken Curry

I love the smell of curry.  It’s pungent and spicy and makes me think of winter.  In fact, I like it enough to deal with the pungent smell lingering the next day (and, if it’s made in my fiance’s apartment, the next several days).  So, I have been looking for a good simple curry recipe for a while.  Since I’m on a budget I don’t want to get into making my own curry powder, but the previous curries I’ve tried that use the yellow store-bought powder end up rather bland.  This recipe, from AllRecipes.com, is a nice combination of the store-bought powder with some extra spices, most of which I have on hand.  In fact, this is a pretty flexible recipe, as I was able to substitute a lot here (I made this in my fiance’s kitchen) and still get a good result (my sub’s are in parentheses):

Yellow Chicken Curry

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil (vegetable oil)
• 1 small onion, chopped (red onion)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (garlic powder)
• 3 tablespoons curry powder (per the comments on the AllRecipes site, I increased this to 1/4 cup)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (no)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 bay leaf (no)
• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root (no)
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• salt to taste
• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 3/4 cup coconut milk (regular milk–I think I used skim)
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (no, put in black pepper instead)

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until lightly browned. Stir in garlic, curry powder, cinnamon, paprika, bay leaf, ginger, sugar and salt. Continue stirring for 2 minutes. Add chicken pieces, tomato paste, yogurt, and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Remove bay leaf, and stir in lemon juice and cayenne pepper. Simmer 5 more minutes.

I didn’t get a picture taken of this because we ate it too fast 🙂  Next time, I’ll make it in my own kitchen where I have cinnamon, bay leaf, garlic, and cayenne.  Also I’d add more onion, but that’s my own preference.