Category Archives: Chicken

This morning our ‘almost six’ year old daughter woke up not feeling well. This is super unusual for us, as we are hardly ever sick.

As she was walking out the front door this morning, up it came. Shame poor nunu.

Then it started, ping, ping, ping on my wife’s phone, as the little ones classmates Mom’s were reporting on their WhatsApp group that their kids are sick and vomiting.

It is confirmed, there is a nasty tummy bug going around.

For a moment I feel a bit bilious, am I imagining it or is is because I cleaned up the …. never mind.

For every problem there is a cure.

Right. So the only obvious answer to this problem is to cook a super hot curry, loaded with chilli and spices. The gloves are off, this tummy bug is GOING DOWN.

I started off by cutting three chicken breast fillets into cubes. I placed that in a bowl and mixed in 2 tablespoons of yoghurt, 2 heaped teaspoons of pure Kashmiri Chilli Powder, 1 teaspoon of Masala & a heaped teaspoon of fresh Ginger & Garlic.

Then I took one small-medium sized onion, sliced it up and bombed it in my AMC pot which was by now sizzling with two teaspoons of ghee. I added two chopped red chillies and a sliced green chilli for ‘air support’ against any sickness that tries to make a home in our bodies.

Feeling macho, I called in some ‘artillery’ support in the form of a big piece of fresh ginger that was to be removed at the end.

I realised that I did not have enough oil/ghee in the pot, so I added another teaspoon. I try use as little oil/ghee as possible, even though I know this is one of the key components to make a good curry great.

I am trying to find the perfect balance. I will figure it out soon.

The onions must sauté until they are soft, translucent and starting to caramelize.

When the onions are soft, it is time to add the masala to temper or ‘activate’ in the oil/ghee.

To learn a bit more about tempering, here is an article on why we temper curry spices.

So in went two teaspoons of Masala, which was mixed well into the onions on a low-medium flame.

The point is to try and let the masala ‘fry’ as long as possible without burning. This can be anything from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on the heat of your pot. I like to take it slow on a low-medium heat.

Once the masala has started to cook down into the onions, it is time to add the tomato.

HINT: Now this is a contemptuous issue, some agree, some do not – but for me it works and until I can find another or better way of facing the challenge of a dry pot, without adding tons of oil, I will keep doing it.

If you find the pot is cooking dry when you are tempering your masala, add a few splashes of water, give it a mix and let the water cook off. It works for me.

I had meanwhile chopped up a medium sized Jam Tomato, which I now added to the tempered masala & onion mixture.

I stirred regularly until the tomato started to break down and then added a bit of hot water from the kettle.

On when the lid on my AMC and I left it to cook for about 15 mins.

Once the tomato and onions etc had broken down nicely and I was sure that the masala was cooked and not grainy, it was time to add the chicken breast. As this cooks quite quickly, you have to make sure that the gravy is cooked or almost cooked before you add the chicken breast.

Emboldened by the air and artillery support, in went the marinated pieces of chicken breast.

Not sure if I should feel like Harry Potter or Rambo, I stirred the chicken into the ‘medicine’ in the pot and raised my fist in the air in defiance of this evil tummy bug.

I opened the lid and stirred every three minutes or so.

Every army needs an Engineers Corps, so I made a quick salad/sambal of Carrot, Onion, Green Pepper, Tomato & Coriander – seasoned with black pepper, salt, a touch of sugar and some white vinegar.

If this fresh goodness does not ‘build a bridge’ to health, then nothing will.

For those who know, “Ubique. Primus incidere exire ultimus”

By now our meal was starting to come together, the copious amount of Kashmiri Chilli in relation to the quantity of masala used, produced a dish that looked red like lava.

In went a handful of chopped fresh dhania (coriander)

Realising that I should have put a bit more water in and built up a bit more gravy, I did what any self-respecting soldier would do – added some cream.

Why not? It was in the fridge, it needed to get used and to be honest, what does not taste better with cream.

So in went a few tablespoons and mix mix mix.

I almost referred to the cream as ‘combat medics’ and shouted out Audaces Servamus, but I don’t want to overdo the joke.

Finished off with a few curry leaves and it was time to dish.

Served on yellow rice that was cooked with some organic turmeric, this tummy bug does not stand a chance.

It was really nice, but I could have pushed the chilli a lot further. I think that I am getting immune.

Next time 6 fresh chillies at least.

Please don’t be doff and take this as medical advice.

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Yesterday, I had my heart set on really taking my time and practicing cooking a proper Durban Chicken Breyani, using my sample of Durban Curry Lovers, Breyani Masala.

This is a new addition to the Durban Curry Lovers range of all-in-one masalas, and will be available on our online store in the second week of April.

To put my day in context, I had been working since 4:30am making sure all my work sites are covered and safe as there was a violent taxi strike in Cape Town yesterday. I work full time in the security industry.

I called up the Spice Master and asked him for some guidance in regards to quantities of masala etc. He is an absolutely outstanding cook and I was determined to try and reproduce his masterpiece that he cooked earlier in the week.

I had 8 pieces of chicken. 4 Thighs and 4 Drumsticks, weighing just over 800g which is a bit on the small side and thus we miscalculated the amount of masala required. I used 7 tablespoons, when it should have been 4. No problem, it was easy enough to remove three tablespoons.

To the 4 tablespoons of Durban Curry Lovers Breyani Spice, I added 1 Tablespoon of our Madras Masala. (another all-in-one masala available second week April)

The Spice Master is very precise. These spices and masala’s are the result of his life’s work and using the correct quantities is essential to getting the most out of these beautiful spices.

The beauty of this all-in-one Breyani Masala is in it’s simplicity. One only needs to add yoghurt, ginger & garlic, lemon juice, some fresh dhania and a handful of fresh mint leaves to the chicken (or whatever else you are cooking) give it a good stir and then let it marinate for a few hours or overnight.

As this cook was a spur of the moment, I only marinated the chicken for 2 hours. I also did not have any mint leaves, as the pack that was in the fridge went bad.

Anyway, not a train smash. This is a practice round, anyway.

I chopped up 5 onions in my food processor using the medium slicing blade. It is important that the onions slices are all the same size, so that when you are frying them to a golden brown, they cook evenly.

I heated up about 100ml of oil and added the onions to fry up until they are crispy.

Then, my friends. Things started to go pear shaped, in that my work phone started ringing and did not stop until after 20h30 last night. I lost concentration on a number of critical steps and made a few mistakes, as I I could only get to the tasks on hand between the calls and my concentration was elsewhere.

What is supposed to happen, is that you fry the onions until golden brown and set half aside. You add the marinated chicken and the sauce to the remainder of the onions and you let it cook down, like you would a normal curry.

At the same time, you fry the potatoes so they look almost like roast potatoes and you set them aside until you set/layer/build the breyani.

You then also cook the rice until it is 3/4 cooked. You may need to cook it a little more or a little less depending on what rice you use. I used basmati, which cooked very fast …. a bit too fast, as I definitely cooked it a bit much. You would also need to cook some brown lentils, which get added in when layering, either with the rice or straight onto the chicken. I have seen it done both ways.

As I was pressed for time, I cooked the lentils along with the rice. It actually worked out ok, albeit just a touch over cooked.

Whilst soaking the lentils, I noticed that some were floating. I consulted the wise members of our Facebook Group and learned that the lentils that float should be removed, as they are old.

When the chicken is almost cooked it is showtime. Dish the chicken out if you are using another dish to steam your breyani, or if you are using the same pot then you can start layering the rice directly over the chicken. You then layer the potatoes, some mint leaves, dhania leaves and top it off with the crispy onions that you set aside earlier. Top with a few pieces of ghee or butter.

You can add a few drops of egg yellow food colouring or powder to give your rice some colour. Some even add a few drops of red when they really want to show off.

Once you have layered the briyani, cover with tinfoil and place in the oven or on the stove or fire to steam. I have heard people suggest steaming at anything from 180’c to 220’c

I am not going go into too much detail here as this was a practice run and I am still trying to figure it all out. Here are some detailed breyani recipes .

One I have got it right, I will publish my recipe.

Please also note that I am using an all-in-one Breyani Spice, the recipes above call for a selection of whole & powdered spices.

Anyway. I was not really in the mood to eat last night, so only had a small bite. My son loved it, the flavour was there, but small things like overcooking the basmati rice affected the end result. I also could have cooked the chicken a bit more to really punch the flavour.

I dished up a portion this afternoon, heated it up with a splash of water to create steam.

It was very tasty. I would say a 6 out of 10. The flavour was out of this world, but I noticed my mistakes.

I also have to say that I think that I prefer using maas to yoghurt. I will need to experiment with both and decide.

With just a little bit more attention and a bit more time, it would have been an absolute bombshell of a dish.

Earlier this afternoon, I cooked a cheeky Chicken Breast Fillet Curry for myself and it came out awesome.

Perhaps too awesome, as when I sent a photo to my wonderful wife to tease her, she promptly instructed me that I had better have some Chicken Curry waiting for her when she got home.

Being the good husband that I am, I was only too happy to oblige.

Now, for those who do not live in South Africa. We have this thing called ‘Load Shedding’. Load shedding, is where the electricity is turned off for 2.5 hours at a time. It can happen from once a day or even up to 6 times a day depending on what stage we are on. Today we are on stage 4, so it goes off 4 times.

I had just over an hour to cook and was feeling a little lethargic. I had just finished cooking and I had just eaten a delicious meal. Of well, the things we do for love.

Lucky I have a really quick and super easy method to cook a chicken curry.

Speaking of love. I also had to cook a 2 piece chicken stew for our 5 year old girl at the same time. She has not yet accepted her fate that she was born into a house of curry fanatics.

PLEASE NOTE: I decided that if I was going to cook a meal that I may as well make a double portion for tomorrow as well, so although the photos will show ingredients for 2.5kg chicken, I will quote the quantities for 1kg so that you can scale up or down according to how much chicken you wish to transform into a delicious Durban Curry.

Let’s get started.

I took 2 onions, 2 fresh chillies, 2 cloves of garlic & a thumb sized piece of ginger and blitzed them in my food processor, using the S-Blade. Remember, we are not blending here, we are chopping. We want the onions finely chopped but not pureed.

Using a food processor is my new go to method to chop my onions. I have chopped enough onions in my life to not need to hand-chop them to ‘feel like a real chef’. I may change my mind at any time, but for now, all hail to this marvelous time-saving device.

When cooking a chicken curry, one of the most important choices are whether to cook with the skin on or to remove the skin. People are divided on this one, some say that the skin gives more flavour and other insist that the skin makes the curry too oily and that it must be removed.

I find that if I remove the skin from the chicken, then the chicken breaks up too easily. I therefore choose to cook with the skin still on the chicken. (besides, this is a quick & easy recipe, so who really wants to be standing removing skin from chicken pieces)

One of the consequences of cooking chicken curry with the skin on, is that there is quite a bit of natural oil released from the chicken skin whilst cooking. This can lead to a fairly oily curry, especially when combined with the half-cup or so of sunflower oil that is normally recommended for every kg of meat that you are cooking in a Durban Curry.

My method to cook with as little oil as possible

To counter this, I try and cook a chicken curry with as little oil as possible. This poses a challenge, in that you need oil to cook down your onions and especially to temper your spices.

I have been experimenting with using water to help soften the onions and to prevent the masala burning when tempering. The less oil that you use, the faster your pot cooks dry.

I will write a bit more about this in detail, but for now I will just share the basics.

1. Add oil or ghee, for this cook I used a teaspoon of ghee, and let it melt
2. On a slightly lower heat than normal, add the onions and allow to fry until the pot cooks dry
3. Add a little hot kettle water to the onions, give them a good mix and let them ‘simmer’ until the water has cooked off. If they are not soft yet, add another splash of water and repeat until they are soft. Once the water has cooked off, they will brown. (I find that the water actually ‘lifts’ the oil that may have been absorbed into the onions, which then helps the onions to fry in a weird soft of recycling cycle)
4. When your onions are nice and soft, then add the masala and simply repeat the above process of adding a bit of hot kettle water when the pot goes dry, mixing, and then letting it cook down again to a ‘fry’.

You will be shocked when you see the changes in your masala, in terms of colour and fragrance, when that water hits. To me, it makes it come alive.

Right, so now we have done our onions etc and our masala, we are ready to add the tomatoes. We should be about 10 minutes into the cook.

Again, I use the food processor to chop the tomatoes. I I cut them into quarters and then bomb them, skin and all, into the food processor. 15 seconds later, they are ready to add into the pot. (As tomatoes and salt are great friends, I add a bit of salt in with the tomatoes when I blitz them.)

When the tomatoes have cooked down and the oil starts to separate, then it is time to add your chicken & potatoes. If you are cooking whole potatoes, you may need to add them 5-8 minutes before the chicken pieces. It all depends on the size of the potatoes and the size of the chicken pieces.

HINT: When I start to prep, I like to take the chicken out the fridge, so that it can come to room temperature. I sprinkle a little masala on the chicken and let it ‘marinate’ a bit in the hopes that the masala will penetrate into the chicken. I do not know if this works or not. I may need to investigate this further.

Time to add the chicken

Now it is time to add the chicken and the potatoes, as per above.

Don’t forget to poke your potatoes with a fork, so that they can absorb that lovely gravy.
Read this article on How to get those beautiful yellow potatoes in a Durban Curry

After you have added the chicken, you may need to add some water. Keep adding if and when the pot starts to cook dry.

TIP: I cook with a flat wooden spatula. It is awesome to scrape the bottom of the pot. I can not even remember the last time that I burnt anything.

When the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are soft, turn off, remove from heat and let the curry stand for at least 10 minutes.

Garnish with some fresh dhania (corriander) and serve with some fresh sambals, roti, rice, as a bunny chow or however you enjoy it.

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