Chicken Curry

Saturday night meals were always my favorite when I was a kid. We would break from routine meals during the week, and enjoy something that my mother could afford a little more time to make for us. Once of my favorites was my mother's version of Yellow Indian Curry. A Complexly flavorful dish with a surprising comfort food appeal. She would make up a huge steaming pot of it, and we would spoon it out plentifully over rice and then top it with coconut flakes, hard boiled egg whites and yolks, raisins, peanuts and bacon. I always remember noticing that when we were eating curry, the dinner table was quiet while we ate.


Inspiration: Sat night dinner at the blue house
Time: 60 minutes
Difficulty: easy
Special equipment: Heavy duty pot
Servings: 4 hungry people

Ingredients:
1/2 lb bacon, cut into bits
2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces and seasoned with salt and pepper
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1/4 cup curry powder (Madras Preferred)
4 cups chicken stock (can substitute veggie broth)
2 hard boiled eggs, yolk and white separated, and then shredded
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup peanuts shelled
3 cups prepared rice (Sorry, I can't cook rice for the life of me, so I won't try to tell you how)

1. In heavy bottomed pot, and over medium low heat. fry up bacon until crispy. Remove to a plate with paper town. Pour our all but 2 tbs of bacon fat.
2. Over medium low heat, cook the chicken in the reserved bacon fat. Remove to a plate with a paper towel.
3. Over medium heat, Saute onions, and carrots in bacon fat (if you need to add 1 tbs of olive oil to keep from sticking, that's fine). After 2 minutes, add in curry powder and stir. The curry powder will stick to bottom, and that's OK.
4. When curried onions and carrots start to turn a dark caramel color, deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of the stock. When the bottom is cleared, add another 1 cup of the stock and begin to simmer. Thicken until sauce coats the back of a spoon. (note, if you want to add green beans, this is an excellent time to do it) Add your remaining stock and bring back to a simmer.
5. When ready to serve, spoon over prepared rice and top with coconut flakes, raisins, egg, bacon and peanuts.

Note: I often add green peppers while sauteing the onions and green beans while simmering before adding remaining liquid. I also like adding shredded colored greens in at the very end before serving. This can be made vegetarian by using very stock and omitting the chicken.