Friday, May 17, 2013

Curry Chicken with Peanut Sauce


We haven't had chicken in a while and it was time to make fresh stock so I picked up a couple of chicken breasts. When I got home I boned the breasts and put the bones in the stock pot with an onion, celery, carrot, clove garlic and 2 bay leaves. Brought that to a boil, actually it boiled over but there is a good side to that.  All the foamy impurities were boiled out of the pot so I didn't have to skim the stock.

I was in more of a curry mood but not coconut so doing the usual creamy curry wasn't where I felt like going.  I like peanut sauce so I decided to pound the breasts to double in size, coat with salt and Sun Brand Madras Curry Powder then serve with peanut sauce. I put rice on and readied the steamer for the vegetables.  The BBQ was warming up for the breasts.

I cook the chicken over the heat for the first 8 minutes so I can get crossed grill marks on the meat.  Then I move it off the heat to roast for the remaining 12 to 17 minutes. I poured the skin fat over the breasts in the BBQ to keep them moist and carry the flavour into the meat.  The peanut sauce was simple.  I put a teaspoon of flour in the pan and enough oil to make a paste.  I cooked the flour taste off for a minute then added 1/4 cup chicken stock. I added more stock till I had a thinner sauce.  I added 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and  2 teaspoon soy sauce. I should have added a few drops of rice vinegar to the sauce to brighten it up but I didn't think of it.

The vegetables were done so I cooled them under running water.  Then I put them in the pot with some extra virgin olive oil.  They warmed up while the oil cooked. I have been doing my vegetables this way for nearly a year.  It always produces better tasting vegetables. Of course, it didn't occur to me to think about what extra virgin olive oil cooked onto vegetables is going to taste like with peanut sauce.

I served the chicken on the rice with peanut sauce over top and vegetables on the side.  The vegetables were good until I had some peanut sauce.  The peanut sauce was good until I had some vegetables. There might have been more wrong with this meal but that seems to be the worst part.  The vegetables just didn't go with the meat and sauce. If I had stir fried the vegetables the dish would have been much better.

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