2013 Cooking Club Week 44: Chicken Balti and Flavoured Basmati Rice

Chicken Balti and Flavoured Basmati Rice

This is a dish that I do an awful lot so it’s pretty well tried and tested at this stage. I use a spice grinder to make the curry powder but you can use a pestle and mortar, the spice grinder just takes all the hard work out of it.

The quantities shown make enough for 4 people. When I make it I put the leftovers in the fridge and have it again a couple of nights later. It also freezes really well.

I’ve added a recipe for flavoured rice that’s really nice and tasty, but if you don’t want to go to the trouble feel free to just use your own method of making rice. Give it a go if you can though, as its pretty fool proof.


BALTI


SPICES:

• 3 Cardamom pods
• 4 Bay Leaves
• 2 Dried Chillies
• 20 Cloves
• piece of Cinnamon Stick
• 1 heaped teaspoon of Peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon of Fennel Seeds
• 1 tablespoon of Cumin Seeds
• 1 tablespoon of Coriander Seeds

OTHER INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons of Vegetable Oil
• 2 Medium Onions (finely chopped)
• 4-5 cloves of Garlic
• Ginger thumb size piece (does it come in any other size!?!)
• 4 Chicken Breasts (chopped into large chunks)
• 1 Green Pepper (de-seeded and chopped)
• 1 400g tin of Chopped/Whole Tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons of Tomato Puree
• 100g Frozen/Fresh Spinach
• 200ml Chicken/Vegetable Stock (or Water)

Note: Spinach not shown in picture.


Step 1 – Preparation
Get all your spices ready.



Place spices into grinder and blitz them.
You can toast the spices first in a pan but I don’t bother, if you’re using a pestle and mortar you should probably toast them as it helps to break them down.





Ground Spices




Prep the meat and veg




Step 2 – Cooking

Get a large pan onto a medium heat and add Vegetable Oil
Add the Chopped Onions and cook until soft – about 10mins



I like to get a little colour on the Onions




Add the Ginger and Garlic and cook for a couple of minutes.
I used to always cook the Garlic and Ginger in with the Onions from the beginning but I was watching Atul Kochhar on a tv show recently and he was saying that the Onions don’t cook properly with the Garlic so I’ve been trying that recently…..the jury is still out on that one.




Add the Chicken and Green Pepper



Give it a good mix



Cook for about 5mins until Chicken turns white on all sides




Add the Spice Mix



Give it a good mix and cook for 2mins




Add the Tomatoes
I used to always use chopped tomatoes but recently I’ve been using whole tomatoes as I find them to pack more flavour, but chopped are just as good.
Tomato Puree should also go in now but I forgot to add it until a bit later.




Add the stock.
When making the stock I use one stock pot with 350ml of water instead of the recommended 500ml as it increases the flavour. I also half fill the tin from the tomatoes and swirl it around to get the last of the juices, it’s also a handy way of measuring the 200ml.