Chicken (Turkey) Curry

What to do with all that leftover chicken or turkey?  There always seems to be leftover chicken or turkey.  Why not turn it into a completely different experience?  Why not turn it into a whole new dish?  "Leftovers?"  What's that?  With this recipe, you'll take your leftover chicken or turkey and turn it into something fabulous--and no one will ever guess that you used "leftovers."

Chicken (turkey) transformed!  A completely new dish has been born.

We're going to use a basic reduction sauce here.  A reduction sauce reduces the amount of liquids in your recipe while cooking the other ingredients.  In this case, some of those ingredients will break down over an extended cooking period and help to thicken the sauce.  A little bit of sweet rice flour furthers this cause, and you will end up with a deliciously thick and spicy sauce.  Irresistible!

In a small bowl, add the curry powder, sweet rice flour, ground fenugreek seeds, and cayenne powder.  Set this aside.  The picture on the right shows the tamarind concentrate I use.  There are many brands out there.  If you can't find it in your supermarket, try a health store or Indian food store.

In the bowl of your food processor fitted with the blade, add the onions, garlic, and sliced ginger.  Whir this up into a fine paste as you see on the right.

There it is again!  You know how much I LOVE ghee.  Add a few tablespoons of ghee to a saute pan.  Here's my recipe on how to make ghee.

Fry the onion mixture on medium heat, adding more ghee if necessary, until lightly browned.

Add the curry powder mixture and fry for half a minute.  Then add some water and stir.  You want to add enough to make a fluid but not too runny mixture.  Turn the heat to medium low and cook this down, stirring every few minutes, until the mixture gets thick again and threatens to stick to the bottom of the pan.  Then add more water and do the same thing again.  Do this a total of five times:  adding water and cooking down.

You can see on the left how the paste has cooked down after five additions of water, stirring, and cooking.  Now add the tamarind concentrate, honey, garam masala, salt, and pepper.  Add more water for a fluid paste.  Taste and adjust for seasoning.  If you want more heat, add more cayenne powder.  Simmer this for 10 minutes, adding or boiling off water as necessary to achieve the thickness you like.  The picture on the right shows the finished sauce.

Now add the chicken (turkey) and heat through.  You can see that the sauce has really browned up a lot from the addition of the final spices.

Serve with rice or gluten-free naan.  This is absolutely delicious!  You will find yourself going out of your way to get leftover chicken or turkey just to make this dish!

1.5 lb of chicken (turkey) cut into bite-sized chunks

3 tbs of ghee

2 large onions

2 cloves of garlic

1 inch of peeled and sliced ginger

2.5 tbs of curry powder

1 tbs of sweet rice flour

1 tsp of ground fenugreek seeds

1/4 tsp of cayenne powder

1 tsp of tamarind concentrate

1 tbs of honey

2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of garam masala

1/2 tsp of pepper

water as needed

Finely chop the onions, garlic, and ginger in a food processor fitted with the blade.  In a small bowl, combine the curry powder, sweet rice flour, ground fenugreek seeds, and cayenne powder.  Heat the ghee on medium heat and saute the onion mixture until lightly browned.  Add the curry powder mixture and saute for another half minute.  Add enough water to make a fluid but not too watery sauce.  Lower the heat to medium low and cook the sauce down until thickened and beginning to stick to the pan, stirring every few minutes.  Add more water and do the same again, for a total of five times:  adding water and cooking down.  Then add the tamarind concentrate, honey, salt, garam masala, and pepper along with enough water to make a fluid sauce again.  Cook this down once more, adding or boiling off water as needed, until you achieve the desired thickness.  Add the chicken (turkey) and heat through.  Serve with rice or gluten-free naan.

TIPS:

1.  Tamarind concentrate is a specialty item but worth going out of your way for, so check health stores and Indian stores for it.

2.  Fenugreek seeds are not sold powdered.  I powder mine in a coffee grinder that I have set aside just for powdering spices.  Fenugreek really adds that "Indian" taste, so again, it's worth going out of your way for it.

3.  If you can't get ghee and don't want to make it, just use oil here and not regular butter because butter will burn with all the frying.