Fall Indian Curry

I know that we are well past Halloween, but before heading out for Halloween a few weeks ago we had friends over. I had seen a recipe for a Squash Soup in my November Food & Wine that I wanted to try, but then saw chicken on sale AND knew that I had lots of potatoes, so ended up falling in love with this recipe for Chicken Curry with Potatoes & Squash from Food & Wine instead.

The recipe called for basically making our own curry but Rich has a few different curry pastes that he had picked out at a little market by him (I need to start checking out the ‘ethnic markets’ in this area so I can experiment more)!

We had tons of things going on Halloween weekend (football games, neighbor’s party, haunted tours/hayrides, friends/parties, trick-or-treaters) and at about 4:30 finally got home on that Saturday. We had friends showing up at 6:30 and still had to cook dinner AND create our Halloween costumes……

Dinner was AMAZING! This dish was so easy to put together (the cutting of veggies & such was the hardest part). The house smelled great, the company was enjoyable, but unfortunately we decided that Indian Curry recipes are very hard to make look pretty. Try this out (I used a pre-made can of yellow curry instead of all the spices which I couldn’t even find in the market anyway!) and follow the recipe below [which I made my changes to – I left the spice directions in] from Food & Wine

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure chile powder
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2-ish onions, sliced/chopped
• 8 garlic cloves, sliced
• One 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• [12 curry leaves]
• [2 teaspoons garam masala]
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• One pkg boneless-skinless chicken thighs (I had about 8 thighs I think)
• Kosher salt
• 1 large baking potato, [peeled] and cut into 1-inch dice
• 1/2 of a medium sized butternut squash, peeled, seeded, & cut into small cubes
• One 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 cup(ish) chicken stock
• [cilantro]

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small skillet, toast the coriander, chile powder and turmeric over moderate heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the water to form a paste. [OR this is from your can of curry paste[
2. In a very large, deep skillet, heat the vegetable oil. Add the onions, garlic, ginger and curry leaves and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add in the spice paste, garam masala and black pepper and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until the oil separates from the paste, about 2 minutes.
3. [Lightly season the chicken pieces with salt.] Add the chicken, diced potato and squash to the skillet and stir to coat with the seasonings. Stir in the coconut milk and chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over moderately low heat until the chicken is cooked through and the potato and squash are tender, about 25 minutes [and add in some fresh cilantro to flavor while the dish is in the last few minutes of cooking]. Using a slotted spoon, (we like the sauce – no slotted spoon) transfer the chicken pieces to a bowl. [I skipped this & just served everything over the rice] Season the curry sauce with salt, pour it over the chicken and serve [sprinkle some fresh cilantro overtop].