My Chicken and Capsicum Curry

I always buy a whole chicken and joint, fillet and skin it myself, since it is much cheaper that way. After using some of the chicken in another dish I ended up with about 1kg of skinned and boned chicken breast. I also had a pack of three mixed peppers in the fridge that were starting to look as if they needed using up. I could have made a version of Basque Chicken or Puerto Rican Chicken but my mind was set on curry. I couldn’t find a recipe for chicken and pepper curry so I had to improvise.

This is my version and it was very tasty.

1kg skinless chicken pieces ( breast or thigh with or without bone)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

5 cloves garlic roughly chopped

Fresh ginger root approx 50x25x25 mm skinned and roughly chopped

Medium onion sliced

3 (bell) peppers of mixed colours sliced

Tomato purée 2 large heaped tbsps

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp mild chilli powder or to taste

1 tsp panch phoran (optional)

1 tsp garam masala

Pinch salt

Fresh coriander (cilantro) to garnish

Purée the garlic and ginger in a processor or mortar with a little water to loosen.

Heat the oil in a large pan and brown the chicken pieces on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Add the onion and peppers to the pan and sweat gently, covered for 5 to 10 minutes until softened. Add the ground spices together with the panch phoran and fry off for a few seconds, then add the garlic and ginger paste together with the tomato purée and a little water if necessary. Continue to cook this mix, stirring frequently, until the oil starts to appear on the edges, ( about 5 minutes or so) that is difficult to explain but you will recognise it when it happens. Return the meat to the pan with enough water to form a gravy and almost cover the meat. Cover the pan and cook on a low heat for about 30 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked.

Garnish with roughly chopped fresh coriander and serve with plain boiled rice.