Madras Chicken Curry - Pull Out Your Biggest Pot!

It's hard to believe how many foods I never tasted prior to adulthood - until I remember that for most of my youth I lived in a small town in South Georgia and then rural NW Florida. Taco Salad was considered ethnic cuisine. Then I married a seafarer and sailed the world for years. So I'd probably had chicken curry many times, but never made it before, when a friend, Julie, made it for dinner one night. She shared her recipe - she had relatives that were from India - and though I don't use the whole spices she does anymore, I still follow her pot-filling procedure. I simply LOVE the spice pastes made by Asian Home Gourmet. I haven't tried them all, but over time I'll review them. Indian Chicken Madras Curry is my go-to curry paste. Here's how to make a huge pot of chicken curry that beats every recipe I've tried.

2 packets Asian Home Gourmet Indian Chicken Madras Curry paste

3 tablespoons olive or coconut oil

1-3 onions - chopped - whatever you have on hand

potatoes - lots - they'll cook down - I've used as many as 8 large - chopped - I usually peel them

- you want your pot to be about half full of potatoes & onions

6-12 chicken thighs - pull skin off half of them (all, if you're being health conscious)

2 cans coconut milk

Heat oil in your largest dutch oven on med-low heat. Add spice paste and stir fry for 30 seconds or so. Add the onion & potatoes. Salt the potatoes a little. Add the chicken, then stir well with your biggest spoon to coat everything with spice paste. Cover and cook, stirring often, until chicken and potatoes are cooked through. Watch the temperature to try to avoid scorching. Once the chicken is done, add coconut milk. Continue to simmer until ready to serve - I usually let it simmer for an hour or two.

I have, on occasion, used so much chicken, onion & potatoes, that even 2 packets of spice paste wasn't flavorful enough. If that happens, I add some curry powder and garam masala from my pantry. But it's a rare occurrence.

Serve over hot basmati rice. Crosse & Blackwell's Major Grey Chutney is the best store-bought accompaniment, in my opinion. Cucumber Raita is heavenly with it. Check online for raita recipes. It's especially good if you find the curry spicier than you're used to. If you don't have time to make raita, just a dollop of plain yogurt on top will suffice to cool it down. This is, however, a mild paste, so you likely won't have that issue.

You can remove the bones as you come across them when stirring, or leave them in. But if you have leftovers, remove remaining bones before refrigerating, as my mom says the bones affect the flavor. They improve it during cooking, but make it dark & gamey if left in afterward.

Note: you can prepare this dish very quickly using boneless cubed chicken if you reduce the quantities of the ingredients and cut your potatoes a bit smaller. Follow the instructions on the back of the packet. I just personally like to let it all cook down in a huge pot and eat leftovers for days. I suppose it's my Deep South method applied to Near East cuisine.