Bombay Chicken with Dahl

I visited Vintage India in Garden Center in Cape Town today to take some photos for a virtual tour that I am compiling as part of my job. It put me in the mood for Indian food and gave me motivation to try out something new for supper. I stumbled across a curry that had no vegetables in, and all the ingredients that I already had at home so I decided to try out the Bombay Chicken (link below) and modified the recipe as described directly below (I left the indian names next to the ingredients as they are useful to know!).

This whole meal shouldn't take you more than 30minutes to prepare and cook.

Bombay Chicken - serves 2

1 tblsp olive oil (tel)
1 finely chopped onion

1/2 cups (125gms) desiccated coconut (narial)
2 cloves of crushed garlic (lasan)
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper corns (kali mirch)
1/2 tsp grated, fresh ginger (adrak)
3 curry leaves (kari patta)
1/2 tblsp sugar (cheeni)

500g chicken breasts

3/4 c hot water

Deviating from the recipe, I fried up all the ingredients in the olive oil (I read that olive oil is a good substitute for ghee, but I stand to be corrected) and then added the boiling/hot water and my four chicken breasts once the coconut was toasted and brown. I cooked that on a medium-high heat with the lid on for about 20min resulting in tender chicken breasts. There shouldn't be much water at the bottom - if there is, let it reduce in volume by cooking with the lid off. I shredded the now-cooked chicken and added it back to the pot to give it a final mix. I served that with the dahl recipe below and a huge dollop of double thick plain yoghurt sprinkled with more cayenne pepper (i found the chicken could have done with more spice). Add some chutney on the side too if you like it.

Original recipe: http://www.indianfoodforever.com/non-veg/chicken/bombay-chicken-curry.html

Coriander Dahl - serves 2

1/2 c dried split peas

1 1/2c water

1tsp coriander

1/2 tsp dried mint

1/4 tsp dried ginger

2 cloves

Salt

Pepper

Boil the mixture together on a medium heat for about 20- 30min until mushy.

Enjoy :)