Student food blog: Chicken and pumpkin curry

Sophie Edmonds
Sophie Edmonds
Happy Easter! I hope you all had a good long weekend. To be honest I actually almost totally forgot about posting this week - Uni breaks seem to make me lose track of the days!

Luckily, I had photos of this delicious chicken curry I made last week sitting on my phone so I can share this with you today!

I first got this recipe from the lovely ladies at the Carrington College kitchen, where I work a few nights a week. It was always one of my favourite dinners to have when I was a first-year student staying there.

I think this was originally a Jamie Oliver creation, but after years and years of tweaking, adjusting and perfecting it for the masses I think it has become something new entirely.

The original recipe calls for coconut cream. Oh so tasty the coconut cream is and oh how it makes the thighs overlap even more than they already do. So I scoured the coconut milk/cream section for the lowest-fat coconutty option available.

Now, in switching to this lower fat alternative you lose some of the body of the curry. As we all know, fat is an excellent carrier of flavour - that's why really creamy curries taste so amazing.

To compensate for this lack of fat, I simply increase the amount of spices used. And voila! Curry that packs a flavour punch is back!

By using coconut milk, the sauce wasn't as thick and creamy as I would have liked. I had a bit of pumpkin lying around so I decided to cook some of that up in the microwave then add it to the curry.

By the time it was ready to be served, the pumpkin had softened so much that it disintegrated into the sauce, making it nice and thick as well as lending a beautiful orange colour to it.

This curry will require investment in some yellow mustard seeds and some fenugreek.

Chicken and pumpkin curry
Serves 4

400g chicken breast or chicken tenderloins, sliced into bite-sized pieces
2 Tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1-2 tsp chilli paste or small red chillis
10 dried curry leaves
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
½ tsp chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric
3 tsp ground coriander seeds
3 cardamom pods, split open using the flat of a knife blade
1 tsp salt
1 large onion, sliced into thin wedges
400g tin coconut milk or cream
400g tin chopped tomatoes
300g pumpkin (one of those quarter pumpkin wedges you can buy covered in cling wrap)
fresh coriander to garnish
salt and pepper to taste

Place the wedge of pumpkin in the microwave for five to 10 minutes until the flesh is soft and can be chopped into cubes.

In a large saucepan, sauté the onion in the oil until translucent. Add the chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned. Add the mustard seeds, chilli, chilli powder, turmeric, salt, ginger, curry leaves, coriander seeds and cardamom pods. Cook while stirring to give the spices a good toast.

Add the cubed pumpkin (it doesn't have to be fully cooked at this stage, just soft enough to cut) and stir into the spice and chicken mix.

Pour in the tomatoes and leave to simmer for five minutes before adding the coconut milk.

Simmer the curry for 30-40 minutes (until the sauce has thickened and the pumpkin has disintegrated into the sauce). The time will depend on how well cooked it is to begin with.

Serve with rice and garnish with a good handful of fresh coriander.

Enjoy!

Add a Comment