A Most Delicious Chicken and Split Pea Curry
chicken curry
I love a Jamie Oliver recipe and I love curry, so when I saw this recipe for his pukka yellow curry, I knew I had to try it
I adapted it a little by adding some veg, extra coriander and replaced the chickpeas with split peas
And while it is not as quick and easy as the majority of my recipes, it is well worth the effort as it is so deliciously tasty
Plus you can make it ahead of time like I did. In fact, I made it on the weekend and served it on Tuesday night
And it makes a good amount, so could do 2-3 meals, depending on how many people you need to feed
It would also freeze well.
Although it was so popular at our place and with extra hungry mouths to feed, we didn’t have any left to freeze!
This curry has more of a lovely fragrant flavour than a strong curry flavour, so you could add more curry powder if you want
But I think it is lovely just as it is
And I hope you think so too!
- 1 cup yellow split peas or channa dal, soaked overnight*
- 1 large red onion
- 1 large brown onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 5 cm piece of ginger
- 2 yellow capsicums
- 1 fresh red chilli
- 1 large bunch of fresh coriander, washed well, stalks and leaves separated
- 1 heaped teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 heaped teaspoons curry powder
- 10 organic chicken drumsticks, skin removed
- 3-4 cups chicken stock
- 500 grams pumpkin, diced into 2 cm squares
- 1 large eggplant, diced into 2 cm squares
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- To serve:
- rice
- green veggies
- Peel the onions, garlic and ginger and de-seed the capsicums.
- Put the red onion, 1 capsicum, the garlic, ginger, chilli, coriander stalks, turmeric and curry powder into a food processor and blitz to a paste.
- Place a large casserole pan on a medium-high heat and fry the chicken drumsticks with a splash of oil for 10 minutes, or until golden, turning occasionally with tongs.
- Remove the chicken to a plate, leaving the pan on the heat.
- Roughly chop the remaining onion and capsicum and add to the pan to cook for a few minutes, then tip in the paste and let it cook down for around 5 minutes.
- Pour in 3 cups of chicken stock. Drain the split peas and add along with the pumpkin, eggplant, tomato paste and some black pepper, then stir well.
- Return the chicken to the pan, pop the lid on, reduce the heat and simmer gently for around 1 hour, or until the sauce darkens and thickens and the split peas are cooked.
- If the sauce gets too thick, add a little extra chicken stock.
- Serve the curry in the middle of the table scattered with coriander leaves along with rice and extra veggies.
- *Note - soaking the split peas or channa dal just cuts down the cooking time. If you don't soak them, add an extra 15 mins to the cooking time.
