Don’t you hate it when you are in the middle of making something delicious and you reach into the pantry to grab that one last (rather important) ingredient, only to discover that you are, in fact, out of chickpeas for your chicken, potato, and chickpea curry? Yeah, I hate it when that happens. (Also, I’m terrible at mis-en-place.)
Luckily, this curry is still plenty good chickpea-less, although they are kind of my favorite part. I love them and could eat then straight out of the can. Nate, on the other hand, actually preferred this dish without chickpeas, and thinks that it should be made with either potato or chickpeas but not both. However this is my blog so I’m going to suggest that you make it with both – chickpeas in particular.
Just pretend there are chickpeas in there too…
I’m not sure how authentic the combination of chicken, potatoes, and chickpeas is to begin with, but it got stuck in my head one day and is now one of my favorite dinners. I based it on the chicken curry recipe from “Vij’s Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine“, which is where this amazing lentil dal came from, so it should be no surprise that it is incredibly delicious: super flavourful and very easy to make. Just make sure you have all the necessary ingredients before you start!
Chicken, Potato, and Chickpea Curry
Adapted from Vij’s Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine. The recipe calls for bone-in, skinless chicken legs or things, but feel free to use boneless thighs (cut into bite-sized pieces) and skip the part where you shred the meat off the bones. Serves 2 – 3.
In a Dutch oven, heat 1/4 cup vegetable oil over medium heat for about 1 minute. Add:
1 large onion, chopped
1 cinnamon stick
Sauté over medium heat until the onion is golden, then add:
2 cloves garlic, minced
Cook for 2 minutes, then add:
1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes (fresh, or I usually used canned + a bit of juice)
1 inch of minced ginger
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp coriander
1 1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne
pepper
Cook, stirring, for several minutes, until the oil begins to separate out of the masala mixture.
Add to the pot:
4 bone-in, skinless chicken legs or thighs (or a combination – dark meat works best here because it stays moist)
Cook the chicken in the masala, turning a few times, until the outside looks cooked, about 5 minutes.
Add:
1 can of drained and rinsed chickpeas
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup water
1/2 a can of coconut milk
The chickpeas are invisible…
Bring to a simmer then cover and reduce heat. Simmer gently, giving it a few stirs, until the chicken is cooked, about 20 minutes. Remove the chicken pieces and let them cool for about 15 minutes, then shred the meat off the bones and return it to the pot.
Remove the cinnamon stick and add:
2 good handfuls of chopped spinach
1 handful of chopped cilantro
Heat through and serve over rice with yogurt and mango chutney.
haha I’m definitely not the best at having all my ingredients ready before starting a recipe either…this dish still looks really tasty even with the invisible chick peas!
exactly my sort of thing as I’m sure you know, Korena. I had a potato curry last night actually, but we had it with raisins – it was delicious!
Mmm, raisins in curry are so good 🙂
Looks and sounds very yummy. I think I might be more tempted to leave out the chicken than the chickpeas!
Me too, actually!
ula-la! this is serious stuff girl! love this dish and I would definitely study at your cooking school 🙂 do you think I could use sweet potatoes instead of regular ones?
Yes, most definitely! You might want to adjust the cooking time a bit though – I find sweet potatoes get a lot mushier than regular potatoes.
As always a drool worthy recipe from you ;). Anything that starts with onions, cinnamon and garlic cooked slowly together and then you add more flavour is my kind of recipe. Steve isn’t all that fussy on chickpeas (maybe it is a man thing?) but as a vegan they are my go-to chicken sub. Cheers for the heads up on the other blog…must try to stop myself cramming it into my rss feed reader (but I don’t like my chances of resistance… 😉 ).
Maybe it IS a man thing – Nate definitely makes his displeasure known if I try to feed him too many beans or pulses in a month 😉
puree them…anything in a pureed form seems to go alright especially when you call it “hummus”…you would be amazed at what gets eaten as “hummus” in our house! 😉
OK, it’s definitely a man thing because just last night we had refried beans (essentially pureed beans!) and Nate said that he would eat beans like that anytime!
This looks awesome with or without the chickpeas!
What a nice dish Korena! I love chickpeas, but no one in my family does, so I don’t use them very often (whole)…My kids love hummus though…weird ha?! :)..
Oh, dear.. we had chickpeas in our salad this evening, if only we had lived closer we could have shared! I’d much prefer a bowl of this curry:D xx
Hi, this week I will test this recipe… it is a long time I have not made any curry. I remember how many I ate in S’pore few years ago. This dish looks really good. I will let you know.
Ciao.
Please do – I hope you like it!