Labor Day weekend, we were walking around the Art in the Pearl Festival, when jwa dragged me into Powell’s Technical Books. He found what he was looking for (some kind of book on something or other) and while I was wandering around, I found, of all things — Caprial’s Cafe Favorites, sitting in a small area of cookbooks near the front. As I was leafing through the book, I saw a recipe that caught my eye: Chicken Breasts in Apple Curry Sauce.
When I lived in the Bay Area (back in the late 90’s), Caprial had a show on PBS that I used to watch and I actually saw her make this dish on that program. At the time I thought it looked good, but forgot to copy it down or get the recipe online. Since then, I’ve thought of it every so often and sighed wistfully, You should have copied that down….
And here it was, in 2005, in my hands, for the rock-bottom, used-book price of $8.98! Needless to say, we added it to jwa’s pile of computer books and I finally gave the recipe a try last Friday night (I did change a few things) and here is how it went.
Chicken Apple Curry (Based on a recipe by Caprial Pence):
1 tsp peanut or canola oil
2 shallots, chopped (or, 1 small sweet onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh ginger, diced finely
1 granny smith apple, peeled and diced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup apple cider
1 to 1.5 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
3/4 cup coconut milk
salt & pepper to taste
2 chicken breasts, sliced into bite-sizeish pieces
green onion for garnish
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In a large pan over medium heat, sauté the shallots, garlic and ginger in the oil for about 2 minutes. Add the apple and saute for about a minute more. Add wine & cider and cook 3-4 minutes, until about 1/2 of the liquid has evaporated.
In a small sauté pan over high heat, dry-sauté the curry powder for about a minute until it starts to smoke and smell all curry-like. Add it and the coconut milk to the apple mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let simmer.
Next, quickly brown the chicken over high heat with some more peanut oil. I actually just used the same pan that I used to heat the curry powder up in, then I added the chicken to the curry-apple sauce to finish cooking. Maybe 10 more minutes or so. Serve over rice and garnish with green onion.
I thought this turned out pretty well. It even gave me a chance to try out my new Penzey’s curry powder blends. I used a combination of 1 tbsp Sweet Curry Powder and 1/4 tbsp Hot Curry Powder. I liked the apple with the curry and the creaminess from the coconut milk. We also had some Trader Joe’s Garlic Nan on the side and some garlicky yogurt.
What I changed:
The original recipe used butter instead of peanut oil and heavy cream instead of coconut milk. It also called for leaving the chicken breasts whole and baking them in the oven after browning, then serving the sauce over the breasts.
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Coming later this week: I finally bow to the pressure of the almighty tomato tart, my first attempt at pork chops, cracker-snacks and the mosaic that I will finally finish, damn it!
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This just in: Pizza Day!
Monday, 9-26, is Pizza Day at slashfood.com.