Coconut Chicken Madras Curry with Chickpeas
A one-pot family delight!
Coconut braised chicken and chickpeas are slowly simmered in a fragrant broth with lemongrass, cinnamon and my 10- minute homemade madras curry paste.
Why you should make this curry
- ONE POT cooking is perfect midweek while keeping the washing up limited.
- this dish is  packed full of protein, both from the chickpeas and the chicken.
- its the perfect MAKE-AHEAD dinners I love.
- the dish makes perfect LEFTOVERS
A note on spices
- In this recipe I used my own easy madras spice, but if you are limited on time, you can use a shop-bought mild curry spice.
- Alternatively, you can blend your own mild curry spice in my recipe which is perfect if you don’t want any heat as some shop-bough mild curry spices can be quite hot.
In this recipe we are also adding a few tablespoons red curry paste, you can either use a shop-bought jar or make your own curry paste with my versatile Thai red curry paste recipe.
A note on sourcing chicken
For me, personally, sourcing shop-bought free-range chickens are not a guarantee of quality or ethics. Free-range just simply means ‘access to’ which often means chickens are still in a barn with openings to outside. Lots of chickens together, means disease and therefore often, routine antibiotics in their water and feed.
Egg laying chickens VS chickens that you eat
Its important to note that there is a difference between egg laying chickens and chickens that you eat. Egg laying chickens are happy to be outside but chickens that you eat, are not which means if you want chickens that run around outside you will have to do this in a pen which are outside – often called pasture reared.
Sourcing chicken 101
- look for PASTURE REARED
- look for NON- GMO feed
- sourcing directly from the farm is first prize (and easier than you think)
Trusting an organic farmers market, food-club, online company is worth its weight in gold as they will have done their research into each supplier. I usually call them up and ask them directly, where is your chicken from and have you visited the farm, it gives me a clear indication or vibe whether I can trust them.
Suppliers in South Africa
Cape Town
- I source my chicken from Veldt Pasture Reared chickens.
- I trust Umami pasture reared chickens
Gauteng
- Orchard Food (delivers thurs + fri in pta and up to Melville area)
Coconut Chicken Curry with Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 6 bone-in pasture chicken thighs
- 2 red onions thinly sliced
- 4 tbspn ginger minced
- 4 garlic minced
- 4 tbsp madras paste or curry powder (homemade 10min madras paste)
- 3 tbsp optional Thai red curry paste (homemade Thai curry paste or bought)
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 150 ml veg stock
- 2 lemongrass
- 2 400 tins chickpeas drained
- coriander leaves
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c.
- Heat the olive oil in your casserole (with a lid) and brown the chickens, skin side down until golden. If your casserole dish is seriously NOT non-stick, I would recommend you brown your chicken in a non-stick pan to prevent the skin from sticking to the casserole. Remove the chicken and set aside. PS: the browning of the chickens can be done ahead of time, a good cooking job to delegate.
- In the same oil, add the onions to the casserole and cook, covered, stirring occasionally until the onions are soft and starting to caramelise.
- Add the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, 3 minutes, scraping the browned chicken bits from the bottom of the casserole. Add the madras paste (or curry powder) and Thai red curry paste and stir until fragrant, 3 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk and 1 teaspoon salt, stir well, add the chicken thighs and chickpeas, now add just enough stock to ensure the chicken is more than halfway submerged in the liquid, bring the mixture up to a gentle simmer and pop in the oven for 35 minutes.
- Remove the dish and season with lime zest and juice to taste - let the dish sit for 10/15 minutes.
- When ready to serve, sprinkle over the chopped coriander and serve with more lime wedges. Enjoy! PS: this dish will be stunning with this curry leaf tarka topping.
