Apple Curry Chicken

Remember what I said about liking curry in my last post on HK Curry? Well, this was actually the first recipe we cooked, but I thought this one would be more special so I left it for last. Plus, this is the 150th post on Eat. Travel. Eat! Got to make it something worth looking at like my previous special posts.

And since you are probably (?) waiting for your turkey to cook right now or just bored right now, how about another recipe for you to look at.

In reality, this would have just been Curry Chicken, but since we were making juice that day with our juicer and had plenty of apples available, why not add some apples into the mix? And also in that thought, this would fit into the Weekend Wokking theme of Apples for December. Perfect! Apples would also be perfect as the curry cubes we bought were the Vermont Curry version (made by House Foods), which had apple flavor according to the box. So there. Perfect.

I enjoyed the taste, but this did not have that HK Curry flavor that the HK Cafes have since there was no bell pepper. As far as I have seen, all of the places that have made the HK Cafe curry flavor have added bell pepper. Don't like bell pepper? Then this is the better recipe. Very mild and slightly sweet. You do not want to lose the apple's sweetness now right?

Enjoy!

Apple Curry Chicken
serves 4 as a main course with rice

Ingredients:
3 pieces chicken thigh (with bone optional)
7 baby potatoes
2 small sized apples
2 celery stalks
1 medium sized onion (baseball size)
1 jumbo carrot
3 pieces of curry cubes (E.G. House Vermont Curry)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons xiao xing wine
1 teaspoon potato starch
1 teaspoon salt and pepper
3 thin slices of ginger
2 1/2 cups of water
Cilantro (garnish)

Directions:
1. Cut the chicken thighs into small bite size pieces. Remove the skin if you would like, or keep it in if you would like chicken skin. If you have bone in chicken thighs you can also use them for the dish- remove the meat from the bone and cook the chicken together with the bone for the curry.
2. Place the chicken thighs into a bowl and add the potato starch, salt and pepper, soy sauce, and xiao xing wine. Marinate for at least 30 minutes.
3. Prep the vegetables and apples. Cut the jumbo carrot into coins that are about 1 cm thick, the baby potatoes into quarters, the celery into 1 cm pieces, the onion to a quarter. Set aside. Peel the skin off the apple and remove the core. Cut the apple into bite size cubes.
4. On medium heat on a large wok (or pot if you would like), add the chicken and its sauce mix, as well as the ginger inside and let the chicken get a light sear. No oil is necessary. Then add 1/4 of a cup of water and move everything around in small movements with a spatula. Let cook until the outside does not look pink, and add another 1/4 cup of water.

4. Add the carrots, celery, and potato into the wok and stir everything. Meanwhile, cube the curry cubes into smaller pieces so they will melt faster. Add the curry cubes into the wok and then add 2 cups of water into the wok. Mix everything together and turn the burner to high heat until the curry sauce boils.
5. Add the apple cubes and onion pieces in and turn the burner down to medium heat and cook for another 15 minutes or until the curry sauce has thickened to your liking.
6. Place the curry into a large bowl for serving or just eat it out from the wok with a bowl of rice. Enjoy!


I am submitting this recipe to Weekend Wokking, a food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks to showcase multiple ways to cook the special ingredientof the month. The host this month is MomGateway. If you would like to participate or to see the secret ingredient, check who's hosting next month.

And if you want to join, know that the round-up is on Wednesday, December 2. Hosted by MomGateway and that you need to send your dish to the host by 11:59 p.m., Sunday, November 29 to momgateway (at) gmail (dot) com . The secret ingredient challenge is APPLES, as you have seen by my post already.


P.S. Greenery makes a dish look better. Here is what the dish would have looked like without cilantro:

Not very delicious looking, right? Although it may look better than my older recipes, it is not very appetizing.

Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US (or anywhere it is still Thanksgiving day). I am going away for two days now.

Safe and happy travels to anyone traveling today!