Chicken Dhansak
All of the spices used in the recipe are available in most supermarkets. An all-purpose curry powder is okay to use but will not give you the opportunity to try different spice combinations as you get more adventurous with your curry making. Use the spices according to your personal preference!
Top Tip – We use chicken breast in our school kitchen recipe because of the low-fat content, but chicken thighs will result in a more pronounced flavour and are cheaper than breast meat.
Information
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1h 20 minutes
Serving size: 4-6 portions
Ingredients
4-6 chicken thighs or 4 chicken breasts (diced)
1 large onion (pureed or finely chopped)
65g lentils (red, puy or green)
3 cloves of garlic
2 green chillies
1 piece of ginger (around the size of your child’s thumb)
2 teaspoons of turmeric
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
2 teaspoons of ground coriander
Half a 2 teaspoon of chili powder
2 teaspoons garam masala
400g chopped tomatoes (tinned)
500ml water
2 tablespoons of plain yogurt
2 tablespoons of oil
1 tablespoon of mango chutney (optional)
Handful fresh coriander
Cooking Instructions
Puree the onions in a good food processor or finely chop, puree the chillies, garlic and ginger together - Finley chop or pestle and mortar.
Place the spices into a small bowl and add enough water to make a wet paste.
Put the oil into a hot pan and add the onions, cook for 2 minutes.
Add the spice mix to the pan and cook for 2 minutes, add the garlic, ginger and chill mix and cook for a further 2 minutes.
If using chicken thighs place in pan skin side down (for lower fat remove skin) and cover with onion mix, leave for 4-6 minutes, then turn over. If using chicken breast, dice and place into pan, stir untill covered and sealed.
Add the lentils, chopped tomatoes and enough water to cover the chicken and lentils, bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer (little bubbles popping on the surface).
Add salt and pepper, then cover and cook for 1 hour.
Stir 2 – 3 times in that hour and check fluid levels, add more water if required (if curry is starting to stick to the bottom of the pan)
Check the lentils they should be soft (add if using the mango chutney) and remove from heat.
Using a coffee cup measure out the rice (1 cup will feed 4 people). For everyone 1 cup of rice add 3 cups of water and a pinch of salt.
Place into a saucepan and bring to the boil, turn down the heat to a gentle simmer until all of the water has gone, cover and remove from the heat. The rice will continue to steam and fluff up when stirred with a fork.
Add the yoghurt to the curry and the freshly chopped coriander and serve.
Serve with warm naan bread, poppadoms, mint yoghurt dip, tomato and red onion salad or mango chutney.
