Thursday, March 24, 2011

Chicken Cauliflower Curry


We're still working on the bathroom redecoration that turned into renovation *and* my oven quit working on Tuesday so dinner needed to be something quick and on the stove top.  Easy answer:  Chicken Cauliflower Curry.  I originally found this recipe in one of the South Beach books but have simplified it and made it even yummier so that it's turned into one of our absolute favorite meals.

CHICKEN CAULIFLOWER CURRY  
(3 - 4 servings)

colourful spices in a french market1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion
2 chicken breasts
1 head of cauliflower
   salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
1/2 teaspoon ground Cumin
1 can lowfat coconut milk

This is a quick and easy meal to prepare so I'm going to give you the instructions just as I make it.
  1. Warm olive oil in a large non-stick pan over medium-high heat (for me this setting is 7 out of 9).
  2. Meanwhile, chop the onion and add to pan.
  3. While the onion is turning translucent, cut the chicken into bite-size chunks.
  4. Salt and pepper the chicken and add to the pan.
  5. Toss the chicken around with the onion until it is sealed on all sides.
  6. While the chicken is sealing, I start chopping up the cauliflower (into the lid of my pan to save dishes) but don't forget to turn and stir the chicken every once in a while.
  7. Once the chicken is sealed on all sides, add the curry powder, garam masala (this adds a lovely all-spice kind of deepness to the flavor) and cumin (to give it a light and airy note) and stir the chicken around to coat.  
  8. Allow to the spices to lightly "toast" (about 30 seconds or so) and then add the coconut milk.
  9. Stir the coconut into the spices and allow to warm up and simmer for about 2-3 minutes.
  10. Add the cauliflower and cover ... normally I reduce the heat to medium and allow the cauliflower to steam over the sauce for about 20 minutes.  Tonight I forgot to reduce the heat and left it on medium-high, the cauliflower was done in 15 minutes and some of the sauce had lightly stuck to the bottom of the pan.  It was ok though, when I stirred the cauliflower under to coat it with the sauce I found the sauce had lightly browned giving it a nice golden color.

So it's 4:30, dinner is ready and I've just pulled it off the heat to wait until Axel gets home about 6-ish.  It will just take a few minutes to warm up and the "resting" time allows the flavors to fully penetrate.

Yummm, I can hardly wait ...

We generally eat it just as it is like a chunky stew but when we're being fancy I'll stir in a bit of unsweetened shredded coconut and / or toasted almonds and serve over rice.


Nutrition Facts
Then I got curious and decided to find out how good this is ... I knew it was good ... but WOW!  I entered all the ingredients into a Recipe Calculator and this is what it came up with.  I'm quite surprised. Bummer though that I used my last can of low-fat coconut milk tonight (using regular doubles the calories and does unthinkable things to the fat content) ... maybe we need to move up that trip to England (so far I haven't found low-fat in Belgium).

Per Serving (3)
  Calories139.7
  Total Fat2.1 g
     Saturated Fat0.4 g
     Polyunsaturated Fat0.6 g
     Monounsaturated Fat0.5 g
  Cholesterol27.5 mg
  Sodium53.6 mg
  Potassium394.0 mg
  Total Carbohydrate16.3 g
     Dietary Fiber10.6 g
     Sugars3.1 g
  Protein15.9 g
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