Curry is a classic dish that many households make weekly, but there is one strange ingredient that can elevate this tasty dinner and make it better.
Mary Berry has shared that adding grapes to a chicken curry is an old-fashioned trick to help add a sweet and tangy flavour to savoury dishes.
Mary wrote: “Grapes are an ingredient we used to add to chicken dishes in the 1980s. I’d forgotten how food the combination was until I was at a friend’s house recently and was served such a dish.”
Being served the vintage recipe inspired Mary to come out with a simple yet delicious mild curried chicken recipe made in a rich sauce with grapes added at the end.
This easy dinner recipe is perfect for during the week when you want something healthy, hearty and homecooked to eat but do not want to be spending ages fussy over a stove.
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Instructions
To begin, poach the chicken by placing it in the pan alongside the chopped carrots, onion, and garlic cloves. Add in the bay leaves and season with salt and pepper.
Pour cold water over the chicken thighs until they are just covered, add a chicken stock cube, then cover the pan and bring to a boil for five minutes.
After five minutes, lower the heat and leave to simmer for around 45 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked and tender.
Once the time is up, place the chicken on a board and then strain the chicken stock through a colander and save the liquid for the sauce.
Remove the skin and any bones from the chicken and slice each thigh in half. Keep the chicken warm while you cook the asparagus and make the sauce.
To cook the asparagus, snap off all the woody ends and then cook the asparagus in a pot of boiling water for three minutes. Once cooked, drain the water and slice the asparagus spears into rounds.
To make the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan, add the curry powder and stir for a few seconds on a high heat. Carefully add the flour and continue to stir for a few seconds.
Slowly pour in around 300ml of the reserved stock and whisk until smooth and the sauce has thickened.
Add in the redcurrant jelly and creme fraiche to the sauce and mix until smooth. Add the chicken to the sauce and bring the sauce to a boil.
Season well and tip the chicken into a wide dish. Scatter the chicken, add the grapes and asparagus over the top, and your tasty curried chicken is ready to serve.
Mary Berry highly recommends serving the dish hot with rice.
