Spicy as you like it Chicken Jalfrezi
This is a great curry, packed with vegetables, and this is a healthy version that can be ready as fast as a take-away would typically arrive. It can be as hot or mild as you like dependent on the chilli level you prefer. It's easy to make double the sauce quantities and freeze it, so it can be put together in 15 minutes on a week night.
Equipment
- Hand blender
Ingredients
Onion Base Mix (This can be made ahead of time and extra portions frozen)
- 2 medium Onion Chopped
- 1 medium Red Pepper Chopped – or ripped up into bite-size chunks by kids eager to help
- 2 cloves Garlic Crushed (or 10g straight from the freezer)
- 5 cm Root Ginger Grated (or 10g chopped straight from the freezer)
- 6 spray Spray oil
- 4 tbsp Water
Chicken Jalfrezi Ingredients
- 1 medium Green pepper Chopped – or ripped up into bite-size chunks by kids eager to help
- 1 medium Orange pepper Chopped – or ripped up into bite-size chunks by kids eager to help
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 tsp Garam masala
- 400 g Passata Use the best quality you can so it's thick
- 600 g Chicken breast Diced into bite-sized pieces
- 6 spray Spray oil
Optional
- 1 whole Chilli Sliced thinly (Optional)
Instructions
Onion Base Mix
- Heat a medium sized lidded saucepan over a medium heat. Spray with the cooking spray and stir-fry the onions for 5 minutes. Add the red pepper, garlic and ginger, spray again with the cooking spray, and stir-fry for another 3 minutes until the vegetables have softened.
- Take the pan off the heat, add 4 tablespoons of water, and use a hand blender to puree the onion mixture until it's smooth. It's easiest to do this in a measuring beaker or jug, to avoid splattering any of the hot mixture. If you don't have a hand blender you can mash it or try and push it through a sieve.
- If you're making multiple quantities and have multiplied up the Onion Base Mix ingredients, this is the point to pour the extra portions thick sauce into a portion and let it cool for the freezer (remember to label with date and contents as it looks quite like carrot soup). I normally do triple quantities, eat one and freeze two so that it's easy to take out the night before and defrost in the fridge ready for another week.
Chicken Jalfrezi
- Spray a large pan with spray oil, and put on a medium-high heat. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 5 minutes until browned in places. Add the green and orange peppers and optional chilli, then stir-fry for another 2 minutes.
- If you're doing rice on the hob, following the easiest-rice-ever-method then measure it out and put it on now so it's ready at the same time as the jalfrezi.
- Next add the onion base mix to the chicken pan along with the garam masala, cumin seeds and passata. Add the optional chilli at this point, or more if you like it really spicy. Stir, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, part-covered, for 10 minutes, until the sauce has reduced and thickened and the chicken has cooked through.
- Season and serve with rice, poppadums or mini naans (I take mini naans straight from the freezer, sprinkle with water and put into the toaster a minute before serving, or they can also be grilled to warm through quickly.) On weeknights we love this with mini naans microwave rice for speed.
Notes
I usually swap the pepper colours over, one child loves red pepper and hates green, and the other vice versa (of course, but at least they’ll eat one). I tend to put the green into the onion base mix as it’s then blended up and so hidden, and do more of the other colours that are visible in the final step as more gets eaten overall. Since I normally do triple quantities of the onion base mix then freeze two, it’s easy to use a cheap, bulk pack of peppers and decide what to put in the onion base mix depending on the varieties in the pack.
I usually rope in one of the kids to help rip up the peppers for the chicken step: I pop the top with my thumbs and pull out the whites and seeds then they do the rest, as they eat more that way and I’m happy for them to eat the odd bit while we’re cooking if they want to.