Real Food Recipes

The Best Creamy Chicken Curry Recipe-Picky Eater Approved

When I was a kid I was a super picky eater. My mom had a hard time getting me to eat many, many things. If it wasn’t bread, hot dogs, pizza, or sweets, I wasn’t interested. With my childhood and teenage years far behind me my palette has expanded a bit but there are some things that stuck. Onions – no. Onion powder – yes. Pickles – absolutely not. Chunks of tomato – I’d rather not. Tomato sauce or paste – sure.

I made no real changes to this recipe. I tend to use breast meat but my mom uses dark meat. Sometimes I use brown rice and millet ramen noodles instead of rice depending on what I have in the pantry that day. And I don’t always have lemon juice so on days when I don’t have the juice I sprinkle in a pinch of dried lemon peel. Other than that, here’s how you make it…

First things first, if you look ahead at the directions on the recipe card below you’ll see that I like to add crumbled bacon and raisins. Adding the bacon seems to be loved by all but there are mixed feelings about the raisins. I love both, the sweet and the savory mix is delicious. I suggest trying it with both before deciding against them. As for making the bacon, I make it in the oven ahead of time, crumble it, and set it aside until it’s time to eat. Making bacon in the oven is pretty much the only way I make it any more. There’s so much less fuss with the oven method and who doesn’t want less fuss?

Another thing to note before we dig into the recipe is about the rice or ramen. When I have rice with chicken curry I make the rice ahead of time in the rice cooker. I usually throw it in when I’m starting the bacon and set the rice cooker to keep it warm when it’s done cooking. Cooking the rice in a rice cooker always turns out tasty and it’s a pretty hands-off task that makes it an easier meal.

The ramen I use is the Brown Rice and Millet Ramen that I get from Costco. It’s a quick thing to make, you do, however, want to keep your eyes on it. The fact that it cooks so quickly is great and even though you do have to look after it, using the ramen is still an easy option. It tastes a bit creamier than traditional rice, but both the rice and the ramen are delicious!

Now for the main attraction, the chicken curry…

To begin you’ll prepare 4 cups of chicken. Growing up my mom always used dark meat but my family prefers chicken breast so that’s what I buy. It usually takes 4 to 5 breasts to get 4 cups of shredded chicken.

You can boil it for 10-15 minutes, saute it, or cook it using a sous vide. Of course, if using the sous vide you can and should start a bit earlier and keep the chicken in the water until you’re ready to shred it.

Cook chicken, shred, shred, shred, and set aside.

Next, in a saucepan, melt the butter on medium heat and then add the onion and curry powder. If using fresh onions, cook until soft. If you are like me and like to stick to onion powder, just mix in the onion powder thoroughly and let it heat up for a minute or so.

Add the flour, salt, sugar, and ginger. The flour is for thickening so all-purpose is good there. I use fine sea salt and ginger powder. You can use granulated sugar or honey. It’s just a touch of sweetness so you likely can use less but I like to keep it in.

Once you have all of those ingredients in you’ll stir it over low heat and let the mixture become bubbly and smooth. Making sure it’s smooth is the key to the perfect sauce.

At this stage you’ll remove it from the heat to add in the liquids, chicken broth and milk. Stirring with one hand pouring with the other. Once blended, return to heat.

You can turn up the burner a bit to medium – medium low. Be careful not to scorch the sauce at the bottom of the pan by constantly stirring. You want the sauce to come to a low boil and stay at a boil for about a minute while you stir .The sauce will thicken up nicely and you can then add in the shredded chicken and lemon juice.

Keep it at a low heat until the temperature is even throughout and then serve over rice or ramen.

Don’t forget to garnish with raisins and bacon!

***Please note that the time varies depending on the method used for cooking the chicken, if you add bacon, and if you choose rice or ramen to serve it on.

I like to make a large batch, sometimes double, and freeze it for later. It’s so great when I don’t feel like cooking and I take a look in the freezer to find a batch of this deliciousness waiting for me. To freeze I use a Food Saver on the moist setting and throw it in the freezer. I lay it flat until it hardens up and then I can put sideways freeing up space.

To thaw, I run the bag under barely warm water until it’s soft enough to break up the mass of sauce. I then empty the bag in a pot on the stove and slowly heat up on medium low so the sauce and chicken warm up together. While it’s warming up I make a quick batch of ramen. If bacon is a must, make sure to have that going ahead of thawing the sauce so the timing works out.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and find that even your picky eaters will dig in!

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