This mild family-friendly chicken masala, gets a delightful fruity twist with some apples and sweet potatoes mashed up for a delicious sweet-and-spicy sauce.
Masala is the name for a blend of curry spices. A masala can be either a combination of dried spices or a paste. Often garlic, ginger, onions, chilli paste and tomato will go into a masala paste. A dry masala will use dry-roasted spices.
This fragrant fruity chicken masala is sweet and mild enough to be the first curry you introduce your children to. It is also such an easy one-pot recipe which do not entail marinating the chicken for hours as is the case with most masala recipes. And it is a healthy powerhouse of nutrients due to its combination of chicken, vegetables, masala spices and fruit. Apart from the apples, even bananas makes a guest appearance!
All this taste sensation of a meal needs is fluffy steamed or boiled rice, crisp poppadoms or some naan bread on the side and enjoy!
CHEF’S TIP
- If you find that the curry is still too spicy for your little ones’ taste, stir through some yoghurt (or coconut milk) to temper the taste.
- This fruity chicken masala freezes really well. So if you feel up to doing some batch cooking, you can always double up the recipe and freeze some for a rainy day.
Fruity Chicken Masala
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken
- 1 red onion chopped
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 3 tbsp Cape Malay (mild) curry spice add more if you need more heat
- 2 medium-sized apples chopped
- 3 bananas sliced
- 1 sweet potato or potato chopped
- 2 tbsp white apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp cornflour Maizena
- 1 tbsp apricot jam
- coriander leaves for garnishing
- 1 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
Instructions
- Sauté the onions in a drizzle of olive oil together with the ginger.
- Just before adding the chicken, add another drizzle of olive oil and Cape Masala spice.
- Fry spices for two minutes before adding the chicken.
- Sauté the chicken before stirring, giving it a moment to seal.
- When it has reached the stage where it is nice and brown, add 1 cup of water before placing the lid on and simmering for 10 minutes on a low heat.
- After 10 minutes, take the pot off the heat and shred the chicken meat with two forks.
- Return to the heat and now add apples, sweet potato, jam and vinegar and cover.
- If the chicken mixture is too dry, add another cup of water so that the vegetables and apples can soften.
- Simmer for 5-10 minutes, or until apples and sweet potato are soft.
- When the apples and sweet potato are soft, mash with a fork.
- The sweet potato will thicken the sauce
- Add the cornflour, pre-mixed with 1 cup of water, then the bananas to the chicken and stir, cover and simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes.
- Serve with plain boiled rice. Garnish with one or two sprigs of fresh coriander.
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