How To Make: Fruity Chicken Masala

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.

Print

Fruity Chicken Masala

Try this fruity chicken masala which plays up the sweetness of apple and banana against the spicy nature of this warming dish.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Keyword Chicken, Masala

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 6

Author Irene Muller

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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