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Meat & Poultry

Curry Chicken With Butternut Squash.

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You’re about to CHANGE your Curry Chicken game FOREVER! It’s ridiculous how simply adding roasted Butternut Squash (any squash will work) changes everyday curry chicken to something even more comforting and tasty. No, there’s no need to add coconut to this dish IMHO (I know there will be people asking).

You’ll Need…

3-4 lbs chicken
2 medium butternut squash (5-6 cups)
2 tablespoon Caribbean Green Seasoning
4 tablespoon olive oil (divided)
3 tablespoon curry powder (divided)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 3/4 tablespoon salt (divided)
1/3 cup water for cooking curry
1 tomato (diced)
1 tablespoon black pepper (divided)
10 cloves garlic (divided)
1 small onion (diced)
1 scotch bonnet pepper (sliced)
1 teaspoon ground roasted cumin (geera)
1 teaspoon anchar masala
1 1/2 cups water
1-2 tablespoon shado beni (chopped)

Note: use cilantro if you cannot get shado beni (culantro) and adjust the salt to your liking. Also (important) – if doing this recipe gluten free, please go through the full list of ingredients to make sure they meet with your specific gluten free dietary requirements. Especially the Curry Powder you decide on using.

Peel, wash and cube the squash into 1 inch pieces. Then in a bowl, toss them with 2 tablespoon olive oil, 3/4 tablespoon salt, 1/2 the black pepper, 1 tablespoon curry powder, 4 cloves garlic smashed and brown sugar. Then onto a roasting tray (single layer) and into the oven at 400 F.

As the squash roast off it’s time to marinate the chicken (cut, trim off excess fat and skin – wash with lemon juice and cool water – if you wash your chicken). With the chicken in a large bowl, add the remaining salt and black pepper, Caribbean Green Seasoning and tomato, then give it a good toss. Allow to marinate for an hour or 2 for best results.

Heat the remaining oil on a medium flame (heavy pot), followed by the onion, remaining garlic (smashed) and Scotch Bonnet pepper (use as much as you can handle, I like curry spicy). As you start seeing brown edges on the garlic and onion, add the remaining curry powder to the pan and mix well.

It will go darker (normal thing), add the 1/3 cup of water after 3-4 minutes and stir and scrape the bottom of the pot. This step cooks out the ‘rawness’ of the curry. Here’s where we’ll add the Anchar Masala and Roasted Cumin (geera) – stir well.

The goal now is to burn off that liquid we added, until we see the oil at the bottom of the pot that we started with. Can take 3-5 minutes.

It will be a thick paste! Now add the seasoned chicken to the pot (heat high) and stir well to coat each piece with that curry goodness.

Put the lid on, heat to medium and cook. (watch the video below if the descriptive text is a bit confusing)

35 minutes in the oven and the squash is good to come out. Set aside. (watch the video below to know why we roasted the squash)

6 minutes later, remove the lid off the pot and crank up the heat to high. We again want to burn off that natural liquid that sprouted. As its gone, add the water to the bowl you marinated the chicken in and move around to get any remaining marinade. Pour that 1 1/2 cups of water into the pot and bring back to a boil.

After cooking on medium for 4-5 minutes, it’s time to add the roasted squash to the pot. Be gentle as we don’t want to crush it.

Gently stir and cook for 4-5 minutes or until you have a gravy consistency you like. The squash will suck-up some of that gravy! Taste for salt and adjust, toss in the chopped Shado Beni (or cilantro). Turn off the heat as the residual heat in the pot will further thicken the gravy as it cools.

Absolutely one of the best curry dishes you’ll ever make/enjoy – guaranteed! Serve with Rice, Roti or if all fails… even basic sliced bread (smile).

Drop me your comments below, tag me on Instagram and don’t forget you can now get my cookbook – The Vibrant Caribbean Pot, 100 Traditional And Fusion Recipes @ CaribbeanPot.com/CookBook/

Seafood

Curry Shrimp With Butternut Squash.

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How I love me some shrimp cooked in butternut squash or pumpkin.. let me count the ways. This is one of my favorite recipes and it’s a take on another one I shared a while back which our mom is a boss at making – shrimp cooked in pumpkin. But this time we’ll be adding some additional flavor by incorporating a madras blend curry into the mix.  Not only is this a delightful way to prepare butternut squash (you can also use Caribbean style pumpkin), it’s a great way to add flavor to what could be considered a typically boring dish.

You’ll Need…

1 lb shrimp (peeled/deveined)
1 med butternut squash (about 4-5 cups)
1 small onion (diced)
3 cloves garlic crushed
3/4 teaspoon salt (divided)
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/4 scotch bonnet pepper (no seeds)
3 tables spoons olive oil (divided)
1/4 teaspoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon green seasoning
1 tablespoon brown sugar

* For the green seasoning mix, see : Caribbean Green Seasoning. I used a madras curry powder blend from the Caribbean Much different than what you’d find elsewhere and can be found at your local West Indian grocery store and some online stores.

Peel, devein, wash and drain the shrimp and get ready for seasoning. In a bowl place the cleaned shrimp and add 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and the green seasoning, give it a good mix and allow it to marinate while we prep the butternut squash. Try to not let the shrimp marinate more than 15 minutes.

If you’ve never worked with butternut squash you’ll find it a bit tough to cut and peel, so it’s important that you have a sharp knife. It will have a sort of bottle shape, so the first thing I do is to cut off the sort of ‘neck’ shape (see pic). Make it easier to handle. I then cut the sort of ball shape in half to expose the seeds. Using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and stuff surrounding the seeds. Discard or save to roast as you would pumpkin seeds.

Then cut into smaller more manageable pieces and peel with a sharp pairing knife or potato peeler. You’ll find the skin is tough and somewhat waxy. Cubed into 1 inch pieces and rinse with cool water. If you’re doing this in advance, be sure to place it in a bowl and cover with cool water so it remains fresh and not discolored.

In a deep sauce pan heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil on low heat, then add the diced onion and crushed garlic. Let that cook for about 4 minutes so it releases it’s wonderful flavors. Then add the scotch bonnet pepper, grated ginger (dice fine – wear gloves when handling scotch bonnet peppers and wash your hands with soap) and curry powder. With your heat still on low.. we’re cooking the curry so you don’t get a raw curry taste later on.

Now turn up the heat to med/high and toss in the seasoned shrimp. Cook for 3-4 minutes (we don’t want to over cook the shrimp) with the pot open. Remember to stir well and try to get the shrimp to pick up some of the base flavors we started with. Remove the shrimp and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil.

Toss in the cubed squash and give it a good stir. Now add the remaining salt, brown sugar and black pepper. Give it another quick stir, reduce the heat to med/low and cover the pot. Allow that to cook for about 15-20 minutes (remember to stir often). With the lid closed the squash will spring it’s own juices. If you find that it starts sticking to the bottom of the pot, lower the heat.

After 15 minutes, turn up the heat and remove the lid off the pot. We’re now trying to burn off any excess liquid. We also want to control the texture (I like it a like a thick paste) so using the back of my cooking spoon I pressed down on any chunky pieces of squash.

With most of the liquid burned off, it’s time to add the pre-cooked shrimp back to the pot and give it a good stir and taste for salt. Adjust accordingly.

Do try your best to burn off as much liquid as you can so you don’t have a soup consistency. This will heighten the overall flavor of the completed dish and with that curry shrimp base.. it will be fantastic. After adding the shrimp try not to cook too long (about 2-3 minutes) as we don’t want the shrimp to go chewy.

This curry shrimp with butternut squash is good with roti, rice, bread or you can treat it like any typical side. You can certainly leave out the shrimp if you want to keep this a vegetarian dish and if you’re wondering.. there’s enough here as a side dish for 5-6 people.

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