The perfect way to use up leftovers.
Okay, on Sunday you have a great roast dinner with some kind of roast meat, Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Pork etc – In our house there are only two of us, so there is always plenty of meat left over. This recipe will work with any meat really but chicken is what we will use.
As well as using the bones for making chicken stock, there is loads of good meat leftover to make another meal. Just place the leftover chicken in the fridge until the next day (keep well away from any raw meat) pick all the good meat from the chicken and place in a container for use later.
Ingredients
1 Onion – Chopped
2 Spring Onions De-rooted and chopped
3 Cloves Garlic Peeled and finely chopped
2 Bay leaves
1 Tbsp Olive Oil (or better still 3 Tbsp Ghee)
2 Fresh Jalapeno Chillis or 1 tsp chilli powder
2 Tsp Garam Masala
2 Tsp Ground Coriander
2 Tsp Ground Turmeric
2 Tsp Tandoori Spice
1/2 Tsp Garlic salt or normal salt
1 Can of Chopped Tomatoes
Handful of Fresh Coriander Leaves
1/4 Pint Double Cream
Method:
If you haven’t already, pick the meat off the chicken and place in a container for use later.
Chop the Onion, Spring Onions and Garlic, If you are using fresh chillis, de-seed and finely chop these now (I ran out of fresh chilli so will use the chilli powder instead.) Keep the Bay leaves whole.
Get a wok or deep sided frying pan and heat olive oil or Ghee, Add the chopped ingredients and the two whole bay leaves to the pan and fry over a medium heat until golden brown. If you’re using fresh chillis add these now.
Move the chopped ingredients to the side of the pan. Add the Garam Masala, Ground Coriander, Ground Turmeric, Tandoori Spice and Garlic salt, add the chilli powder now if you’re not using fresh chillis. Add a sprinkle more oil/ghee if it looks too dry.
Stir the spices into the chopped ingredients until nicely coated and a lovely brown.
Once fully coated we can now add the chicken, the reason we add it now and not before is so we still have a little chicken flavour and it isn’t overpowered by the spices.
Heat the chicken through and stir to give a little of the spice coating, we still want a little spicy flavour to cling to the chicken but not as much as the onions. Once cooked through the chicken should be a nice golden brown.
At this point we add the chopped tomatoes stir in well and lower the heat a little – Simmer for about 5 minutes to reduce the liquid from the tomatoes and to let the flavours mingle.
Up the heat and add the fresh coriander leaves – we don’t want these to wilt and go black. They add such fresh flavour to this curry, just quickly mix in.
At this point (if you prefer a low fat/healthy version of this recipe) you could serve as is without adding the last ingredient.
For that authentic taste, we need to add one last ingredient – The double cream, it isn’t necessary to make a nice curry, but it really does make that creamy, spicy mix, it cools the spices a little and makes for a more flavoursome authentic curry.
Make a well in the centre of the curry and pour the double cream in the centre. allow to simmer a little then mix in well. To add a little more colour to your finished curry sprinkle a little more Turmeric and Tandoori Spice and a quick stir and serve.
Tips:
Serve steamy hot on a bed of rice with a cool beer.
I love this recipe and have used it for several years now. I highly recommend it and it makes leftover chicken into a delicious tasty meal making the most out of a chicken especially if on a budget. It’s also very versatile and you can bulk it out with adding left over veg, Thank you for this recipe
Thanks for the comment Lisa! So glad you love it.
It’s probably one of our oldest recipes on here – It’s been up since we launched way back in 2006!