Cheating Cajun Curry Chicken (if a woodchuck could chuck wood)

Cajun Chicken Curry

I love alliteration. I also love curry. In the past I could probably be described as a curry ignoramous. I had no idea what went into it, how to eat it, and how many different kinds of curry there actually are out there.

The lovely Sharon however, has opened my eyes to the big wide world of curries that exist. She is personally an afficionado of Malaysian and Thai Green Curry, and makes a pretty decent Indian Curry too. She is at the point of having a specially concoted mixtures of herbs, spices, and chilli’s that she crafts in a seriously hot base. So needless to say my natural causcasian aversion to eating spicey foods has taken a back seat of late, and I am growing a new stomach lining to handle a bevvy of new taste sensations… and loving it too :)

So this was my attempt at getting in on the act… Albeit by making a curry I have no real idea about… but that’s never stopped me before…

The meal was actually inspired by a trip we took to Rickies (?) Cafe in Mt Lawley. It’s run by a West Indian guy from London, and they serve really down to earth West Indian/Jamaican style food (and you get free Johnny Cakes !). I ordered a really tasty curry chicken dish, and ever since I’ve thought about making it myself.

I do feel like a bit of a fraud though, because I haven’t gone and investigated how to make the cajun spice mix myself. I just happened to be in Fresh Provisions one day and came across a packet of “Cajun Spice Mix”, containing such exotic ingredients as “Pepper”, and “Mixed Spices”… So i decided to give it a go.

Ingredients

  • Chicken (i like breast (teehee), but apparently meat on the bone is better for curry)
  • Cajun Spices Mix (in lieu of actually making your own)
  • Few Potatos
  • One big onion (or two small onions… or 4 miniature onions)
  • 3 bullet chilli’s (tiny little ones that pack a punch)
  • Capsicum (i used some roasted stuff I needed to use up)
  • Sugar Snap Peas (again not exactly a cajun style ingredient, but had to use them up)
  • Raisans/Sultanas
  • Apple
Directions

Deceptively easy really. Cook it as you would any curry, which for me meant coating the chicken in the spice mixture, and rubbing it all with some olive oil (or ghee), then cutting up the chilli and frying it in some oil before adding the chicken to be browned. At the same time boil the potatos in a pot (actually sweet potato would go great in this too). Then adding the onion and getting it nice and soft, before adding the capsicum and anything else you want in there. When the potato is getting soft, add that into the mixture, and just before its done, drop in the sugar snap peas. I like these to be nice and crunchy for a bit of texture contrast.

And thats basically it. I tossed up whether I should use coconut milk or not, but opted out in the end, as I wanted to preserve the heat of the chilli… and the spice mixture I used seemed to have some kind of thickening agent in it already. I probably should have added coconut milk, because the spice mixture also had chilli in it already… So added to the 3 mega hot chillis I added, it was SPICEY ! But so very good.

Give it a try :) And if you have a good recipe for a DIY from scratch cajun/creole spice mixture, please let me know.

Cajun Chicken Curry

7 thoughts on “Cheating Cajun Curry Chicken (if a woodchuck could chuck wood)”

  1. Hi, just perusing your site here and thought i’d leave a little comment for you. Not sure about the curry – perhaps you should have considered the
    coconut milk as an add in, especially if you’d had non-curry fans over for
    tea!

    Ive been experimenting with fish recipes recently, especially with all the
    news about its health benefits. What can you do with a nice piece of fish –
    trout, hake fillets and the basic old cod?
    Keep cooking
    Anita
    XX

  2. Well there are no non-curry dinner guests in this house mate… You just have to get used to the ring of fire…

    If I had a whole fish I’d probably steam it in a wok with ginger, soy sauce, and spring onion… Or else stuff the inside of it with butter and fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, coriander, sage), and bake it in the oven with lots of salt and pepper… You could also try my poached salmon recipe… which was bloody tasty.

    Have a good one.
    Matt

  3. I also adore curries & have made many differrent varieties, my faves would prob be Malaysian, Indian or Sr Lankan styles. Havent made a cajun curry before but quite often I just coat some fish in Cajun spices & grill for a quick dinner, have made my own spice blend – will have to dig out the recipe for you. Normally I find the pre mixed blends perfectly find though so keep up the good work & curry away!

  4. Hi Ange,

    Yeh definitely post your cajun spice mix… I’m working out that it all comes down to cayenne pepper, paprika, and a few other tricky things.

    I just find knowing how to make it yourself so much more rewarding than relying on what someone else has thrown into a packet :)

  5. Hi Matt – here’s the one I use from New Orleans Gourmet (Southern Cooking and Lifestyles) Magazine. I went a bit mental on Louisiana food when I got back from New Orleans so used it heaps. It’s called Creole Seasoning or Broussards Pepper, from Broussards Restaurant in NO. It’s yummy. I use it in Jambalaya too. 1/2 tsp dried tarragon, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 tbsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, 1/2 cup paprika, 1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves. Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Enjoy! Makes about 3/4 cup, let me know if you like it better than the pre-prepared version.

  6. Hi Rebecca,

    Thanks for sharing your recipe, i think i have a little collecting of ingredients to do, but I’ll definitely be sure to give this a try.

    Incidently, what type of paprika do you use ? I have some sweet paprika at the moment, but I’ve also seen a few smoked paprika varieties that look interesting.

    Cheers,
    Matt

  7. You can use either, depends how you want it to taste – use sweet or hot for more intense chilli and the smoked for, well, a smoky taste! For this mix I tend to use non-smoked coz it’s a bit more versatile and not quite so overpowering.

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