Thursday, March 6, 2014

Throwback Thursday - Autumn in Canada and a Cold-Weather Stew

The view from the top of Montmorency Falls, just outside of Quebec City
As the rest of the US continues to suffer through it's long winter I thought I would commiserate with a nice cozy-weather dish, inspired by Bon Appetit. I saw their recipe for Indian-Spiced Chicken and made a few tweaks here and there to make it my own.
The daunting staircase to walk up to the top of the falls
I began with a whole chicken and broke it down into parts and then proceeded to brown the chicken in a little vegetable oil. Once browned, set aside. Then in the same lovely pot add 1 diced onion, 4 cloves minced garlic and a thumb-sized piece of ginger, minced, and saute until your onion is soft and golden. Next add in 2 heaping tablespoons tomato paste and 2 teaspoons each of garam masala, cumin, turmeric, 1 teaspoon coriander and a hefty dash of cayenne, depending on how spicy you like it, and let all that marry for about 5 minutes.  
 Add in 8 cups chicken broth, 1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, 1/2 cup cream, chicken and a bunch of carrots (roughly chopped if you please). Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover partially and reduce to a simmer, cooking for about 2 hours. Add 1 pound of sliced yukon gold potatoes and continue cooking for another 45 minutes until the taters are cooked through. I served over a bed of rice with a hefty dollop of yogurt and some fresh cilantro.