Indian food and White Collar

I love White Collar.  I don't know who does all the writing for USA's shows but I'm a big fan of several of their shows, tonight is White Collar night. I watch Covert Affairs after but it's still growing on me, I'm a huge Alias fan and it just seems like a rip off in some ways, but it is getting interesting.  But White Collar got me from the beginning.

Anyway. Dinner from tonight :) I made Curried chicken. My first attempt at making my own curry spice. News flash, curry isn't actually an herb or spice, its a blend of spices :) Do not read further if you are a vegetarian or vegan :)

I used a whole chicken cut into pieces.  I cut the pieces myself because it is cheaper to do that, they charge more per pound to have it cut, plus I use the bones I don't cut up.  I took the breasts out boneless so I could leave most of the carcass intact to make broth. 

A little trick. When you are going to be using a meat product with its own outer fat source, you don't really need an outside source if you are just going to brown it.  It renders the fat off and you can use that instead of adding extra fat. I'm not saying its low fat but adding four different kinds of fat (Pam included, the serving size is 1/3 of a second for non fat, everything above that you are adding fat) is not necessary when you have chicken skin, sausage, or bacon or something else with copious amounts of outside fat.  Now when I oven roast a chicken I make a paste of some butter, minced garlic, and herbs to put UNDER the skin... but that is another post for another day.  And it works better to sear a steak if you have a LITTLE bit of olive oil or canola (1TBS tops spread evenly over your searing surface).  Avoid vegetable oil, use canola... just do it. Trust me. 

Anyway, I browned the skin on the chicken thighs, legs, and breasts and then removed the pieces and put them on a plate while I added thinly sliced onion (aboout 1/2 a cup), 2 cloves of garlic, and a TBS of grated fresh ginger (you can use about 1/2 a TBS of dried grated ginger but it's not the same).  Just enough until they were opaque and I put the chicken back in and promptly moved the plate the chicken was on to the sink to later be rinsed in blazing hot water before it was put in the dish washer. 

Then I mixed up my curry. Top to bottom, left to right, 1/2 tsp of each, Cardamom, Tumeric, dash of ground cloves, 1/2 tsp of red pepper, 1/2 tsp of coriander and cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp of chili powder. 

Add the spices to the pot and 1/2 a cup of chicken broth.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.  While it simmers make rice per package directions.  The chicken feeds six so I made enough rice for two and had enough chicken left for leftovers for tomorrow night since I take Shawn his supper. 

This one is husband approved :) The rice needed more salt but other than that he liked it.  I didn't cream it since the only dairy I can have is fresh cheese (mozzarella) or really aged cheese like parm.  I did remember later that I have coconut milk which is traditional in indian cuisine instead of milk.  So thats what I used for leftovers for tomorrow night :)

I guess I'll get back to my Covert Affairs and then bed :)