Creamy Chicken Curry = YUM

I’ve had this whole chicken sitting in my fridge for a little over 48 hours now. I haven’t cut it up or anything. I was starting to think I should just name it. Then I realized how silly that was. And since I wasn’t even drinking at the time, I had no reasonable excuse to tell my husband I was going to be cooking up a piece or two of Ricardo for dinner.

Oh yes. The chicken is totally named Ricardo.

There was something specific my subconscious self wanted me to do with Ricardo. I’ve been craving something. Problem was, I didn’t know what. And when I caught myself looking at recipes with curry in them, I thought… maybe I’m craving some chicken curry? But that seemed way too obvious, so I moved on.

Then I got home from work, and saw the buttermilk sitting in my refrigerator. Why did I buy buttermilk? I don’t drink the stuff.

Hmm. ...

Chicken.
Curry.
Buttermilk.

I bet I can do something with that.

Now that I’ve mentioned how much I wanted to use curry powder a few times, I’ll go ahead and tell you: I used Penzey's Singapore Seasoning for this instead because, well… I LOVE their Singapore Seasoning. Since they have quite a few ingredients in common (coriander, cumin, garlic, onion, tumeric, ginger, cloves) I do NOT consider this cheating.

And my craving?
It’s gone.

• Olive oil
• 1 Whole chicken, cut into pieces (I removed the skin and most of the visible fat. Damn health concsciousness!) You can also just subsitute about 6 or 7 bone-in chicken thighs.
• 1 large Onion, chopped
• 3 small carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3 cloves of minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp Whole mustard seeds
• 2 Tbsp Penzey's Singapore Seasoning Blend
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk (I think plain or greek yogurt would also work great)
• Basmati rice

In a large skillet (that you can cover with a lid) brown your chicken pieces in the olive oil; remove the chicken and add the carrots. After about 3 or 4 minutes, add the onions and garlic and sauté until the onion is crisp-tender. Add the ginger, mustard seeds and cumin. Cook until the mustard seeds "pop" - this is so much fun, that I hereby vow that I'm going to cook with my mustard seeds more often.

Add the tumeric and Singapore Seasoning powder, and stir your now very yellow concoction for about 2 minutes so that everything starts to meld. Is it a sign of my geekiness that I can't think of the word "meld" without thinking of Spock? And then getting a little turned on?

Add the chicken broth and buttermilk and stir some more, just until it begins to think about simmering. Put the chicken back in the skillet, cover, and simmer , stirring it every so often, for about 40 minutes or until the chicken is done (Harmful bacteria was not an ingredient in this recipe!).

When the chicken starts simmering, start cooking the basmati rice. If you're lucky they'll be finished at the same time. Serve the chicken over the rice. If you really want to treat yourself, make some naan to go with it, but...I was just too lazy today!