Quote from: PaulP on February 17, 2012, 09:44 AM
I'm guilty of cooking curries with fresh raw chicken and it does come out tough and dry sometimes.
I find that pre-cooked chicken (especially when it has been gently fried, not just poached) is usually more juicy and tender in the finished dish and the flavours from the cooked chicken add to the layers of flavour
All of those observations resonate. With SWMBO safely away on a study weekend, I set out last night to burn my spices and g/g paste in a manner of which even Az would have approved. But I was desperately short of time, had no pre-cooked chicken, and so decided to pre-cook it as a part of the overall preparation of the dish. Hot oil, turmeric, chicken, good toss around, wait until it is sealed then in with the curry powder, Kashmiri & Degghi mirch, cumin, fenugreek and tomato puree, finally (when I dare wait not a moment longer) a ladle of base, then another, and so on until ready. Oh, and salt : left that a bit late, and found it tasted awful without. But it was no great success. Edible, definitely; moreish, even (I ate up the remaining sauce with chappati -- always a good sign), but definitely not
la creme de la creme. And the chicken was tough and (relatively) tasteless, despite being free-range breast. Ah well, back to the tried and tested methods next time !
A(n) (after)thought : is it possible that pre-cooking in BIR cuisine serves the same role as "resting" when roasting meats ? In otherwords, does pre-cooking allow the flesh to relax and the juices to re-suffuse the outer layers from which they have been driven by virtue of being heated from the outside (by contact with the hot sauce and with the base of the pan) ?
** Phil.