Topic: Making Curry With Whole Chicken?

[JamesJeffery]

I remember eating a curry that was made with a whole chicken - boneless - and it was amazing! Rather than cubes of chicken (as in traditional curries in the UK) it was stringy bits of chicken.

I believe it's sometimes done with left-over turkey at Christmas. If you've ever done it, you'll know the texture I'm talking about.

I have a whole Chicken, but want to make a curry with it instead of using Chicken fillets.

Should I cook the Chicken the over first? Or boil it? Ideally I'd like to be able to strip it, then make the curry with it without it drying out.

Appreciate any response. If anyone has any links to a recipe feel free to link me

Thank you

[Stephen Lindsay]

James I know the effect you mean. I remember when I was in my late teens / early twenties we once had a BIR in our housing estate. I recall, like you say, having a turkey curry they made with leftover. Can I suggest rather than boiling the chicken that you roast it in the oven with the skin on, leave to cool then tear off as much chicken as you can get. Add to your curry sauce.

[Malc.]

This is where i'd want a huge stock pot and a big bag of onions to set about making and old school base. Drop your chicken in whole and let the magic happen.

[Willyeckerslike]

Do you know an old school base Axe?  would be interested if you do 

[Malc.]

Not per se i'm still working on it, but it sounds like a perfect opportunity for JJ to try it. The most recent conversation I had on this a month or so ago with Ali quoted "when I was working the kitchens back in the late 80s/90s, when the base ran low, they'd top it up with water and throw in a couple of whole chickens and sometimes lamb as well". Take from that what you will.

[spiceyokooko]

Appreciate any response. If anyone has any links to a recipe feel free to link me

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to achieve here, but from what I understand you want to cook a whole chicken and then strip the meat off it and use it in a curry dish.

There is a traditional Indian way of cooking a whole chicken and from memory it's called something like Chicken Kurzi. As you're planning on cooking the whole chicken anyway and using the meat from it, it seems like an ideal opportunity to perhaps experiment with cooking a whole chicken with Indian spices and then using that meat in a curry dish.

I did a quick google on Chicken Kurzi and this recipe came up, but there's plenty of others to look at. I've never tried this so cannot vouch for it in any way. There are some recipes that use rice as a filling instead of kebab meat.

http://www.recipehound.com/whole-baked-chicken-murgh-masalam-or-kurzi/

[spiceyokooko]

Do you know an old school base Axe?

I think that's going to depend almost entirely on how you define 'old school'. What is old school BIR? I rather suspect you'll get a different set of answers depending on who you ask, how old they are and what their experiences are of eating this type of food.

My own experience goes back about 40 years to the early 70's to one of the older and better quality Indian restaurants in London - the Star of India in Brompton Road. My memory of the food eaten there was that each dish was quite different and had distinctly different flavours that couldn't have been produced from one base sauce. That's always led me to believe that they used more than one base sauce depending on the dish being made.

That's the problem of course with todays BIRs, each restaurant has its own 'house' flavour which is dominated by the base sauce and mix powder being used. Whilst each dish does vary somewhat depending on the additional and different ingredients being used, the underlying flavour is the same. That wasn't the case 40 odd years ago - a Chicken Madras, Bhuna, Vindaloo etc were three quite different tasting dishes. Today a Vindaloo seems to differ from a Madras in being redder, hotter and with potatoes in it! Likewise a Bhuna today seems to be a Madras with less heat, more reduction and a couple of onion and pepper chunks thrown in.

Dishes 40 years ago also had whole spices in them which also led me to believe that those dishes were based on traditional Indian recipes but modified for a commercial kitchen environment and the necessary speed of production.

So far anyone looking to try and recreate the flavour's of yesteryear I'd suggest perhaps looking at how traditional Indian recipes were constructed say 40 years ago and working from there. I doubt very much whether you'll succeed starting from now and going backwards as cookery techniques used now have been constantly streamlined and refined over the years removing and reducing the individuality of each dish to the point that they now all virtually taste the same.

Just my opinion of course based on my own experience - I'm not saying it's the right one.

My oldest Indian cookbook goes back to 1963

[JamesJeffery]

Sadly there was no replies when it came to starting the meal. I ended up roasting it on very low, and covering it in tin foil to ensure it don't try out. It worked out well though, and the texture had the desired effect

I'm going to attempt another on Friday, but I am going to look up boiling the whole chicken in herbs and spices.

Thank you for the replies, they will be useful for when I come to cooking my next curry project

[curryhell]

Ali quoted "when I was working the kitchens back in the late 80s/90s, when the base ran low, they'd top it up with water and throw in a couple of whole chickens and sometimes lamb as well". Take from that what you will.

I think this is probably one of the best kept secrets of the BIR kitchen.  And nobody is ever going to admit to this because of the outcry from the non meat eaters, that their curries may have been prepared with a gravy containing some meat products which is not easily discernable  .  And i don't doubt that this is common practice in some establishments across the country  :

[Ghoulie]

I have seen and ordered / eaten in a couple of Indian restaurants (ok one is Nepalese) a dish called Kulchi Chicken which is a whole chicken - has to be ordered 24 hours in advance - which is cooked with Keema mince inside, whole eggs, spiced coating / sauce etc.  Brilliant dish