Topic: Mango Chicken

[Secret Santa]

I think I see why livo's had so much trouble replicating this 'curry'. It's because it's not a curry at all, it's a chicken dessert!  ;D

[livo]

Exactly right. But now we have it. The mystery is solved.  No wonder the restaurant people I'd asked about it just grin and say yes to any question asked.

I am now 100% confident that within a half dozen more attempts with minor variations, I will have a dish that is acceptable to Fussy Daughter No 1.

[swagatsaintjohn]

My husband said that this was a best seller at the restaurant he worked at in Munich. We have been searching for a recipe to make as we are going to start selling Indian at the local farmers market. We called the chefs in Munich but we could not find a recipe on the internet that even came close to sounding the way the chefs there described it to us.

Made the variation on the recipe from this form for dinner this evening - butter chicken sauce and mango pulp. I added a touch of coconut milk to give it an extra bit of creaminess. Absolutely brilliant! Will be on the menu at our farmers market stall this summer. Thanks Aussie Mick

[livo]

Cooked this using Kushi pre-cooked chicken last night and it is the best I've ever made. Absolutely delicious and the daughter and her friend are eating it with Jasmine Rice for breakfast as I type this.  Only thing missing was the ice cream.

[livo]

Here I go again. The quest continues.     Here is a selection of Restaurant Menu descriptions for Mango Chicken. Many of these are Australian (because that's what Google wants to show me) but similar were found in menus from New Zealand, Athens, New York and Europe including the UK.  Is the UK still considered part of Europe?  : When I was last frequenting this site my ancestral home was voting to leave the Union and I think something called Brexit happened as well.  Over the last couple of years I have had PM's and emails from people interested in finding the way to prepare this dish after trying it in various parts of the globe so it is not confined to Australia.  All descriptions contain mention of boneless chicken pieces with some specifying breast or thigh and we could possibly assume it is pre-cooked.  One description clearly stated Tandoor Cooked Chicken Tikka pieces in the Mango sauce.

"subtle marsala spices, cream and mango"
"creamy mango flavoured gravy"
"mouth-watering mango sauce with spices"
"creamy mango gravy with curry leaf and mustard"
"chef's specially prepared sauce with mango"
"creamy, rich, spicy and sweet mango gravy sauce"
"Classic mango chicken curry in rich mango sweet sauce"
"mango pulp, cream, garlic, ginger and spices"
"onion, ginger, garlic, tomato, creamy mango flavoured sauce"
"delicious mango flavoured cream and lightly spiced sauce"
"fresh ripe mangos and smooth cream"
"mango sauce with mustard, curry leaves and fresh cream"

It is interesting that none of these descriptions includes any mention of coconut or coconut milk while most recipes on the net inevitably contain it.  Nor is there any mention of nuts other than I did find one description that included cashews and dried fruits.  In this instance the photographed dish showed them as being whole and possibly almost a garnish.  Some photographs do definitely show a slivered almond garnish.  Also worth noting is that 2 of the descriptions above specifically mention curry leaf and mustard.  I can't say I've seen actual mustard seeds or curry leaves in any of the restaurant versions I've had.

There are literally hundreds of recipes for Mango Chicken of one type or another on the net and from my many experiments over the years, and with the knowledge provided by Chewytikka here on this forum, I can immediately discount most of them.  Some of them are quite amusing 4 ingredient throw togethers while others appear to be extremely complicated and laborious processes.  I'm reasonably sure that the restaurant versions will be somewhere in between.  I do have some promising new lines for further investigation but there are also many unanswered questions and for now it appears to be a bit like a quest for the Holy Grail. The difference is that I know Mango Chicken exists.  Most promising recipe leads I've recently found are prepared in the traditional method, so not how a restaurant or TA would cook them, but I'm confident in being able to perform the necessary transposition in methodology.  I've done so in the past with different dishes and good success.

A couple of notable ingredient consistencies that appear to pop up in many online recipes are green cardamom and cinnamon stick and red capsicum or red pepper depending on the origin.  Specifically mentioned Tomato sauce with mango popped up once that I saw.

PS: It is interesting to see that this thread has been viewed over 7000 times.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I confess that (a), mango chicken is not a dish I have ever seen on a UK Indian restaurant menu, and (b) even if I had seen it, I would almost certainly not have tried it, as I prefer my savoury dishes to be savoury and my sweet dishes to be sweet^[1].  But I commend you whole-heartedly in your efforts to re-create a dish that you and your family love, and wish you every success.

** Phil.
--------
[1] Although I notice that not only is the gravy in a Fray Bentos steak-and-kidney pie (which I love) slightly sweet, but so was the sauce prepared by our sous-chef Chris for his steak-and-ale pie which Le Khanh & I ate during the week (and which was also delicious).

[chewytikka]

Ignore the previous Troll :

Livo, this might help you on your quest again.

Try my BIR Malai Makhoni recipe, very quick and simple.
Just add 4 tbsp sweet Mango pulp. Which will turn it into Mango Chicken.

I

[livo]

Thank you again Chewy. I will examine this recipe further today as I have left over pre-cooked chicken in the fridge.  I had noticed previously, in my global menu searching for clues, that the UK equivalent dish (or at least very similar) could be called Mango Delight.  I'm sure you already know this but your advice a few years back saw the single largest progression towards my end goal.  Prior to that, I was getting nowhere.  Suddenly I was immediately more than 9/10ths of the way there.

I hear you Phil. I usually have a savoury flavour preference and rarely eat sweats or deserts with my favourite treat being liquorice (and Ouzo, the spicy curry of spirits). However, a good version of this dish, once tried, really is something quite special and certainly very moreish. For some people, the rating of an Indian restaurant is based on the quality of their Tikka and Mango Chicken and a trip to the Indian banquet for an Aussie family inevitably includes the Mango Chicken and Cheese Naan for the kids.

Of course the side benefit of looking for this recipe is that I eventually found this site. My interest in the BIR style was triggered.

Incidentally, since I first started researching how to cook this dish, I've added a son who is now 17 and my 2 daughters have reached adulthood.  They still like Mango Chicken despite my obsession.

[livo]

 ;D Rippa, bonza, you bloody beauty rip-snorter, Wow, mystery solved.  If Chewytikka lived in Australia I'd try to have him declared a living national treasure, build a bronze statue in Hyde Park and have him elected to govern in perpetuity. We're not very fussy down here as you'd know if you've followed our political scene of late.  Sorry, but after 20 years what do I do now? I guess I have to go back to the failed to crack dish thread and recant now.

Chewy's latest contribution has elevated me to at least 98% mission accomplished or better.  Still a few minor things to iron out but this is the Eureka moment (another Aussie thing). I think the base gravy is still a bit strong. I used Misty Ricardo's ebook base and I didn't dilute because I require the thickness in body and mouth feel. The finished dish can't be watery at all as we typically don't have our curry as wet as you guys, or so it would seem.   I think it does need to be, as you advised years ago, a very neutral base with minimal spicing or I have to leave out the mix powder completely in the assembly cooking process.  I can take care of this.

I do have one important question however.  Almond powder?  Are we talking Almond Flour or Almond Meal?  Even though Almond meal is well ground it does still impart a slightly grainy consistency which I'd rather avoid to get closer to the preferred finish.  I could not buy Almond Flour even though my research says it exists.  There is an obvious cultural or geographic variation in the naming of certain ingredients down here.  The most obvious is what you call tomato puree we call tomato paste. Down here puree and pasata are the same thing pretty much where as Paste is a triple concentrated substance almost the consistency of toothpaste.

[Garp]

Misty also does a Mango Chicken Curry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCkL_LMGQg8