Topic: Mango Chicken

[livo]

Hello curry cooks,  I'm a newbie here but have been doing Indian / Sri Lankan for many years. 

I was going to post here:-
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,11619.0.html
But had a message about the thread being more than 120 days old and advising a new topic so here it is.

I also posted this request in another recent thread in Pictures of your curries, where a search for "Mango Chicken" led me straight up. here:-
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,12391.msg101321.html#msg101321

I'm looking for Mango Chicken.  Not the stuff that comes up in search engines but the stuff that comes up when you search through the menus of most Indian Restaurants around the world.

Tender boneless pieces of chicken in a mild creamy mango sauce.  I can buy it in any number of Takeaways / Dine-ins, but do you think I can find the way to cook it at home.  I know for a fact that others also seek this dish as I have been searching for quite some time, and across other forums, and found other people looking but there is never an answer.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Hi livo, welcome the forum. I don't have a mango chicken recipe but someone else may be be able to help you, The thread below is also worth a read, re, the type of mango pulp (kesar).  The restaurant referred to doesn't actually list mango chicken on the menu (which is surprising as mango pulp goes in many of their dishes), but they do have a chicken meva. Apparently this is chicken pieces cooked with mango and lychee in a mild and spicy sauce. I'll look into it. If I order it I should be able to see the chef make it, and can also ask him about mango chicken itself.

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,12163.0.html

Rob 

[Aussie Mick]

Hi Livo

We do mango chicken and it's a good seller.

We add 1/3 portion of korma sauce, 1/3 portion of butter chicken sauce(our recipe is on here), 1/3 base gravy and add a good 5 tbsps of mango pulp. Add chicken, heat through thoroughly and that's it.

May be a bit of faffing about to make up korma and butter chicken, but you can freeze the remainder for further recipes.

You could probably get away with just korma/base 50/50, plus the mango pulp. 

I

[livo]

Thank you both, Rob and Mick. 

@Rob:- I'd already looked at the link you provided. I found it yesterday but the dish I'm looking at is usually a very creamy, velvety gravy / sauce and listed as mild.

@Mick:- I can buy it anywhere in 5 places within 30 minutes (1 hour return) from home with the closest place 15km away as I live in a rural area.  They are always a little bit different (as you'd expect) from shop to shop, but the basic concept is pretty uniform. I'm from the Central Coast of NSW and I can get it at the main Curry houses around Gosford area. I'm presently living around Lake Macquarie, and can get it close to home or in Newcastle. I've had it in Sydney and in Tamworth.

I've been able to come close but just never quite get it.  I do know that it uses canned puree of Alphonso Mango as I once caught a glimpse of the cook starting a new batch after I bought the last of it.  I have made blends of Butter Chicken with Mango, Korma with Mango, just Mango with yogurt, cream and coconut and mixtures of the above. I've tried small amounts of powders etc but just cannot get the dish right.

It is very frustrating that it is so commonly available but is shrouded in mystery.  I was a school teacher and had a student who's father was the cook at one of the stores. They would not tell me and just grinned at me when I asked.

[Stephen Lindsay]

Interesting thread - I've never come across this dish in Scotland or England but hey ho it looks like the kind of dish some would love.

[livo]

Forgot to add, I've tried various nuts, cashews ground and in butter form (like peanut butter but cashew), ground almond meal, ground pistachio.  I also bought a small container of both Asafoetida and Amchoor, grasping at straws for a mystery ingredient.

One of the closest things I came across was a dish called a Mango Puliserry, to which I added chicken,  but again not quite right.

Another thing is that it seems to be chicken prepared either as a mild Tikka or Tandoori or possibly just pre-cooked before going into the gravy. When you ask they just nod and say yes.

One store in Newcastle actually has a little market next door and when I asked in there I was told, Mango pulp, coconut milk and a little Garam Masala.  I knew without trying that this was not even near the right thing.  They just wont tell.

I've been trying to make variations of this dish for the best part of 10 years, and on some days have had my kitchen littered with dozens of experimental samples.  No prize yet.

[livo]

Hi Livo

We do mango chicken and it's a good seller.

We add 1/3 portion of korma sauce, 1/3 portion of butter chicken sauce(our recipe is on here), 1/3 base gravy and add a good 5 tbsps of mango pulp. Add chicken, heat through thoroughly and that's it.

May be a bit of faffing about to make up korma and butter chicken, but you can freeze the remainder for further recipes.

You could probably get away with just korma/base 50/50, plus the mango pulp. 

I

Hey Mick,
What chicken do you use?  Plain raw, pre-cooked (boiled in spice / flavouring), Tandoor or Tikka?

The dish is usually a very orange colour (probably food colouring as the mango pulp doesn't hold up in colour with the other sauces).  I found one reference in a restaurant menu to the use of Deghi murch, which I found is Kashmiri Chilli powder (deggi mirch), used for colour, but I imagine this would also provide heat and the dish is never hot. I have only seen it as "Mild" and on one menu listing as "Medium".

[Secret Santa]

The dish is usually a very orange colour

Possibly base sauce, tandoori masala paste and korma paste/sauce - and mango puree of course?

I can imagine that being well tasty even if not the right mix.

Can you explain the flavours a bit more - what other dishes does it compare to?

[livo]

This is the thing. It tastes like Mango Chicken.  It is not a korma but it is mild.  It is sweet but not sickly. It is mild but complex.  It does not have definite flavours of coconut, or heat of chili.

It tastes like Mango Chicken.  I can't even say for sure if it contains a base gravy or any onions for that matter.  I simply do not know how to describe it other than delicious and the kids love it.  It is like chicken for desert.

[Aussie Mick]

Hi Livo

We use pre-cooked chicken (boiled in turmeric and salt)

I had never heard of the dish before our tandoor chef taught me our way of cooking it. I'll ask him how and "Indian" restaurant would cook the dish.