Pub Curry to Raise Your Spirits

If you are reading this in early summer, one of my favorite holidays is on July 31st, “Royal Navy Rum Day”. Now the Royal Navy refers to it as “Black Tot Day“, i.e. the last day the rum ration or “tot” was ever issued, but just saying Black Tot Day without context can make things awkward. Also this post is not about Rum Day, it’s about the pub curry I made during COVID lockdown in 2020 for the 50th anniversary of Black Tot Day for an online celebration. I invited all my long distance guests to make some sort of British food. I made this and served it on top of home made chips. It also goes fabulous on rice, or naan, or just eat it out of a giant bowl. Alright, I’m not the 3 pages of context before a recipe type, so here goes.

Ingredients

• THINGS TO CUT OR CHOP
  • 4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 Onion
  • 5 Cloves Garlic
  • 2 Cups of baby carrots
  • 1 1/2 Teaspoons fresh ginger
• THINGS TO POUR
  • 2 Cups Chicken Stock
  • 1 Cup heavy cream
• DRY SEASONING TEAM
  • 2 Tablespoons curry powder
  • 2 Teaspoons flour, preferably Wondra Flour
  • 1/2 Teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/2 Teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 Teaspoon ginger powder
  • Red pepper flakes
  • Cayenne pepper
• THINGS TO ADD WHILE COOKING
  • 4 Tablespoons butter
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Flour

Equipment

• Chef knife
• Cutting board
• Prep bowls
• Ramekin
• Measuring spoons
• Measuring cup/jug
• High heat spatula or stirring spoon
• 3 quart pot or saucepan

Instructions

This pub curry recipe really benefits from a good mise en place. My instructions will bear that method out.

First, the cutting and chopping.

Peel and dice the onion, cut the baby carrots into thick coins, peel and mince the garlic, grate or mince the ginger, and throw everything into into a prep bowl.

Cut the chicken breasts into chunks, season with salt and pepper and throw them into a prep bowl

All done with the knife and cutting boards.

Measure out the whole dry seasoning team into a ramekin. Add the red pepper flake and cayenne to your preference. I do about 3 heavy dashes of each. If you want to blow it out of the water, add more. I won’t stop you.

Also measure out your heavy cream and chicken stock into measuring cups or jugs.

Place your saucepan or pot on medium heat. Toss in the butter and let it melt. Toss the chicken in and keep it moving around until it all turns white on the outside. If you are getting sizzle, turn your heat down. Avoid browning the chicken and whatever you do, don’t cook it all the way through at this stage.

Toss in the chopped aromatics at this point and keep stirring them around a little. Keep things at a nice mild heat and get those onions translucent (about 7-10 minutes).

Once the onions are translucent, dump the the seasoning ramekin into the pot, raise the heat up to medium high and start stirring things around. You want to get all the chicken coated with the seasoning and some of the gathered liquid to evaporate off. Don’t worry if the bottom of the pot is not completely dry.

Dump in the chicken stock, keep the heat up and get it to a boil quickly. As soon as that boil hits, dump in the cream. Give it a stir or two, and get it back to a boil again. Immediately reduce heat to a low bubbling simmer.

Keep it at that slow bubbling simmer for the next 30-45 minutes and give it a quick stir every five minutes or so. After 10 minutes of simmer, give some of the broth and the chicken a taste. Add salt, pepper, curry, cayenne, etc. to taste if needed.

The broth should gradually thicken up a little. Ideally it will get to the consistency of a melted milkshake. If that is too loose for you, sprinkle in a little flour and give things a good stir. Don’t go too heavy on the flour though or you will turn it into curry flavored classroom paste.

Take it off the heat and let it set for a couple minutes. Then ladle onto rice, pub chips, nachos, or just into a serving bowl.

This recipe is deliberately imprecise. It is hard to mess up and you can vary it around as you please. So if you prefer chicken thighs, go ahead…add more spice, sub out veggie stock for the chicken stock, toss in some chutney, introduce some exotic murder fruit pepper, I don’t care, go wild.

I prefer actually cooling it, and storing it in the fridge and then reheating it the next day for service. The flavors set up nicely overnight. However you choose to make your pub curry, on July 31st pair it with a good dark rum and give a toast to absent friends and those at sea.