C50 Chicken Chakarangi

C46 Chicken Chakarangi

The cocoa powder and orange, although very unusual ingredients in a BIR (British Indian Restaurant) curry, subtly combine with the other ingredients to produce a delightfully flavoured curry. Research led me to two Indian restaurants that do actually add chocolate, one to a Chicken Madras and the other to a Chicken Tikka Masala. This recipe is cooked in the BIR style using base sauce/gravy and pre-cooked chicken with the chocolate (cocoa powder) added as a 'spice' rather than being stirred in at the end. Narangi is Indian for orange (the colour) and cokaleta/chakalet means chocolate, so the name is a contrived combination of both. A tasty medium curry.

Ingredients

For 1	Continued...
2 tbspn oil	1 tspn cocoa powder (see note 3)
50 gm onion (prepared weight)	300 ml c46 curry base sauce (see note 4)
½ tspn fennel seeds	1 tbspn tomato purée
½ tspn ginger (grated)	1 portion c41 pre-cooked chicken
½ tspn garlic (crushed)	½ tspn (heaped) chilli pickle
1 tspn c41 curry powder (see note 1)	¼ tspn salt
½ tspn chilli powder	2 tbspn orange juice
½ tspn methi (see note 2)

Preparation

Chop the onion.
Grate the ginger, crush the garlic and mix together with a little water to make a paste.
Chop the chilli pickle to remove any large pieces in order to make a smooth paste.

Cooking - 8½ min

Heat the oil in a suitable pan and fry the onion and fennel seeds, stirring regularly, for 2 min.
Add the ginger/garlic paste and cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds.
Add the c41 curry powder, chilli powder, methi and cocoa powder and cook, stirring, for 1 min, adding a little c46 base sauce if needed to prevent drying and burning.
Add the tomato purée and 40 ml of c46 base sauce and cook, stirring, for 1 min, adding a little more c46 base sauce if needed to prevent drying.
Add the c41 pre-cooked chicken, chilli pickle, salt and 80 ml of c46 base sauce and cook, stirring regularly, for 3 min, adding c46 base sauce as needed to maintain the desired sauce consistency.
Reduce the heat and add 2 tbspn of orange juice and cook, stirring regularly, for 1 min, adding c46 base sauce as needed to maintain the desired sauce consistency.

Serving

Serve with rice and garnish with a little freshly chopped coriander and (optionally) a little freshly chopped mint.

Notes

(1) Any good quality curry powder can be used but the c41 curry powder is recommended.
(2) Methi is dried fenugreek leaves and can be purchased at many supermarkets or any Asian outlet.
(3) Use good quality cocoa powder (100% cocoa beans such as 'Cadbury Bournville' ®) - do not use drinking chocolate.
(4) Dilute the 300 ml of c46 base sauce with 200 ml of water and heat before use. If defrosted from frozen the base sauce can be warmed and briefly blended to reconstitute the colour and consistency.

The main ingredients

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The finished meal

Methi

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Chilli Pickle

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