Chicken and Apricot Curry

Servings: 6 (easily adjustable) Preparation Time: 0.75 hours

Ingredients

• 1 -- 1 1/2 Lb boneless chicken thighs
• 1/2 cup dried apricots
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1/4 cup homemade curry mixture (see after instructions)
• 1 chicken bouillon cube or heaping teaspoon bouillon powder
• water
• 1/4 cup ghee, cooking oil or butter
• salt (optional)

Cooking Instructions At least one hour before beginning, put the apricots to soak in enough water to cover them generously.

When ready to begin, chop the onion and fry it in the ghee or oil until slightly softened. Then add the curry mixture. Stir so the spices coat the onions and become saturated with the oil. Allow to cook a minute or two.

Coarsely chop the chicken and stir it in to the spicy onions. Add the apricots and up to 2 cups of their soaking water. When the water simmers, add the bouillon and stir in well.

Allow to simmer 10 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is tender. Taste and adjust seasoning; you may wish to add salt at this point. Continue simmering until the sauce reaches the desired thickness.

CURRY MIXTURE:

2 parts cumin

2 parts coriander

1 part cardamom

1 part garam marsala

1/2 to 1 part ginger

cayenne to taste (pinch or more)

cloves to taste (pinch or more) Notes

Serve with rice or nan. Plain yogurt or chutney can be good toppings for this dish, but it is very savory on its own.

This dish cooks well over a fire in a cast-iron pot.

Curries are very flexible. You could make this with dried apples or peaches instead of apricots, change the proportion of onions, or add yogurt to the sauce just before serving. The dish can be mild or spicy depending on the amount of cayenne added to the spice mix.

This recipe will scale up easily without much lengthening the cooking time, but BEWARE: if you double the amount of servings, DO NOT double the spices! The results will be unpleasant. Instead, measure enough spice for the basic recipe, add all ingredients, then taste and add regularly until satisfied.