Recipe: Curried Battered Chicken

Last night, I got home from work, went for a run and was STARVING by the time I walked in the door. I made my first green smoothie (more on that soon!) that I didn’t find completely revolting and then decided to make some curried battered chicken, steamed brussel sprouts with some quinoa. The only thing was, Iwas too excited to eat and I didn’t stop to think things through so I put the spices in the egg batter and not the flour. Nevertheless, it still turned out decent and just like the quinoa patties, I found myself eating half of the cooked chicken pieces before they had time to cool!

This recipe is simple, easy, and delicious! Because I’m talking about turmeric this week, I added my own mix of curry spices but feel free to get as creative as possible with yours! You can’t really go wrong.

The other thing I wanted to quickly mention is that since I’m not really into bread, I decided to name this recipe “battered” rather than “breaded”. Do you know if there’s really a big difference between the two? I know we batter fish but can we batter chicken? Why not!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• Olive oil (as needed)
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/8 tsp chili flakes
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp shredded coconut – optional!
• Rice flour (as needed)
• 4 chicken thighs or 1 large chicken breast cut into small pieces or strips
• 3 tbsp soy milk, almond milk, or coconut milk

Method

In a  medium-sized bowl, whisk the egg and milk together until frothy. In a smaller bowl, mix about 1/4 cup of flour, the spices and the coconut if you want to add some exotic zing to it. Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Don’t do what I did and mix the spices in with the egg batter. The spices won’t stick very well to your chicken. It’s ridiculous, really!

These are the steamed brussel sprouts that I had with the curried battered chicken.

Then, cut the chicken into strips or small pieces. Then heat your oil in your medium sized frying pan on medium heat. There is a lot of medium-ness happening in this recipe.

The egg and milk mixture…but I goofed and added the spices to this. I was too excited, I guess!

Next is the fun part! Take one of your chicken pieces, dip it the egg batter, make sure it’s covered in eggy goo and then dredge it into your spicy flour mix. Don’t be shy. Make sure that piece is covered with spicy flour. You may have to push the chicken into the flour to ensure that it’s covered.

Finally, you get to cook that sucker. Put the piece in the frying pan and listen to it sizzle. While it’s cooking, you can batter the other pieces of chicken.

The delicious pieces of battered chicken sizzling in the pan!

Cook your chicken for about 5 minutes on each side. I cut one big piece in half to make sure it wasn’t pink on the inside.

I served mine with brussel sprouts, but this would be great on top of brown rice or on top of a salad or even in a wrap! But, if yours turn out anything like mine, you’ll be more than happy to stand in your kitchen eating them off the plate that they are supposed to be cooling on.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Total time: 15 minutes

Serves 2.

Enjoy!