So… I read. A LOT.
And… I read a LOT of mysteries.
And… a lot of those mysteries are set in the U.K.
And… many of those mysteries, whether featuring a psychic plumber or a gay vampire history/romance author seem to contain reference to “Coronation Chicken” – served as sammiches for “Tea” or spooned into puff pastries for church fêtes.
So…
I got to thinking…
“Mebbe I should check this Coronation Chicken thing out?”
Two things…
One: Yes!
And, second… where has Major Grey’s Chutney been all of my life?
Note: I <mostly> followed the recipe, but added additional seasonings and upped some called for amounts of staples because, well, I thought it needed it. You can find the original recipe on line, if you like.
INGREDIENTS
Chicken:
•4 bone in, skin on chicken breasts
(about 5 lbs)
•Olive oil
•Seasoned Salt
•Black Pepper
•Vadouvan Curry
Salad:
•2 tbsp unsalted butter
•1 large sweet onion, diced
•1/2 cup red wine
•9 oz jar mango chutney
•1/2 cup tomato purée
•3 tbsp Vadouvan Curry
•Juice of 1/2 lemon
•1 bay leaf
•1 cup mayonnaise
•16 dried apricots, finely chopped
•Black pepper
•1 tbsp Salad Elegant
•1 tsp dried parsley
•1 tsp dried chives
Heat your oven to 350º and pour olive oil over the chicken breasts, then season both sides with the seasoned salt, black pepper, and curry powder (I love the Vadouvan blend , but feel free to use plain curry powder).
Bake the chicken until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast reads 165º – these rather large breasts took one hour, but smaller ones could be ready in 45 minutes, so do check.
While the chicken is baking, melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium high heat, then add the diced onion and sauté for about ten minutes, until the onion is translucent.
Note: my market only had huge cans of tomato purée, so I used tomato powder to make 1/4 cup of paste, then thinned it out with another 1/4 cup of water.
Worked a treat.
Add the red wine, chutney, tomato purée, lemon juice, the curry powder, and the bay leaf and bring to a simmer.
Simmer for about ten minutes, until the sauce has thickened, then set aside to cool.
Note: I did not add the remaining seasonings because I was kinda following the original recipe. I added the pepper, parsley, chives, and Salad Elegant – a blend of Parmesan cheese, paprika, poppy seeds and stuff at the end to “correct” the seasonings. Feel free to substitute a bit of grated cheese and garlic powder and mebbe some celery seed.
Once the chicken is done, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Remove the skin and bones (add these to a gallon sized freezer bag and stash in the freezer to make stock), then cut the chicken into chunks.
Stir the mayonnaise into the cooled sauce, then add the chicken and apricots.
Give it a taste.
Nice, but…
Yeh. I added the chives, parsley, Salad Elegant, and a fair amount of black pepper.
Nicer, but…
Even better the next day, so try to make this ahead.