Chicken Dhansak

 

A sweet & sour curry with lentils, pineapple and chicken.

 

Serves 5 - 6

Cooking time: 20 minutes (plus 1 ½ hours to make the base curry sauce)

 

Ingredients

 

Olive oil or coconut oil

3 cloves of garlic

1 large white onion

1 lemon’s worth of juice

1tsp turmeric

1tsp cumin

1 tsp ginger

Half tsp fenugreek

1 tsp paprika

Salt

1 or 2 red chillies, chopped (to taste)

125ml tomato puree

4 tbsp brown sugar (or honey)

500ml base curry sauce, heated (see recipe)

1 chicken stock cube in about 100ml of water

180g red split lentils, rinsed and cooked in water until soft

130ml pineapple juice

A small tin of pineapple chunks

A handful of fresh chopped cilantro

6 chicken thighs, cooked and meat pulled off the bone

 

Method

1. Heat the oil in a pan over a medium to high heat, add the garlic chopped as small as you can, or into thin slices. Add the turmeric and let it sizzle for about 30 seconds until caramelised. The turmeric will darken. Then add the spices, chilli and tomato puree and stir quickly.
2. Pour in about half of the base curry sauce and simmer for about a minute. Add the lentils and stir constantly, make sure the lentils don’t stick to the bottom, lower the heat if needed.
3. Now add the rest of the sauce and the pre-cooked chicken along with the chicken stock, pineapple juice, lemon juice, pineapple pieces and sugar. Simmer for a further 10 minutes. Add more base curry sauce or stock if it becomes too thick.
4. Add the salt, stir and give it a taste. You may want more chilli, more lemon, more salt or more sugar – it is a dish of preference! Add the chopped cilantro a few minutes before serving.
5. Serve with rice, poppadums, kachumba, banana, raita and mango chutney for a feast!