Our Recipes, re-invented from cooking shows
Chicken Kama Sutra
Prep. Time:
Baking Time:
Total Time:
Serves:
30 mins
15 mins
45 mins
Serves 4 - 6
In episode 5 of Season 22 of Top Chef ™, we saw Lana and Vinny spend a day as line cooks in a Toronto Indian restaurant where the focus was on them learning to cook and serve a dish that the owner called "Chicken Kama Sutra". We heard that the dish was called this because it was cooked with love ... but also with cashews, tomato, fenugreek and saffron!
Later, Lana and Vinny both wanted to replicate the dish, but Vinny also wanted to introduce an element of a mustard hollandaise - a decision that eventually disappointed the judges.
Our version aims to be much closer to the original Toronto dish, except that saffron is truly expensive and would put the dish out of the reach of most households, so we made a really tasty dish without it. Enjoy!
Ingredients
120 g butter
10 chicken thighs
1 heaped tablespoon fenugreek seeds
1 heaped tablespoon fennel seeds
0.5 heaped tablespoon coriander seeds
1 sweet yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon yellow curry paste
1 tablespoon ground cumin
220 g corn kernels (fresh if available, otherwise frozen)
1 can (398 ml) coconut milk
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups chicken stock
200 ml canned crushed tomatoes
salt and pepper
Instructions
Melt the butter and seal the chicken thighs, searing quickly to golden brown.
Remove the chicken and leave it to drain on kitchen paper. Meanwhile, put the different seeds into the hot butter and cook fiercely until the seeds are popping, then drain and dry them and grind them (we use a coffee grinder).
In the butter, cook the roughly chopped onion and the peeled, sliced garlic over low heat until caramelized (10 - 15 minutes).
Add back the ground spices plus the curry paste and cumin.
Return the chicken to the pan and add corn, coconut milk, cream, crushed tomatoes and chicken stock.
Cook over a low heat for about 15 minutes then set aside the chicken to rest while you pulse the sauce until almost completely smooth. Serve hot with flatbread and the chicken skin, fried.
