Chicken Honey Curry Dish

Honey Curry Chicken (My Mom’s)

This is a particularly Midwestern USA Honey Curry Chicken recipe.

Curry is more of a generic term that describes a mix of spices and originates from India and the nearby countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh. There are some wonderful curries in Singapore and due to the British Raj; Great Britain has some lovely curry dishes.

The spices that are in curry powder usually include turmeric, coriander, and cumin. There are many other spices added in different areas of the world and may include hot ground chili peppers, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, and bay leaf.

The curry powder that I use for this recipe is purchased at a Mennonite Market in my area and is not hot. This powder is primarily turmeric, coriander, and cumin. I do think there may be a touch of red chilé powder in it too.

Generally, I do not recommend curry powder from your everyday grocery. The curry in a grocery may be old and old curry produces a faded flavor. Not many Americans purchase a lot of curry.

If I were to go to a more exotic grocery, I would do a taste test of the curry to determine how hot it was. This means a bit on the tip of your tongue.

If you happen to taste/buy a hot lot of curry do be aware that honey helps cool off the mouth from the heat of chilies. Remember, that any milk product also cools off the mouth if you eat spicy chilés. Water does not!!

Recently, the Internet is full of articles regarding the healthy properties of curry.

Turmeric is an excellent anti-inflammatory. Recently, Dr. Andrew Weil published an article about the health benefits of curry. Dr. Weil lives and works out of Tucson, Arizona. The article from Dr. Weil references a study at Duke University that found positive results that turmeric had on such diseases as Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, and cancer.

It is an interesting read and here is Dr. Weil’s site on the subject:

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART03001/Three-Reasons-to-Eat-Turmeric.html

Like all cooks, I love working with spices.

This is a Midwest USA twist to a curry dish. As my family was not very fond of the more authentic Indian curry dishes, don’t expect this to be anything but a derivation of the original curry chicken dish!

This recipe is in my Mom’s handwriting, so that makes it special before I even begin cooking it! I posted a picture of Clara, my Mom, the cook who first made this for me.

Ingredients:

2 ½ pounds of boneless and skinless chicken thighs

You may use a whole chicken cut up or your favorite other cuts from the chicken.

¼ C. butter or other margarine product of your choice

¼ cup prepared mustard (the yellow everyday mustard here, plz)

½ C. honey

I use local honey from the Farmer’s Market in my area.

1 t. to 1 T. of curry

Once you know how strong your curry is, you may adjust the amount accordingly. We like curry and I use closer to the 1 T.

1 t. salt or 1 T. Kosher salt

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Place the chicken in a 9” by 13” baking dish

Heat the sauce items in a pan until liquefied

Pour sauce over chicken

Bake for 1 ½ hours, turning every half hour to keep chicken moist.

You may also cover with foil which eliminates the turning of the chicken every half hour.

I serve this over brown rice or couscous.

This as surprisingly easy to make as it is pleasing to eat.

I also do wonderful curry popcorn but that is for another time!