Ideas to follow curry chicken

[rzb]

We made curry chicken at home after one of my children had some from a street food stall and really enjoyed the curry, veg and rice/peas. It went down really well with everyone in the family - clean plates all round, including clearing some huge portions of the veg. I'd love some suggestions for other Jamaican style or similar dishes which can work well for weekday family meals (e.g. taking no more than an hour from start to table, or can be done in a slow cooker, or possibly batch cooked). Thanks.

Peri peri traybake www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/meat-and-poultry/peri-peri-chicken-traybake/

Peanut butter chicken https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/peanut_butter_chicken_73862

As soon as I saw 'curry chicken' I wondered if you meant a Caribbean dish. It's one of my faves.

Anyway oven baked 'jerk chicken' could be easy enough. We (Jamaicans) would usually cook this in a jerk pan (bbq) but you can bake in the oven. Chicken breasts or thighs will work well. Most of the supermarkets will do their own version of a jerk seasoning / rub which may not be too spicey. The supermarkets which have a 'world food' aisle usually stock spices and you may find a more authentic type seasoning there.
Google or YouTube will throw up some recipes.

Ping if you fancy it and need any tips.

Have just seen you wanted batch cook options - brown stew chicken is another option.
We have 'stews' such as oxtail and curry goat but they take a while longer to cook.

@TheRealKatnissEverdeen Brilliant, thankyou! Brown stew chicken looks ideal - thanks for the pointer. We have a couple of places locally that sell really great goat and I'll look for some curry goat recipes. I love oxtail, too, but I'll have to ease myself (and the kids) in slowly to the concept of an oxtail stew that doesn't have dumplings.

No idea I'm afraid but I would love this recipe

@FortyFacedFuckers Sure, the curry chicken recipe I used was this one: Jamaican Curry Chicken Recipe (jamaicanfoodsandrecipes.com), with a tin of coconut milk in, plus water to cover the chicken. The veg was loosely based on the veg my kid had when we were out - lots of cabbage, some onion, carrots, green beans, a few peas, sautéed with a few tbs all-purpose seasoning, and then brown rice (fibre, fibre, always looking for ways to add fibre...) with a couple of tins of kidney beans added towards the end of cooking to heat them through. I make no claims whatsoever for authenticity, but it was close enough to what my kid had and enjoyed when out the other day for it to give the same, clean plate result ;-)

Thank you I will give it a try

Ha! We do have boiled dumplings that could go into the oxtail when you're feeling more adventurous and have time to spare. A little different from the typical British dumpling but no doubt the origins are the same due to Jamaica's food history.

@TheRealKatnissEverdeen Oooh, like these? Jamaican Boiled Dumplings - The Seasoned Skillet (seasonedskilletblog.com) Boiled separately in water, then added to the stew to absorb flavours, or served alongside the stew?

The 1st thing that comes to mind is jambalaya. You don't have to include the prawns and sausage, just chicken is really nice.

This one is good

Jambalaya recipe | RecipeTin Eats

I really like this pepper steak, I think you'll get lots of ideas on their website too. They're really likeable, I have their book and would recommend it.

https://originalflava.com/meals/original-flavas-pepper-steak/

Exactly those. You could add them directly to your stew so no need to boil separately so perhaps put them into the pot 20 mins before you finish. You can make them smaller or as 'spinners' which is a thin rolled up version we do with the left over flour that isn't enough to make a full round dumpling. Again, google it as my ability to describe things is dire!

Good luck. Report back once you've decided on and tried out your dish.

I love pepper steak too. 😋 good suggestion.

Mmmmm😋

Pepper steak is a fortuitous call - I've got some skirt in the fridge that was going to be turned into a ginger/soy/broccoli/beef dish but can be re-purposed. What would you suggest serving pepper steak with?

Gosh, you're gonna be fed up of me on this thread but if you're keeping it truly 'yard style' (Jamaican) then either white rice, rice and peas or hard food (ground provisions). But, I think the beauty of this dish is that you could have it with mash or jackets and it will be as tasty. I would suggest not to try it with pasta.

@TheRealKatnissEverdeen I'm unlikely to get fed up of you here; in case you hadn't realised, you've been appointed to the (entirely unpaid, sorry, but much appreciated) position of Chief MN 'yard style' Guru, with responsibility for dispensing hints, tips and encouragement on all things tasty and Jamaican.

So, tell me more about hard food, please: is hard food any starchy veg that's been boiled? Does hard food always include dumplings? Are there specific veg that always / never appear in hard food?

Thankyou!

https://jamaicanfoodsandrecipes.com/how-to-cook-jamaican-hard-food/

You can do any of the suggested food types shown in this link. Tbh I usually can't be bothered to make dumplings especially as my fiancé revels and is excellent at making them so usually go with green bananas, Irish (potatoes) and then anything else I fancy such as pumpkin or sweet potatoes. Steamed cabbage and carrots (which I recall you're already a dab hand at) are a good accompaniment for any of the suggested dishes throughout the thread.

Thanks for the promotion, which I accept on a voluntary unpaid basis until I'm challenged for my title!

@TheRealKatnissEverdeen Reporting back: The pepper steak went down well, though I might have a been a bit heavy-handed with the seasoning, which overpowered other flavours. Unfortunately I didn't make notes of how much I was lobbing in, so there's every chance the next iteration will be equally as robust.

I need to explore some fish dishes - I've a freezer drawer full of fillets to work through. Any ideas?

I thought you meant to follow on from as in pudding. I was going to suggest Kulfi

@CadyEastman I wouldn't have thought of that - we tend not to do puddings as none of us are sufficiently bothered about having a sweet course to spend the time making them.

Oooh great though the pepper steak was another poster's suggestion which I quickly seconded! It's a crowd pleaser - glad you enjoyed. Start with a bit less seasoning (we gebrslly don't measure and do by the eye) as you can always add more when you taste during the cooking process.

Fish is my all time fave so we have a lot of similar fish dishes to our meat options

• Brown stew fish
• Curry fish
• Escovitch (fried, peppery, tart, a little sweet and sour) is delicious.
• Ackee and saltfish is our national dish but can be an acquired taste. Ackee is expensive (more so since lock down) so I'd taste it first before committing to cooking it. In honesty, most Caribbean takeaways and restaurants don't do this dish justice. If you have any friends or family who make it ask beg them to cook it for you.
• Pepper prawns
• Callalloo (similar to spinach) and saltfish too
• Jerk fish
• Steam fish - another jamaican classic

All quick and easy too. Now I'm thinking of what to cook tomorrow!

@TheRealKatnissEverdeen Thankyou so much for the ideas - I'm looking forward to trying some out over the next few weeks.