3.4/5 rating (22 votes)

Jamaican Chicken Curry

Chicken Curry

Heat Medium
Serves 4
Dietary Info LACTOSE-FREE DAIRY-FREE WHEAT-FREE GLUTEN-FREE
Prep 10 mins
Marinade 1 hr
Cook 30 mins

A classic home made Jamaican chicken curry with potatoes and carrots

Hari says
You know how I love collecting curry dishes from around the world - well this one is from Jamaica and a wonderful lady called Winny showed me how to make it. She was born in the UK but grew up in Jamaica until she was about 14 years old. She then came back and brought with her her mum and grandma's dishes which she luckily has been able to pass on to her children.
Her son now runs a business called Winny's Kitchen selling Jamaican ready meals and I was fortunate enough to cook with Winny and learn some of her secrets to recreate this delicious cuisine.
So here are the key facts I learned from Winny:
1. There is a huge Indian influence in the food which came from the migrant workers that went to the Caribbean and West Indies.
2. They love to use spring onions in almost all dishes.
3. Many of the Indian spices that their ancestors would have cooked with have now evolved into spice blends. These spice blends form the basis of most of the dishes that come from the these Islands
4. Scotch bonnet is the chilli of choice - remember it's used for flavouring as well as heat.
5. They love to marinade so do it for as long as you can.
To see what Winny and I got up to - check out the full video.

Ingredients
Method

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces or 8 pieces of chicken on the bone, skinned

Marinade

1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp all purpose seasoning
1 tsp chicken seasoning
1 tsp curry powder

Curry

2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 spring onions
1 medium onion
4 springs of fresh thyme
3 garlic cloves
1 whole scotch bonnet pepper
2 tsp curry powder
1 large carrot, 5cm chunks
2 potatoes, 5cm cubes

Method

Mix the marinade ingredients and rub all over the chicken pieces, leave to one side for a couple of hours.
Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat, adding garlic, onion, spring onion and scotch bonnet pepper and stir for 3 minutes.
Add 2 tsp of curry powder and cook for further 5 minutes.
Add marinated chicken and brown for 10 minutes, turning chicken and browning for a further 5 minutes.
Add carrots and potato with a cup of water and cook through until the vegetables are tender.