leftovers Archives | CaribbeanPot.com

Curry KFC! Yea, as a commentor on my Instagram Feed put it “Uncle Chris yuh running out of recipe ideas”. And while had he taken the time to watch the video, he’d never waste time with his comment. Yet for most I can understand the hesitation to take this recipe seriously. Well, until you gave it a test-drive in the kitchen.

You’ll Need…

2 tablespoon curry powder
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic (sliced)
1/4 medium onion (diced)
1 tablespoon Caribbean Green Seasoning
3/4 cup water (for the curry slurry)
1 teaspoon roasted geera (cumin)
5 medium potatoes (cut into smaller pieces)
3 1/2 cups water
4 leaves shadon beni (culantro)
peppers (optional) | 2/3 teaspoon salt
left over fried chicken (I used KFC)

Notes! May I recommend you watch the video below to understand the back story of this recipe and how my siblings and I grew up knowing this a regular part of mom’s repertoire in the kitchen. While I finished the dish with whole Bird’s Eye Peppers, you may leave that step out or should you want pronounced heat, add the pepper of your choice earlier in the cooking process cut into pieces. Should you not be able to source Culantro, cilantro (2 chopped tablespoon) will work.

In a small bowl create a slurry with the curry powder, onion, garlic, geera (ground roasted cumin) and water. Mix well to combine.

Heat the oil (any oil you prefer) on a medium flame, then add the slurry to the pot/pan, turn the heat to medium low as soon as it starts to boil and cook for 3-4 minutes, then turn up the heat to burn off that liquid until you get a thick paste and you can see the oil we started with.

At this point add the peeled/cubed/washed potatoes to the pan and stir well to coat. Add the water, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. At this point you’d add the salt as well. As explained in the video most commercial fried chicken will have a high sodium content, so don’t go too heavy with salt. We can adjust at the end.

After about 20 minutes on that medium/low heat the potatoes should be fully cooked and starting to fall part. Add more water should you notice that it’s overly thick or you need more time to cook the potatoes to tender.

Add the pieces of KFC (I cut each typical piece in 1/2 and they were all white meat pieces). Stir well to combine and for the chicken to soak up the lovely curry gravy.

At this point I added the bird’s eye peppers whole (do NOT break or it will heat up the dish) along with the chopped Shado Beni (culantro).

Basically all you need to do is to heat up the fried chicken pieces, so you’ll only need about 4-5 minutes. The two ways you can personalize the dish. Taste for salt and adjust to your liking. And you get to decide how thick you wat the sauce or gravy. If you find it’s a bit runny, using your spoon crush some of the pieces of potato. However it’s important that you remember that as it cools it will thicken further.

Mommy would serve this with hot Sada Roti for us… and we NEEDED a LOT of gravy.. soup-like really. We’d also complain if the Roti was thick!

I have a definite weakness for String Beans, French Beans, Bodi (Yard Beans), Pole Beans, Seim.. just about any type of bean, once they’re cooked to my liking. Mom always said that even from my childhood days on the islands she was surprised how much I loved beans, spinach (bhagi) and tomato (in no particular order). Yea, I ate my vegetables (except okra and bitter melon)! This is one of those recipes she would make for us whenever we had Bodi or String Beans in our kitchen garden and there was leftover chicken (curry or stew) from the day before.

You’ll Need…

– leftover curry chicken
– 2 lbs string beans (trimmed)
– 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
– 3 cloves garlic (diced)
– 1 small onion (diced)
– 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
– 1/3 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 cup water
– 5 cherry tomatoes (any tomato works)

Important! If doing this recipe gluten free please go through the entire list of ingredients to ensure they meet with your specific gluten free dietary needs. Especially the curry powder, as some may contain flour as a filler.

Prepare your ingredients. Dice the onion and garlic, then trim of the ends off the beans (remove any strings), cut into 1 inch pieces, then wash and drain. This recipe works great with French beans also.

Heat a saucepan (with a lid) on a medium flame, then add the vegetable oil (coconut or olive oil works just as well), then add the onion + garlic and reduce the heat to as low as it will go. Cook for a couple minutes.

Add the prepared beans to the pot, followed by the black pepper and salt. Turn the heat to med/high and stir well.

Add the water and bring to a boil (lid on). As it comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 10-15 minutes with the lid on. In my case it took about 14 minutes to get to the texture I like my beans.

Remove the lid and add the leftover curry chicken to the pot and give it a good mix to allow the curry flavors to flavor the beans. Cook for 5-7 minutes with the lid off. Then taste for salt (adjust to your liking) and finally you can go in with the tomatoes. I used grape tomatoes, but you can use a medium tomato diced. Note. The tomato is optional. Stir well, place the lid on and turn off the stove. Allow the residual heat to soften the tomatoes.

You’ll notice that I didn’t add any “Caribbean Sunshine” (spicy pepper) to the dish as the curry chicken I added was already a bit spicy, but you can certainly add some at the start if you wanted. For additional flavor you’re free to use coconut milk instead of the water I used to cook the beans. I wanted a mild curry taste, but you can also add some curry powder at the start when you added the garlic and onion, should you want a more pronounced curry taste.

Do you own a copy of my cookbook ?- The Vibrant Caribbean Pot 100 Traditional And Fusion recipes Vol 2

leftovers

Curry KFC.

Strings Beans With Leftover Curry Chicken.

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