Coconut and Pistachio Chicken Korma

Coconut and Pistachio Chicken Korma

This is really simple but looks impressive and taste even better. Play around with the herbs you put on top. I went for some lovely golden oregano that was left over from a pasta dish and it was delicious.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients 

For the chicken Tikka:

·      6-8 Chicken breasts  (I usually cook 1 for each person)

·      Tandoori spice

·      1 tbsp Olive oil

·      3 tbsp yogurt (optional)

For the sauce:

  • 3 tbs of oil or ghee
  • 3 onions, diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 5cm piece ginger, grated
  • 2 tsp of turmeric
  • 7 cardamom pods, crushed, husk discarded
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 50g (1/2 cup) pistachio nuts
  • 50g (1/2 cup) cashew nuts
  • 3 tbs organic cane sugar
  • 400g tin coconut milk
  • 250ml (1 cup) water
  • 1 stock cube
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Method

 

1.     Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Mix all the ingredients for the chicken together. You don’t need the yogurt but it does make the chicken tender if you do. You can marinate this mix overnight or you can bake in the over straight away. In a large pan, lay each chicken breast flat and cook for 25-30 minutes.

2.     While the chicken cooks, make the base for the sauce. Dice the onions, mince the garlic and cook down in the pan with the ghee (or oil), turmeric, cardamon and salt. This will take about 15 minutes or until the onions have softened and before they start to brown.

3.     Next blitz the pistachios and cashews (reserve some for garnish) in a blender and heat in a pan with the sugar so it begins to toast. The onions should be soft by now so blitz them in a blender until you have a paste and put this in the pan with the nuts.

4.     Add the tin of coconut milk, water and stock cube and simmer for 5 minutes. You should have a rich sauce.

5.     Take the chicken out of the oven and slice. It should be juicy. Place the sliced chicken in a bowl and cover with the korma sauce. Garnish with nuts and herbs. Service with rice and bread.

 

Note if you mix in the chicken with the sauce and stir, the red tandoori spice will transform the colour of the sauce. To keep the pistachio colour, pour the sauce on top instead.