Chicken and Chickpea Curry

Medium curry with coconut and chick peas.

• Ready In: 1 hr 25 mins
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 500  g chicken breasts
• 2  cooking onions
• 750  g mushrooms
• 6  garlic cloves
• 2  teaspoons pickled ginger
• 25  ml  vegetable ghee or 25  ml  oil
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons turmeric
• 2  teaspoons ground coriander
• 2  teaspoons ground cumin
• 4  green cardamom pods (slightly crushed)
• 4  bay leaves
• 500  ml  pasata or sieved tomatoes
• 100  ml plain yogurt
• 400  g chickpeas
• 280  ml coconut milk
• 1  teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Chop chicken, onion and mushrooms, slice garlic very thinly.
2. Heat the Ghee till it is just sizzling in a large wok or a heavy saucepan.
3. Fry the onions with the garlic, ginger, cardamoms and bay leaves. Stir for 5-10 min until the onions are soft,then add the chicken,stir again for 3 min then turn down the heat so the chicken stays fairly soft.
4. After 10 min stir in the mushrooms, combine all the spices and tip them in the pan, add the salt, turning everything over rapidly until the spices have covered everything.
5. Now quickly, as everything will start to stick, add the pasata (sieved tomato), yogurt, coconut milk and the drained chick peas.
6. Heat through until boiling stirring fairly often, then simmer until the sauce is quite thick but smooth possibly 20-25 min, add a little boiling water if it is reducing rapidly.
7. Serve with rice or Indian breads, possibly with chilled chopped fresh tomatoes.