Today’s dish review: Chicken Curry Chicken Curry is a plate with much history behind it and it has as much flavor as it does history. From its spiciness to its sweetness chicken curry is by far my favorite variation of curry. It’s strong taste never ceases to amaze me even though I eat it often. It's one of those special meals for me. So I decided to choose it and compare the difference between a homemade one and a restaurant bought one. First I made the homemade chicken curry. Here is the list of ingredients for multiple servings: - 2 Chicken Breasts - Olive Oil (need based) - ½ of a white onion - 5 - 7 Garlic cloves - 3 spoonfuls of curry powder - 2 small spoons of cinnamon powder - 2 small spoons of Paprika - 3 Laurel leafs - 1 spoonful of ginger - 1 can of tomato paste - 1 ½ cups of plain greek yogurt - 1 can of coconut cream - ½ teaspoon of chili powder - Half a lemon - Salt to taste
Let's get started on the process: First we heated up the stove and put olive oil in the pot. We then mixed all the spices in a single bowl. After the pot was ready we threw in the spices along with the garlic and onion and let the fry until it took a look like this
After about 5 minutes we added the greek yogurt and the coconut creme. We then stirred it so that it would all combine well. Afterwards we added the already cooked chicken in. We then added salt and lemon throughout and let it cook for about 25-30 minutes at low-medium fire. Finally when it took on the curry color and its consistency.
We then knew it was time for the fun part! Time to eat and review it.
The plate overall looked very rich and smooth. You could see the food vapor still coming off the plate and rising into the air where it would then disappear. You could hear the sizzling of the hot curry when it was served on my plate along with some rice next to it to complete the dish.And it had a certain smell of leaves and earth that I believe came from the laurel leaves. I then got my spoon and my mouth ready. I spooned up a piece of chicken and as I did a bit of the curry dripped off from my spoon right back into my plate. I must say before I describe the taste, that I had lost my taste about a month ago due to the virus. Luckily I had gotten enough back to still be able to taste certain aspects of the curry and I was able to obtain help by asking my family to describe the taste. So when I finally tasted it it felt like a very dim explosion of spices. That when combined together had a very earthy, Cinnamony, low spice taste. After swallowing you could feel more of that astringent and pungent taste at the roof of your mouth. Almost a spicy grainy type of feel. Which would quickly fade once you put the next spoonful in your mouth. Which then would bring back the soft explosion that would feel just right when you combined the rice along. When looking back at the ingredients, we noticed that the greek yogurt had definitely given this curry it’s soft feel and look. When looking at its nutrition label we noticed that it had a total of 18g of protein which meant our curry was full of protein and would explain why we got full quickly. In the end I would say
this plate was fresh and delicious, it was full of spices and centuries of culture with them. So tasting them all the same time is definitely an experience worth having. After the homemade chicken curry it was time to order from a restaurant to compare the difference between a homemade chicken curry and a restaurant made chicken curry. So I decided to order from Nepal House down in the south Loop.
After placing an order it took about 30 minutes for it to be ready and so we drove down to pick it up in a contactless pick up set up. After picking it up and making a few grocery stops along the way home, we finally arrived home. Meaning it was time to eat.
As I pulled out the curry from the brown paper bag it had been placed in I immediately felt its warmth hit up against my hand through its plastic container.
After serving myself in a plate you could smell the spiciness of the plate immediately. I could also notice just by seeing it that the consistency was more watery. I then grabbed my spoon and was ready to taste this curry! At first I was expecting the same type of flavors to come from this curry as the homemade one. But when I tasted it had differences. Immediately I tasted a stingy type of spicy and the chicken had a bit of skin left in it which made it taste almost jelly like. It felt very watery but with the dryness of the rice it was lessened. The aftertaste was very strange as it felt as if it had left spices in my throat giving it a very pungent after taste. It also had a strange feel of spicy grease that added even more to the already spiciness. Aside from the spiciness there was still that feel of authenticity as you could still even if it was slightly taste the many other spices that were in it, you could still tell it included all of them. In the end I do believe this plate was a bit industrial yet had fresh aspects. It was the chicken which gave it its industrial aspect but the rice and curry sauce gave it its fresh aspect.
Now for the comparison. The homemade chicken curry definitely had a more diverse flavor but the restaurant chicken curry won on the spicy side. The homemade chicken curry had flavors exploding all the way from the cinnamomum to the Laurel leaves, It had a very earthy and leafy taste. To me it was very balanced as it was not too spicy, not too sweet, not too sour, not too salty, perfectly balanced in all of these. It also had a pretty smooth saucy consistency of which made it good to feel . Even though it did leave a bit of a grainy astringent aftertaste as soon as you took the next spoonful it would once again be an explosion of flavors. Eating this curry was like a roller coaster that went in circles until you finished the plate. The spoon was your cart and the explosion of flavors hit differently each time making it fun to eat and just try each time to figure out what you were tasting. Whereas the restaurant chicken curry had a more overwhelming spicy flavor that was watery and jelly like. Yet if you savored it long enough i’m sure you would be able to taste the hints of the other spices. It was like waves of spiciness that came when the curry entered your mouth and left once you swallowed it but left your mouth with that dry sting of spiciness. In the end it is up to personal preference on which to pick if you like a plate with balanced taste of flavors and spices then homemade is your best bet but if you’re more into straight up spicy foods then the restaurant curry would be your best bet. If it also comes down to quantity vs quality I think the homemade had both quantity and quality due to the fact after 3 days we still have some left and the taste is very good quality. Whereas the restaurant one has way less quantity and its quality is alright. In the end I personally would choose the homemade chicken curry due to its balance in flavors and the excitement it brings with its flavor explosions.