Curried Chicken with Couscous and Naan

I used to think that cooking Indian food was super intimidating. It's a whole different world of spices, flavors, ingredients... eek! But once I bit the bullet and tried it once, suddenly the world of curry was no longer terrifying. It's been over a year since I made curry, though, so when I ran across a recipe for curried chicken and couscous in my Pampered Chef cookbook, I decided it was time to try it again. This recipe was actually pretty dang simple, but incredibly tasty.

I did make naan bread to go with it, even though I probably didn't need to with the couscous already in there... but curry and naan go together so well it was worth the extra effort!

Curried Chicken with Couscous

Ingredients:

Chicken and Curry
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
4 medium carrots
1 medium onion
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 tsp curry powder
1 can coconut milk

Couscous
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/3 cups uncooked plain couscous
1 Tbsp butter

Things I left out: 1/2 cup golden raisins in the curry, 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro in the couscous.

Directions:

1. Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces. Lightly spray a skillet with vegetable oil or cooking spray. Heat skillet over medium-high heat for 1-3 minutes until hot.

As skillet heats, combine salt and pepper. Season chicken with half of the black pepper mixture. Cook chicken about 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Turn chicken over, cook 2-3 minutes or until center of chicken is no longer pink. Remove from skillet and set aside.

2. As chicken cooks, peel carrots; cut in half lengthwise, then thinly slice on a bias. Cut onion in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/2 inch wedges.

Add oil to skillet, saute carrots and onion 5 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring occasionally.

Stir curry powder, (raisins, if you are including them) coconut milk and remaining black pepper mixture into skillet. Add chicken, simmer 3-5 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken.

3. For couscous, pour broth into a saucepan and heat until boiling. Stir couscous and butter into broth. Turn off heat and cover, let stand 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, fluff with fork (and stir in cilantro if using it.)

4. To serve, divide couscous among serving plates, spoon chicken mixture over couscous.

Naan


Ingredients:

2 tsp dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup water (warm)
2.5-3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1 large egg

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine yeast, sugar, & water. Stir to dissolve and let sit a few minutes until it is frothy on top. Then stir in oil, yogurt, & egg until evenly combined.

2. In a medium sized bowl, combine 1 cup flour with salt. Add wet ingredients and stir until well combined. Continue adding flour 1/2 cup at a time until you can no longer stir with a spoon (about 1 to 1.5 cups flour.)

3. Turn the dough out onto a well floured counter top. Knead about 3 minutes, adding flour as necessary to keep from sticking. Dough should be smooth and soft, not sticky.

4. Loosely cover dough and let rise until doubled in size (about 45 minutes.) After it rises, gently flatten it and cut it into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a small ball by stretching it back onto itself until smooth.

5. Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat and spray lightly with non-stick spray. Working with one ball at a time, roll it out until it is 1/4 inch thick or 6 inches in diameter. Place rolled dough on skillet and cook until under side is golden brown and large bubbles have formed on the surface. Flip and cook other side until golden brown as well.

For most bubbles, don't roll out dough until ready to go in the skillet.

The naan was delicious with the chicken. I liked that the couscous in the curry dish was more of a texture than a flavor--it absorbed all that delicious curry sauce.You can pick up bites with the naan, or do like my husband and make a "taco" with the curry inside the naan.