This Jamaican Curry Chicken recipe is a really rich, flavorful, and hearty stew filled with juicy chicken, wonderful aromatics, and filling elements such as carrots and potatoes. If you love this, you will also love this Brown Stew Chicken, Oxtails, Jamaican Beef Patties, Jamaican Jerk Chicken and Rice and Peas.
Thank you Butter Be Ready for sharing this absolutely incredible recipe!
Hey ya’ll, hey!…my name is Quin and I’m so excited to guest post on Grandbaby Cakes! You can find me over at Butter Be Ready where I share my culinary adventures in the kitchen and love of food photography! When asked to share a favorite recipe of mine, I just knew that it had to be a Caribbean-inspired recipe. Growing up West-Indian meant being served dishes with heaps of wonderful spices and hearty stews like my fave, curry chicken! So happy to share this recipe from my kitchen to yours!
What Is Curry Chicken? What Kind Of Curry?
Curry chicken is a really rich, flavorful, and hearty stew filled with chicken, wonderful aromatics, and filling elements such as carrots and potatoes. This dish is best served over a bed of rice (typically Jamaican rice and peas), with roti (round flatbread), and/or with plantains.
There are so many different kinds of curry from many cultural backgrounds.
The curry that I am using in this recipe and am most familiar with is authentic Jamaican curry. This type of curry is commonly found in your local Caribbean markets and grocery stores. Just be sure that the label reads Jamaican-style curry for authenticity purposes.
How To Make Curry Chicken
This amazing dish is so easy to make and comes together so quickly, ya’ll!
To begin, you want to season the chicken pieces with the seasonings and then place it into the refrigerator to let marinate.
This process allows the chicken to fully absorb the spices and penetrate for maximum flavor. Next, you simply brown the chicken on the stovetop along with plenty of aromatics.
Scallions, onions, fresh thyme, and scotch bonnet pepper are almost considered to be holy grails within Caribbean cooking, ha!
Lastly, add in potatoes and let stew finish cooking. The gravy thickens to a nice texture that should coat the back of a spoon.
Is Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot?
This famous pepper goes into the pot whole, not sliced, so the heat factor is significantly reduced. Scotch bonnet adds a very subtle kind of heat that should not be overwhelming. Once the curry chicken is finished cooking, just discard the pepper. If you prefer/cannot find scotch bonnet, you can skip this pepper altogether and replace with freshly ground black pepper.
Can I Use Other Chicken Parts?
I prefer using boneless/skinless chicken breasts as they tend to cook faster and more evenly. However, feel free to use bone-in, skin-on chicken parts such as thighs and legs. Cooking with these parts will require you to adjust your cooking time and doubling the seasonings.
That’s all she wrote, folks! I hope you all enjoy this delicious recipe as much as me!
Be sure to tag me on the ‘gram if you make this recipe, I always love to see it when you do!
Curry Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breasts cut in chucks / up to 1 1/2 lbs
- 2 tbsp Jamaican curry powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp kosher salt up to 2 tsp/ to taste
- 1/2 tsp ground Jamaican allspice
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 4 scallions chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion roughly chopped
- 2 medium sized carrots sliced into coins
- 3 garlic cloves finely minced
- 4 fresh thyme sprigs de-stemmed
- 1 scotch bonnet pepper left whole
- 2 cups water
- 2 medium sized russet potatoes peeled and cut in quarters
Instructions
- In a large ziplock bag, add in chicken and sprinkle in curry powder, cumin, salt, and allspice. Shake bag to evenly coat chicken pieces. Transfer to the refrigerator to allow seasonings to marinate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
- In a large dutch oven/stockpot, heat up oil over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot, add in chicken pieces and cook until chicken is lightly browned, about 5-6 minutes. Be sure to continuously stir chicken.
- Add in scallions, onions, carrots, garlic, fresh thyme, and scotch bonnet. Stir mixture together and continue cooking together for another 4-5 minutes.
- Pour in water and add potatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are soft and cooked through completely. Then discard pepper and stir curry chicken together. Gravy should be thicker and coat the back of a spoon.
- Enjoy warm with steamed white rice or Jamaican rice and peas.
This is killer! Truly authentic, super easy and the best JA Curry Chicken recipe on the net – don’t look anywhere else. Thank you 😉