Chicken Vindaloo with Curried Yogurt

While most of what I cook is Italian in nature, I enjoy eating foods from all corners of the globe, especially the corners that appreciate a nice, hot pepper. India is one of those places, and vindaloo is the father of all spicy curries.

I first made this dish a while back after the proprieter of an Indian grocery store started rattling off spices while I furiously scribbled them down on a napkin. Of course, you can adjust the spices to your own taste - I am definitely heavy on the chili powder. For the vindaloo, roast the following spices briefly in a dry pan: cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, chili powder, fenugreek, coriander, cumin, fresh ginger and black peppercorns. Put them in a blender with salt, minced garlic, mustard powder and turmeric, then blend in vinegar and a little dry white wine until there is enough sauce to marinate three chicken breasts in. They should marinate overnight.

The next day, coarsely chop a couple onions and fry them in ghee with a little garlic and cumin until they are soft, then remove them from the pan and cook the chicken through. Add the onions and the vindaloo sauce back in and simmer for about a half hour. You can eat it immediately, but the longer it sits the better it tastes. Eight hours is what the verbose Indian man recommended.

It is best served with naan (garlic was my choice, but plain works as well). I topped the vindaloo with a mixture of yogurt and green curry paste; I mix in about a teaspoon of the paste with a quart of yogurt and keep it in the fridge for just such recipes.