Butternut and Chicken Korma

I'm a woman on a mission ... and that mission is to find some quick 'n' easy recipes for midweek meals. Recipes that will become keepers because not only can they be made quickly but are also pretty straight forward and don't require turning the kitchen into something resembling a war zone. That they should be healthy and satisfying goes without saying of course. So I'm creating a new label on here - "Quick Midweek" - to make these recipes easier to find. Afterwards I'll check past posts to see if there is any meal there that fits the criteria and can be added to this new category. Maybe this will be helpful to some of you who find yourselves needing this kind of quick meal for the end of a busy day.

I was recently looking online at the Food & Drink section of The Times (UK) and came across this recipe for Butternut and Chicken Korma (you need to scroll down a bit), which took my fancy on two counts. Firstly, I love a curry and butternut squash and chicken sounded a delicious combination, and, secondly, the very short preparation and cooking time indicated made it an ideal contender for a quick midweek meal. I would normally make a curry using a long list of spices but obviously if you want to make it quickly you need to be prepared to cut some corners. I'm not a lover of curry powder but I thought to give this a try but adding some extra spices as Sharwood's Mild Curry Powder would surely not give enough kick for us.

So using the Times recipe as a blueprint ... as I had one large chicken breast weighing 500g (yes, I know very big) rather than two average-sized breasts which would weigh in together at about 350g to 400g, I upped the amount of butternut squash a bit to 300g prepared weight. I also added a quarter teaspoonful each of cayenne pepper, ground ginger and garam masala to the curry powder to give more depth of flavour and heat. I increased the chicken stock from 250ml to 300ml so as to have enough liquid to just cover the simmering ingredients, and doubled the amount of ground almonds so the resulting sauce would be lovely and thick.

I'm not a slowcoach in the kitchen but I found I needed more than the total prep/cooking time of 35 minutes mentioned in the original recipe to get this on the plate. In fact it took me 45 minutes but without any stress, so I feel that categorising it as Quick Midweek is not a complete misnomer. The curry was perhaps not so deeply flavoured as one I would make using a mix of individual spices instead of curry powder but with the addition of the extra spices, as mentioned above, it was really tasty and satisfying, still quite mild though for anyone who doesn't like a lot of heat. I forgot to hold back some of the coconut cream to swirl on top when serving but this, of course, didn't detrimentally affect the finished outcome. Definitely something I will make again and, as a curry always improves with sitting, I may well make this next time in our long midday break and just reheat it in the evening whilst making some basmati rice to serve with it.

Butternut and Chicken Korma – Serves 2 - 3

1 medium red onion
1 tbsp vegetable oil
300g peeled and de-seeded butternut squash
500g chicken breast fillets
3 tsp mild curry powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/2 chicken stock cube
200ml coconut cream
2 tbsp ground almonds
1/2 lemon
10g bunch coriander

Peel, halve and finely slice the onion. Heat the oil in a medium, heavy-bottomed pan and stir in the onion. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, until limp. Meanwhile, chop the squash into bite-sized chunks and cut the chicken into similar-sized pieces.

Dissolve the stock cube in 300ml boiling water. Stir the curry powder and spices into the limp onions, cooking for 30 seconds before adding the chicken, adjusting the heat and turning the pieces as the chicken browns. Add the stock and the prepared squash. Bring the curry to the boil, stirring to loosen any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan, reduce the heat slightly and simmer steadily, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Finish the curry by adding most of the coconut cream and the ground almonds. Stir thoroughly, taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and lemon juice. Cook for a further 5-10 minutes until the squash is tender.

Coarsely chop the coriander, stir into the korma and serve over rice with a swirl of the remaining coconut cream.

Cook's note: I reckon a regular yellow onion would have also been okay if you don't have a red one.