Indian-Style Crock Pot Curry

I was looking for a simple meal that could cook all day and be ready to serve—in all its delectableness—at the end of it.  Cue this yummy curry that was featured on Rachel Ray's show and also on Stephanie O'Dea's Crockpot365.
The entire house had a wonderful aroma of warm, exotic spices to it, and I found myself wondering how quickly dinner time would come around!


Indian-Style Crock Pot Curry

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 1 13.5-oz. can coconut milk
• 1 T. tomato paste
• 2 T. curry powder
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• A few dashes of hot sauce
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
• 1-inch knob ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 large eggplant, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2 medium sweet potatoes (I sliced them into cubes)
• 1 14-oz. can chick peas, drained and rinsed
• 2 lbs. bone-in skinless chicken thighs (about 6 thighs)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• White rice
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges, to garnish
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced, to garnish
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, to garnish
• 1 cup chopped toasted peanuts, to garnish
• 1/4 cup mango chutney, to garnish

MY ADD-INS:

• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. cardamom
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. red chili powder
• 1 tsp. turmeric
• 1-2 tsp. Garam Masala

I don't think that you can go wrong with adding additional Indian spices, so if you feel like putting in a dash of clove with some red pepper flakes for extra spiciness, do so!

Although, apparently I must have been a little heavy-handed on the heated ingredients in my family's opinion, because tissues were their best friend during the course of the meal... Kind of funny, really!

notes:

The recipe doesn't specify whether to cube the pieces of chicken (boneless breasts work just as nicely as thighs) or not.  I defrosted mine and left them whole (placed in the bottom of the crockpot), and am very happy to report they turned out very moistly and fell apart perfectly on their own after 8-9 hours of slow-cooking.

I used red bell peppers and added additional sweet potatoes and chick peas since I didn't have either the eggplant or the green bells.  'Cooked Basmati rice in 20 minutes, and served the curry over it in bowls (since the curry was on the liquid-y side).

It will be interesting to mark how this dish turns out next time, with different ingredients!

Directions:

In the bowl of a crock pot combine the coconut milk, tomato paste, curry powder, coriander, cumin, and hot sauce. To that add the onion, garlic, ginger, bell pepper, eggplant, sweet potatoes, chick peas, and chicken. Season with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper and then turn the crock pot on to high heat, cover it, and let the curry stew for about 4 hours or until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve the curry with prepared rice and garnish with lemon wedges, scallions, cilantro, peanuts and mango chutney.

(Sketch courtesy of Natalie Dee, which expresses just how I've come to feel about crock pots! I wouldn't necessarily call this manner of cooking the very "best", but it is pretty fantastic when you can toss a bunch of ingredients into a pot and have them do the rest of the work for you, don't you think?)

I'm simply mad about curry dishes (and Indian food, on the whole!).  We should christen a weekly Curry Night in my house, they're that good.