Coconut Chicken Pumpkin Curry

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, it’s been pumpkin season for a while!  Lots and lots of pumpkins everywhere!  And so I got creative and began brainstorming ways of using fresh pumpkin.  This Coconut Chicken Pumpkin Curry was one of the end results and you’re going to love this Daring Gourmet original!

A sweet coconut curry sauce dotted with golden raisins and sprinkled with toasted coconut is the base for this chicken and pumpkin dish served with steamed Basmati rice.

A few weeks ago we took a week-long family trip to the Deep South – my first time there.  It was fantastic!  (And I have over 1000 pictures from the trip that I still need to go through and edit!)  After a hike up to Anna Ruby Falls in Georgia, we drove down the road a little ways and stumbled upon a really neat pumpkin patch:  Uncle Shuck’s.

With so many wheelbarrows, you know there has to be a lot of pumpkins!

There were also huge stalls full of TONS of squash.

This is only half of the pumpkin selection.

And they were the biggest pumpkins I’ve ever seen!  Man, look at those things!

To put their size into perspective…

And I thought vegetables that size were reserved only for Alaska!

Really neat farm.  And apparently Uncle Shuck’s has an annual corn maze that is gigantic.

Okay, back to the Coconut Chicken Pumpkin Curry.

I don’t think I’ve seen my 18 month old eat so fast before!  When we sat down to dinner, I spread out some of the pumpkin and chicken with some rice, all laced with that yummy sweet curry sauce – and boy did she go to town!  And she wasn’t just using one hand – she grabbed a piece with one hand, and another with the other hand, and stuffed both pieces in her mouth.  And this continued…and continued…I kept refilling her tray faster than I could eat myself.  I gave myself a pat on the back and smiled the smile that happy mothers of healthy-fed babies do.  Now, if only my increasingly picky 3 year old would follow suit…

This dish is easy to prepare.  It’s also a quick dish if you prepare the pumpkin in advance.  I say that because it took nearly 20 minutes just to peel the tough and irksome peel off the pumpkin in order to dice it!  Boy, is pumpkin peel a beast!  And be very careful not to cut yourself when you do it.  So cut the pumpkin into big slices, peel it, and cube it in advance (keep it in the fridge for up to a couple of days), and the rest of the prep work will take you all of 5 minutes.

Quick and easy, this dish produces stunningly delicious and visually appealing results!

Let’s get started!

Pull out that sweet sugar pumpkin!

Peel and cut it into 1/2 inch cubes.

Heat the butter in a Dutch oven (I use and love Lodge) or pot over medium-high heat and saute the onions until tender and translucent, about 6-7 minutes.  Add the garlic and saute for another minute.  Add the chicken and cook until no longer pink.

Add the curry powder (and yes, that’s TABLEspoons – none of this “1-2 teaspoons” jazz!) and apricot jam and stir to combine.  Cook for another minute.  (If you like to make curry, you might as well get a big bag of it to begin with since good curries call for lots of curry powder.  THIS CURRY POWDER is the best bang for the buck.)

Add the flour and stir to combine.

Add the chicken broth, or water and a chicken bouillon cube, salt, and the coconut milk and stir to combine.  Increase the heat and bring it to a simmer, stirring constantly until the sauce is thickened.

Add the pumpkin and raisins and stir to combine.

Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pumpkin is soft but not mushy.

To toast the shredded coconut, heat a dry skillet over medium-high heat and toast the coconut until it’s golden brown.

Serve with steamed Basmati rice or naan bread and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Coconut Chicken Pumpkin Curry

 

Print

: The Daring Gourmet, www.daringgourmet.com

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 cups sugar pumpkin (aka baking pumpkin), cut into ½ inch cubes
• 1 large chicken breast (3/4 to 1 lb), cut into ½ inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup finely diced yellow onion (about 1 medium)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons apricot jam
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 (14 oz) can coconut cream (or coconut milk if you can't find cream)
• 2 tablespoons golden raisins
• 1¼ teaspoons salt
• ¼ cup flaked/desiccated coconut, toasted (see Note)

Instructions

1. Heat the butter in a Dutch oven or pot over medium-high heat. Saute the onions until soft and translucent, about 6-7 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for another minute.
2. Add the chicken and cook until no longer pink. Add the curry powder and apricot jam and cook for another minute. Add the flour and stir to combine.
3. Slowly add the chicken broth and increase the heat, constantly stirring, until the flour is dissolved. Add the coconut milk and salt and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly until the sauce is thickened. Add the pumpkin and raisins. Return to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the pumpkin is soft but not mushy. Add salt to taste.
4. Serve with steamed Basmati rice or naan bread and sprinkled with some toasted shredded coconut.

Notes

To toast the shredded coconut, place a dry skillet over medium-high heat and toast the coconut, stirring constantly to prevent burning, until golden brown.

3.2.2124