Jamaican Curry Chicken

Jamaican Curry Chicken
Preparation time: approx. 2.5 hours plus marinating time

Ingredients
1.5 kg chicken drumsticks
2 carrots
2 potatoes
1 red or yellow pepper
1 green pepper
2 onions
1/2 bunch of spring onions
4 cloves of garlic
YARDIES Jamaican Curry
YARDIES Island Spice
6 whole allspice seeds (YARDIES Allspice)
1 Fischer thyme sprig
Salt pepper
A lemon

Ingredients for the dumplings
3 cups flour
1 cup milk-water mixture (a little more milk than water)
1 tsp salt
A piece of very soft butter (approx. 20-50 grams)
A large splash of sweetener

preparation
Wash chicken meat
"Wash" the chicken drumsticks with a mixture of vinegar and lime or lemon juice. To do this, pour some water into a large bowl. Add a splash of vinegar and a splash of lime or lemon juice. Cut the lemon in half. Squeeze the juice into the water. Rub the drumsticks with the cut surface of the lemon. Pour off all the water and let the drumsticks drain well.

Preparing the curry
Use a cleaver to cut the legs in half. Season the legs with about 1 tbsp YARDIES Island Spice and about 2 tbsp Jamaican Curry. Massage the spices well into the meat (wear gloves!). Marinate for at least 30 minutes or longer (preferably overnight).
Cut the vegetables and potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Cut the spring onions into rings. Grind the allspice with a mortar.

Fry the chicken drumsticks in a little oil until crispy. Remove from the pan. Fry the vegetables one by one in the pan, except for the peppers. Start with the onions and carrots and add the potatoes at the end. Fry 2 tablespoons of curry in the pan so that the aromas develop (not too hot). I always fry the curry after I have fried the vegetables, as this way they don't burn as easily and would otherwise become bitter. Deglaze everything with around 1.5 liters of chicken stock and put the chicken drumsticks back in. The meat should be covered with liquid up to 3/4. Add the thyme sprig and allspice. Bring everything to the boil, then reduce the heat to half. Let the curry simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Make the dumplings. Knead all the ingredients into a smooth dough. Adjust the amount of water so that the dough is not too wet but not too hard. The dough is too hard if it feels inflexible and has cracks, and it is too soft if it sticks extremely to your hands. Form the dough into several small balls. Then flatten the balls a little and use your thumb to make a slight depression in the middle.

Add the dumplings to the sauce. They can also be cooked separately in a little salted water. When they are added to the sauce, they should be completely covered with liquid. This will also help bind the curry sauce and absorb the delicious flavor. The dumplings should be cooked for about 20 minutes.

Towards the end of the cooking time, add the peppers. The curry should then cook for about another 15 minutes. For a delicious, aromatic taste, the cooking time should be at least 30 minutes, but preferably an hour. If the sauce is too runny, it can be thickened with a little cornstarch or sauce thickener. Normally, however, the potatoes and dumplings should have provided enough binding.

White rice or rice and peas goes well with Jamaican curry chicken. You can also find the recipe for rice and peas on this blog.

Tip: Instead of potatoes, you can also use yams. That makes it even more authentic. You can get yams in every African supermarket.

Enjoy!