Ingredients:

• 1lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 6)
• 1 large onion
• 1 serrano chili
• 2 tbsp fresh minced ginger
• 3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• ½ cup dry white wine
• ¼ cup yogurt (or sour cream), optional
• ¼ cup coconut milk
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil
• Salt
• 2 cups white rice (basmati, Jasmine etc.)

Spice Blend:

• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp garam marsala
• ½ tsp cardamom
• ½ tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp cumin
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• ¼ tsp chipotle powder
• ¼ tsp cayenne powder

Instructions:

1. Combine your spices in a bowl (minus salt)
2. Dice onion, garlic, ginger and chili pepper in a second bowl
3. Chop chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces in a third bowl (I use kitchen scissors)
4. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a large pot or sauté pan until very hot.
5. Add the spice mix and stir with oil until they begin to brown and toast. This about 1 min (Don’t burn!)
6. Add your bowl of onion, garlic, ginger, chili pepper and salt “liberally”. Stir and cook until onions change colour. You should have a dark, spicy paste and it may be stuck to your pan.
7. Salt the chicken and add to the pan. If the pan is too dry, add the remaining oil (but remember that your chicken will likely release some moisture as well). Stir and start to brown the chicken.
8. Once your chicken is cooked, add wine and use it to deglaze you pan. Make sure you loosen all the “fond” (spice) from the bottom of the pan and back into your mixture.
9. Once the wine begins to cook off, turn the temperature down to medium.
10. When your sauce thickens again, add the coconut milk. I turn my heat off, cover and let stand about 10 mins.
11. Stir in yogurt/sour cream (if desired) before or after serving over rice.

Notes:

• It’s important to completely prep your ingredients before starting to cook because actual cooking time is fairly short and requires you pay fairly close attention since you are cooking at high heat.
• The original recipe recommends adding the garlic towards the end of the onion cooking time rather than at the same time. This makes sense in theory (garlic does burn easily) but I don’t bother. The amount of spice and heat in this dish seems to make that irrelevant.
• The heat can be dialed up or down to your personal preference via the cayenne, red pepper flakes and the chili pepper you use.