by Chelsea Miller
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This chicken and vegetable curry is one of my favorite dinners, especially on weeknights. It’s filling, packs in plenty of veggies and lean protein, and incredibly tasty.
I wrote this curry recipe while living in Cape Town, South Africa. It’s adapted from a recipe from a small spice shop in Bo-Kaap, a neighborhood where a large portion of the city’s Cape Malay population lives.
Living in Cape Town for a year may have given me a bit of a bias, but some of the best curries I’ve ever had came from this style of cooking!
This isn’t a creamy curry, and don’t worry, you aren’t missing out because of it. It’s very spicy thanks to green chiles and a little cayenne pepper, but you can definitely turn down the heat to your liking.
Although this recipe calls for chicken, I often substitute lamb and cook it the same way. Lamb is excellent in this recipe, but not quite as popular a meat choice in the US!
If you’re anything like me and prefer to do the minimum amount of work possible to get dinner on the table, this recipe would totally work in a slow cooker.
I would still brown the meat, but then just throw all the other ingredients into the crockpot and cook on low for about six hours. Slow cooking is a great way to really develop these flavors!
Hungry for more curry recipes? Try our pumpkin curry, easy Indian lamb curry, spicy eggplant curry, and even our chicken curry pot pie.
The Recipe
Cape Malay Chicken and Vegetable Curry Votes: 14 Rate this recipe! Print Recipe
Rating: 4.07
You:
A delightful chicken and vegetable curry dish from the Malay district in Cape Town, South Africa.
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| Cape Malay Chicken and Vegetable Curry Votes: 14 Rate this recipe! Print Recipe A delightful chicken and vegetable curry dish from the Malay district in Cape Town, South Africa.
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Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 1 green chile seeded, ribs removed, and finely diced
- 1/2 inch piece ginger peeled and shredded
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 4 chicken breasts cut into 1-inch pieces
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp garam masala or your favorite masala
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 1/2 cups frozen veggies of your choice
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper optional
- 1 tbsp chopped cilantro for garnish
Servings:
Units:
Instructions
In a large stockpot or dutch oven over medium heat, add the olive oil. Once heated, add the onions, chile, ginger, and garlic. Cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are just translucent
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add to the stockpot with the veggies, turn the heat up to medium-high, and brown on all sides.
After the chicken has browned, add the coriander, cumin, cinnamon, mixed spice, turmeric, and masala. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Fry until spices are fragrant, 2-3 minutes.
Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, and chicken stock to the stockpot. Bring to a simmer and let cook with a lid on but tilted to let steam escape for 20 minutes.
Add the veggies and cook for another 10 minutes.
Taste the curry. If you’d like it to be spicier, add the optional cayenne pepper and let cook for another 5 minutes. Adjust salt and pepper if necessary.
Serve over rice or in a wrap. Garnish with chopped cilantro.
Recipe Notes
We usually eat this curry over white rice cooked with a bit of ground coriander, but it’s also great in a roti (a wrap, essentially) or you can definitely eat it as is. One of the tricks I use to making this dish so easy is using my favorite frozen veggies.
Although frozen veggies aren’t great when roasted (or served on their own at all, if we’re being honest) the perfect way to use them is in soups and stews, and curry is very similar to a stew. The mix I use has carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, and green beans.
If you have picky eaters in the house, I bet they’ll barely notice the veggies in there! They soak up all that delicious curry flavor and make it pretty hard to complain. You can absolutely use fresh veggies if you prefer!
Nutritional Information*
Nutrition Facts
Cape Malay Chicken and Vegetable Curry
Amount Per Serving
Calories 340 Calories from Fat 117
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 13g 20%
Saturated Fat 2g 10%
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 5g
Cholesterol 70mg 23%
Sodium 990mg 41%
Potassium 611mg 17%
Total Carbohydrates 25g 8%
Dietary Fiber 5g 20%
Sugars 8g
Protein 30g 60%
Vitamin A 29%
Vitamin C 35%
Calcium 7%
Iron 19%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Photos by Chelsea Miller, © Ask the Experts, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details.
*Nutritional information derived from a database of known generic and branded foods and ingredients and was not compiled by a registered dietitian or submitted for lab testing. It should be viewed as an approximation.
About Chelsea Miller
Chelsea Miller, born and raised in Portland, Oregon, graduated from the University of Oregon where she discovered both her love of football and cooking great food. She's the founder of the food blog "A Duck's Oven" and began writing for Foodal in 2014.
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