Thus Spake Bill The Cat - Korma Curry Chicken

Ack!

My heart is pounding, the light is hurting my eyes, and ... oh crap, you don't want to hear my litany of aches and pains yet again.

I'm cooking chicken today. Simple chicken, brushed with butter and spices, then broiled, then finished with a commercial Indian simmer sauce from Patak's and baked until perfectly done.  I happen to have some coconut rice in the refrigerator so I don't have to worry about preparing the "right" side dish. 

My mother used to do a lot of broiling - steak, lamb chops, chicken, steak - we ate a lot of steak - but broiling at home seems to have fallen out of favor. I still like to broil, especially when it will help me avoid pan-frying chicken thighs which is a messy proposition at best; fat splattering everywhere, including my clothes and hair and kitchen ceiling. Let's face it, the broiler is in the oven, and the oven is self-cleaning, one of the most beautiful phrases in the English language.

Korma Curry Chicken

10-12 chicken thighs, skin and bone intact

1 stick butter

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 green bell pepper, sliced

2 jars Patak's Original Simmer Sauce - Korma Curry

Place chicken on metal racks set over 2 aluminum baking dishes. Preheat oven to its "low" broiler setting. (Throughout the entire recipe I am cooking the chicken in 2 separate pans, and putting them into the oven one pan at a time.)

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, spices, and sugar. Set the saucepan over medium low heat just until butter is melted.

With a kitchen brush, gently mix the spices and butter together and brush the chicken over the entire top (skin-side up). Broil for 10 minutes. Let chicken cool, then turn over, brush more of the butter and spices on the chicken and return to the oven for 8 more minutes.

Remove the chicken from the rack, turn it right side up, and arrange in the pan, on top of any butter that has dripped down. Add half of the green pepper slices around the chicken. Spoon one jar of the sauce around the chicken and on top of the green peppers.

Change the oven setting to 400 degrees bake. Repeat with the second pan of chicken. Cover both pans with aluminum foil and place both pans in the oven.  Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the pans from the oven and uncover them.  Stir the sauce around the chicken. Check that the green pepper is tender. Brush the tops of the chicken with any remaining butter and spices. Turn the oven setting back to low broil, and return the uncovered pans to the oven. Broil for a few minutes until the chicken skin is evenly browned and the sauce is bubbly. Serve with Coconut Jasmine Rice. Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro or parsley.

If you have the time, remove the chicken from the sauce, combine the sauce into one pan, and refrigerate it until the excess fat (butter and chicken fat, yum) rises to the surface and hardens. Remove the hardened fat and either 1) discard it, or 2) use it to fry some potatoes. Guess which option I chose?