Chicken Dopiaza

You often find this on the menu at the local curry house... but what is it exactly and how is it pronounced?

Do = two
Piaza = onion

Do is pronounced "dough"
Piaza is pronounced "pea-ah-za"

It's not that there are two onions in the dish, but rather a double dose of onion and, better still, two different cuts. So, if you like onion, this is your lucky day!

You can get really good spice mixes in British Asian stores, so I picked up a "Dopiaza" spice blend - it's ok to cheat occasionally, I reckon!

"But what if I can't get hold of the spice mix?" I hear you cry. Well, hmmm... Keep this to yourself, but you could try using a good curry powder. That would retain the simplicity and still get the Indian flavours in there. 

Serves: 4
Cost per person: 3.15 zl (63 UK pence, 76 Euro cents, 3.78 Qatari Riyals)

What you need:

- 3-4 onions
- 500g chicken breast
- 2-3 tsp Dopiaza spice mix
- 2 medium large ripe juicy tomatoes deskinned and whizzed up
- salt to taste
- 1-2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 inch ginger minced

Let's boogie!

1. Use the old boiling water routine to loosen the tomato skins then remove them. Whizz the tomatoes up in a blender. If you can't find nice ripe juicy tomatoes in the shop but are instead faced with the rock hard Netherlands greenhouse specials, do the world a favour and leave them in the shop. Use tinned ones instead.

2. Prep the chicken by cutting up into smallish pieces.

3. Cut up about half the onions very finely. Roughly quarter the remaining onions.

4. Get some oil hot in a pan and fry off the chicken for around 5 minutes to seal and lose the pink. Remove from the pan and set aside. 

5. In the same pan, add some more oil and add the finely chopped onions. Sprinkle over some salt and cook down till golden (around 15 minutes)

6. In the meantime, mince the garlic and ginger.

7. When the onions are turning golden, add the ginger/ garlic paste. Cook for 30 seconds.

8. Spice mix in.

9. Tomatoes in.

10. Whack in the large pieces of onion and cook on low for around 7 minutes. This is long enough to cook the onion but short enough for the onion to still retain its crunch, which provides a nice contrast of texture to the overall dish.

11. Get the chicken back in for a minute (no longer or the breast will toughen up). Check the seasoning and adjust the salt.. maybe chance your arm with a little extra chilli powder if you dare...

12. That's more or less it. Serve with basmati rice and fill your face!

Costing:

- chicken: 8 zl
- rice: 1.60 zl
- tomatoes: 2 zl
- the rest: 1 zl

Total: 12.60 zl
Serves: 4
Per person: 3.15 zl