The Country, the Captain, the Chicken

Country Captain’s Chicken?  Captain’s Country Chicken?  I can never say this right, for some reason, so thankfully, it always turns out right.  Right now there’s a dearth of local food, except for my monthly Triple S Farms meat delivery.  So I opted for a whole chicken, thawed it in the fridge (2 days!), and made my husband cut it up.  I hate handling chicken, so slippery and surprisingly bloody (and he, strangely, seems to enjoy it somehow).  I brown the meat in a bit of sunflower oil in my cast iron “cauldron” and take it out, then add lots of chopped organic veggies:  onions, garlic, bell peppers (red and yellow this time), freshly grated ginger, and three chopped and peeled pink lady apples.  They’re supposed to be Granny Smith, but I use what I have on hand, and—more importantly—what I can buy organic at this time of year.  There are also supposed to be raisins added in later, but my son ate them all as his afternoon snack.  After a few minutes in the cauldron, I add three tablespoons of garam masala (my favorite and most versatile curry) and a pinch of cumin, and make sure it’s well blended.  Curry seems to best flavor a dish when heated up with the base vegetables first.  I add a huge can of diced tomatoes and three cups of chicken stock.  After it comes to a boil, I add a cup of long-grain rice and the chicken back in.  I cover the pot and put it in a 375 degree oven for 50 minutes.

The Captain and his Country Chicken seem to have originated in the south when curry, rice and ginger were quite a novelty, and brought by ship to the southern ports.  Tomatoes and apples are clearly a North American addition, but marry surprisingly well with the curry and ginger.  I found this dish quite a few years ago in an internet search for a chicken stew with some pizzazz (and, no, I did not use the word “pizzazz” in the search).  It would also probably do very nicely in the slow cooker.  Hopefully it will also chase away the mid-February blahs.