) on work surfaces. Most curries require frying of some sort and that is when I make the most mess with liquid spitting and staining the cooker, so here is my easy curry recipe that tastes delicious (even though I say so myself 
). The main thing about this method is that I use my slow cooker to finalise everything, I do use a few more pans, but overall those are easy to wash and I get no real mess on my cooker or work tops. 
If accompanied by Nan bread and or Bismati or Pilau rice it will easily feed 4 adults, so in my case there is plenty to nosh for dinner and enough to freeze a couple of spare meals. The Nan breads are available in any supermarket and are very cheap, about 50 pence for two in a bag (you can freeze them) and the rice is also in a bag and again about 50 pence a bag, both are the kind you stick in the microwave, I get mine from ‘Aldi’ as they are as good as anywhere else and usually much cheaper.This recipe (my own
) requires the following equipment:1. A family sized slow cooker
2. A large frying pan or similar (I use a big Paella pan)
3. A good sharp knife
4. Colander
5. Medium sized pan
The ingredients:
1. Three large or four medium skinless chicken breasts. (frozen are fine when thawed)
2. One 400gram (or thereabouts) tin of peeled plum tomatoes.
3. One 400 gram (or thereabouts) tin of ‘Chick Peas’
4. Two large potatoes (boiling kind)
5. Two large onions
6. Some cooking oil
7. Tikka Masala Spice Paste (note this is the ‘spice paste’ and not the cook in sauce type). I use the ‘Pataks’ one, it is a medium heat and comes in a 283 gram glass jar. It is very concentrated and needs a spoon to get it out of the jar, but beware it is lethal and will stain anything it comes into contact with, hence my method of cooking.
The Method:
1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes around 1 inch or so in size.
2. Put the potatoes in the pan and add water and just a pinch of salt (there is enough in the curry paste) and boil until just about soft.
3. Prepare your onions and chop then quite small, add them to your frying pan and a little oil to stop them sticking, cover if possible to get some steam into them. Remove from the heat as soon as you see signs or browning.
4. While you are waiting for the potatoes and onions, open your tinned tomatoes and chop them (still in the tin) to make them less chunky and pour into your slow cooker ceramic pot.
5. Open your chick peas and after draining them also add to the ceramic pot and give it a stir.
6. Now prepare your chicken breasts by cutting it into cubes of about 1 to 1.5 inches or so, not really important but if you cut it too small it will disappear into the final cooked curry.
7. By now your onions will be about ready so add then into your ceramic pot and give it another stir to mix it all up.
8. Don’t clean the frying pan, just add the diced chicken (no additional oil) and keep turning it until it seals the outside. Just watch it until it all has a white appearance all over and that’s enough, you are not trying to cook it.
9. Open your curry paste and spoon it into the tomato/onion/chick pea mix. Add some cold water (about 2/3rds full) to the empty jar, put the lid back on and give it a shake to get the dregs out of the jar. Now add about half of this water to the mix and again give it a good stir.
10. Add your sealed chicken and again stir it into the mix without breaking it up.
11. Remove your potatoes and drain into a colander, allow to stand for a couple of minutes to drain then add them to the mix. Add the rest of the cold water and carefully fold the potatoes into the mix so as not to mash them, you want them to stay fairly much in pieces although some will cook down into the mix.
The main reason for pre-cooking the potatoes is that in my experience they can remain hard when done in a slow cooker so I always part cook mine in any recipe involving a slow cooker, the frying of the onions and the chicken is just to add more flavour to the dish. I will now leave mine all day, maybe 6 hours or more set on ‘auto’ until I am ready to have some for my dinner, the rest will be frozen.
This is a rather chunky curry with lots of texture and taste, so mix it slowly on occasions to avoid breaking it up and add a little salt to suit your own taste, give it a try, if you like curry I think you will enjoy it.
