Spicy Mango Chicken Curry

Many of the meals that I truly enjoy I can't share with those I love for the sad fact that I love HEAT. I'm not so silly as to sacrifice flavor for burn but the scoville unit and I are well acquainted. There is something truly satisfying to me about eating a spoonfull that coats the tongue in rich flavor and pain. After I started preparations for this dish I realized that this was one meal created almost entirely from things that the people I like to eat with won't eat.

Mango

Curry

Habanero

Honey

Coconut Milk

Kefir Cheese

The habanero alone might be enough to kill a few of my friends but the rest of that list has a big red X through it as well.

This is why a chef must ask questions and pay attention. Just because I like bold, intense and... well... painful food does not mean that my guest will too. It is not only the burden of the eater to expand their own tastes but the cook must be conscious of their needs as well and push them just a little further.

Now that I'm done ranting, I'll get to the meat of the article.

This is a simple dish to make and can have countless variations. Curry is one of the most versatile dishes in the culinary world and that is part of why I love it. Curries can be everything from sweet and subtle to creamy and infernal. I was going for a bit of a sweet inferno and I believe I hit it dead on.

First I took one whole, orange habanero and diced it up, seeds and all. this went into a sauce pan with some fresh, roughly chopped mango. I let this cook down just a bit until some of the mango started to soften. I then added 1tsp of yellow curry powder, 1/4tsp of cumin, a generous portion of fresh ground black pepper, 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar and a dash of powdered ginger. I cooked this slowly while stirring to just get the flavors mixed together a bit but not too much as to mash the mango. I then added approximately 2tbsp of honey and mixed it all together with some chopped meat from a roasted chicken I made recently. 

While that cooked on low heat I started my rice. Just some long grain rice but with some of the water replaced by coconut milk. Probably about 1/8th of the liquid was coconut milk. This lends a subtle sweetness and another layer of flavor that compliments the fruit notes of the curry. The usual ratio of 1 part rice to 1.5 parts liquid still applies.

This dish is topped with a rounded teaspoon of kefir cheese to cut the burn just a little. You can incorporate the dairy into the curry to reduce the burn over all but I like to have the option to really feel the punch of the habenaro when I want to.