Curried Chicken & Kale Rice Porridge

My quest to find more delicious kale recipes continues at Bistro 164, no small feat for me being a skeptical and reluctant kale eater. But this one is a winner- a good vesicle for delivering the healthy goodness of this cruciferous vegetable.  A great curry can disguise anything!  I found this recipe in the latest edition of one of my favourite magazines, the LCBO's "Food & Drink", a free magazine distributed at our provincially owned liquor store ( a place where my sous chef and I unburden an unholy amount of our paycheques to on a weekly basis.) As luck would have it, there is an entire section on tasty looking kale recipes featured in this latest edition so check it out for more ideas to augment your kale repertoire.

I did fine-tune the original recipe a tad bit: if you click on the link below to the LCBO's website, the chicken is cooked in the rice mixture for only 10 minutes. I have yet to cook chicken safely, without causing severe food poisoning, for only 10 minutes which is why I decided to cook mine in the oven separately. I like to err on the side of caution when cooking chicken.  Call me a chicken I guess (yup, bad joke.)

I also did not have any whole cloves in my cupboard and substituted it with the ground variety. Next time, I will splurge and get the real goods. Also make sure you have fresh cinnamon sticks (mine had been in the cupboard awhile and were not quite as fragrant as they should be.) Fresh is where it's at when cooking as every good cook knows...and the rest of us learn from our mistakes.  Speaking of mistakes, I also tried to increase the number of servings I could get from this and didn't quite get the amount of spices right. Stick to the recipe below and you will be fine. And as always, taste as you go and tweak the amount of spices as you see fit. Another lesson that good cooks know..and the rest of us learn from.

Serve with a big dollop of good mango chutney (my favourite part) and a side of lovely naan bread. It's a delicious and savoury curry meal... and additionally, you'll eat your kale! All kale kidding aside, I do kinda like the stuff. As a bonus, here is a link to my favourite way to eat kale...baked kale chips. A nice crunchy snack after your curried kale main meal.

Cheers from Bistro 164

Curried Chicken & Kale Rice Porridge

adapted from Food & Drink magazine Autumn 2015

Serving size: 4

Skill level: super easy, not much chopping required

Time: a nice lazy weekend kind of meal

Ingredients

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3 tbsp ginger, finely chopped

4 tbsp mild curry paste

1 cinnamon stick, about 2 inches long

3 whole cloves

8 cups chicken stock

1 cup basmati rice

salt to taste

6 skinless, bone-in chicken thighs

8 cups curly kale, chopped with centre rib removed

Mango chutney for garnish

Directions

Heat oven to 350 F. Place chicken thighs on a baking sheet and bake until internal temperature is   165 F, about 45 minutes or so. When it's done, remove to a plate, let cool down a bit, and then remove chicken from the bone and roughly chop the meat into bite sized pieces.

While the chicken is cooking, heat a large pot over medium heat. Add oil, and once heated, add the diced onion. Cook until onion is soft, translucent and golden, about 8-10 minutes.  Stir in the garlic, ginger, curry paste, cinnamon and cloves. Cook for about 2 minutes, until fragrant.

Pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the rice and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until the rice is cooked, about 35-45 minutes. Stir occasionally.  Season with some salt, a few pinches or so. 

Once the rice is done, add the chopped kale pieces to the pot.  Cover and return to a simmer. Cook until kale is tender, about 10 more minutes.  Add the pieces of chicken, stir in well. Remove the cinnamon stick.  The cloves can be left in as they will soften and hopefully not be a choking hazard! Divide the porridge between 4 bowls and garnish with a big dollop of mango chutney (my personal favourite is Sharwood's - I could eat the whole jar! Thanks sous chef James for introducing me to this delicious new staple in our fridge)