Apricot Chicken Curry

Hi guys, It's been very long. I am busy in moving from Texas to California. I really miss the Lone Star State. I love the Southern cowboy style and the southern food. Texas Cuisine brings enchiladas, chili, biscuits with gravy, barbecue, chicken fried steaks, pinto beans, pecan pie to our mind. Taxes food is considerably influenced by traditional Mexican cuisine and is known as Tex-Mex cuisine. TexMex cooking combines traditional Mexican cuisine with American tastes and cooking techniques and include nachos, tacos, fajitas, quesadillas, burritos, bean soup and  bean salad.

We traveled by road crossing New Mexico state and Arizona state and finally entered "The Golden State". After entering California We found only desert mountains, hot sun. With lot of questions in mind why California is known as Golden state, finally we reached the destination "Los Angles". As my hubby has 3 days vacation we went to San Francisco to meet our friend and then we came to know why it is known as Golden state. The grass turned the hills golden and is shining. The drive was beautiful. In spring we can see golden poppy blooms all over the state. We saw lot of orchards and fresh fruit and veggie stalls.

Inspired by all of this, I made chicken curry using fresh golden Californian Apricots. If you bored of routine chicken recipes, just give it a try and sure you gonna love it. Apricot chicken curry will be tangy, sweet, spicy and goes well with any Indian bread and we can also try it with rice. 

* Note : Taste apricots before using. Some will be little sweet and some will be very sour. If you love your curry to be sour add up to 4 apricots. Otherwise adjust to your taste. Adjust all the spices to your taste.

Ingredients

• Chicken - 1 lb
• Apricot - 3 to 4 (* see Note)
• Onion - 1.5, large
• Green chilies - 2
• Cardamom - 3
• Cloves - 4
• Red Chilli powder - 2 tsp
• Coriander Powder - 1.5 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Garam Masala - 1 tsp or to taste
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Oil - 4 tbsp
• Curry leaves - 1 spring
• Salt to taste

Preparation

• Clean Chicken, add little salt and keep aside.
• Chop onion and slit green chilies. Cut apricot into medium size pieces.
• Heat oil in a pan, add cardamom, cloves and fry for a second.
• Add chopped onions, green chilies, curry leaves, little salt, turmeric powder. Mix and cook till onions turn brown.
• Add apricot pieces and cook till they turn soft with lid on. They take less time to cook. Mix in between.

• When apricots are cooked, add red chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala and mix well. Add chicken and cook till chicken is done with lid on.
• Check in between and mix. Add water as needed as apricots will thicken the gravy.
• Check salt and spices and serve with rice or roti.