Chicken with creamy turmeric sauce

Preparation

• 1
  1. Peel and chop the onion and the ginger very finely. Peel the garlic cloves. Deseed and finely chop the chilli. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a low heat and gently sauté the chopped onion for 2-3 minutes, then add the crushed garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for another 3 minutes. 2. Add the turmeric, cumin and garam masala, stir them into the onion mixture and cook gently together for another 2 minutes. *This will make a fairly mild to medium spiced sauce
• 2
  if you like your food to be quite hot and spicy, add the cayenne pepper too.
• 3
  3. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, add the bay leaves and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover with a lid and cook gently, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.
• 4
  4. Remove the bay leaves and blend the sauce. Add the coconut milk [full fat rather than half fat coconut milk is needed for this dish] and the ground almonds, season to taste with salt and black pepper, then simmer gently, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until the sauce reaches the desired thickness.
• 5
  5. Meanwhile, remove the skin from the chicken breasts and griddle them for 5-6 minutes each side, or until the chicken is cooked right through.
• 6
  6. Finally, stir the lime juice and the brown sugar into the sauce and cook for just a minute or two, taste and adjust if necessary. Lay each chicken breast on a bed of rice in a dish, spoon over the sauce and garnish with a few chopped coriander leaves.