Bunny Chow, Durban Chicken

Name: Bunny Chow, Durban Chicken
Total time: 75 min
Cuisine: South African
Ingredients: 500 g chicken thighs, bone in, skin off; 200 g onions, sliced thin; 10 g garlic, crushed; 10 g ginger, crushed; 150 g tomatoes, grated; 200 g potatoes, peeled, halved; 1 small sprig curry leaves; 30 g sunflower oil; 18 g Durban masala (or a hot Madras masala); 1.5 g ground turmeric; 1.5 g fennel seed; ½ cinnamon stick; 2 green cardamom pods, bruised; 2 cloves; 1 star anise; to taste salt; ½ (you want 2 quarters) white sandwich loaf, unsliced; 100 g carrots, grated; 10 g white vinegar; 1, to taste green chilli, sliced fine; a small handful coriander, chopped

My recipe

Curry in a hollowed loaf, eaten with your hands. Written for two. The bread is not a bowl, it is an ingredient — it soaks as you go and by the end that is the best mouthful.

Not rated yet·0 notes

Total1 hr 15 min

LevelMedium

AheadYes

buy an unsliced white loaf, and let the onions take their full 15 minutes

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Method

I left notes on 5 steps.

1
Heat the oil in a heavy pot. Add the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise and fennel and let them sizzle about 30 seconds, until you can smell them.Whole spices first, in hot oil, every time. That is the base of the whole thing and it takes half a minute.
2
Add the onions and a good pinch of salt. Cook them down over medium heat until they are soft and properly golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Then the garlic, ginger and curry leaves for a minute more.Timer: 15 minDo not rush the onions. Pale onions make a thin curry and no amount of masala later fixes it.
3
Turn the heat down. Add the masala and turmeric with a splash of water so they do not catch, and cook 1 to 2 minutes.
4
Add the grated tomato. Cook it down until the oil comes back out at the edges, about 10 minutes. That is your signal it is ready for the chicken.Timer: 10 minWatch for the oil splitting out. That is the step people skip and it is the difference between a curry and a stew.
5
Add the chicken and turn it through the masala. Add the potatoes and just enough water to barely cover. Lid on, simmer gently 35 to 40 minutes, until the potato gives with no resistance and the chicken is falling off the bone.Timer: 35 min
6
Meanwhile toss the grated carrot with the vinegar, green chilli and a pinch of salt. That is your sambal. It sits cold and sharp against the curry.
7
Cut a quarter loaf for each of you, then hollow them out, leaving a wall about two fingers thick. Keep the bread you pulled out. That is the virgin and it is the best part.The bread should be plain, soft, cheap white. Sourdough is the wrong bread for this and everybody in Durban will tell you so.
8
Taste for salt and heat. Fill each hollow right to the top so it spills a little. Put the virgin on the side, the sambal next to it, coriander over. Eat it with your hands.No cutlery. You use the virgin to mop, and you work down through the bread as it soaks. That is the whole design of the dish.