Food is a such a powerful tool to familiarize yourself with a culture. I always love to make foods that are new to me. It keeps things interesting. The inspiration for this one actually came from a friend who posted a picture of the dish on Facebook. You know how that goes. But what I took the liberty to do is add in some traditional Pakistani spices. Pakistani food does not include very many stews. The only stew that we make is Nihari–a dish that consists of beef flank steak medallions slow-cooked in a blend of Pakistani spices. It’s delicious andddd my mouth is watering.
So I decided to bring the flavors in this Jamaican Brown Stew home, so to speak. My brother approved and said this was delicious. I just wish stews and gravies and curries were a little more photogenic. Oh well…Let’s not judge a book by its cover;)
I you’re more into visual, check out how I make this!
https://youtu.be/Ye5-2LSFVl8
Jamaican Brown Stew Pakistani Style -Rookie With A Cookie
Jamaican Brown Stew with a Pakistani twist.
Ingredients
- 1 skinless whole chicken cut into 16 pieces
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 heaped tbsp ginger and garlic paste
- 1 onion chopped
- 1/2 cup red bell pepper
- 1/2 cup green bell pepper
- 2 tsp hot sauce
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 2 cups hot water
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- 1/2 cup oil
Instructions
- Wash and pat the chicken dry.
- Mix salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin powder, thyme and ginger and garlic paste. Rub this mixture into the chicken and let it marinate for a few hours, preferably overnight in the refrigerator.
- Heat oil in a large pan on high heat and fry the chicken pieces (in batches) 2-3 minutes on each side until they are brown.
- Remove the chicken from the pan onto a plate and keep aside. Turn the heat down to medium.
- Discard half the oil. In the remaining oil, fry the onion and peppers until onions are translucent. Scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan left from the chicken. Add in hot sauce, ketchup and 1 cup of hot water and stir.
- To thicken the sauce, add a couple splashes of water into cornflour and mix to form a slurry.
- Pour the cornflour slurry into the pan and let it come to a gentle simmer.
- Add the fried chicken into the pan along with 1 cup of hot water.
- Let the chicken simmer in the gravy for 30 minutes on medium-to-low heat. If you find that your gravy is not thick enough add a tsp of cornflour slurry until you get the desired consistency.
- Garnish with coriander and serve with rice
