Every tribe has their own method for making fry bread. When I was a teenager and visiting my great-grandmother, I stumbled upon this recipe. Grandma, who was Native American, taught me how to make a great fried bread for Indian tacos using this recipe. Indian tacos are frequently made with fry bread, but it also makes a tasty dessert when combined with honey butter or cinnamon-sugar and butter. Water can be swapped out for warm milk.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 50 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- ¼ cup butter
- 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into bite size pieces
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 (14 ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons paprika
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ¼ cup cold water
Instructions
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add pine nuts, and cook stirring frequently, until evenly toasted. Remove from heat, and set aside.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the chicken, and cook 5 to 10 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear.
- Stir onion and garlic into the skillet, and cook until tender. Stir in the pine nuts, soy sauce, and coconut milk. Season with paprika, cumin, and curry powder.
- In a small bowl, blend the cornstarch and water. Mix into the skillet. Stir constantly until a thick gravy has formed.
- You can use chicken drumettes, wings or thighs, but remember to cook them somewhat longer. If coconut milk is not available, substitute 1 1/2 cups whipping cream. You can also use any left over chicken for appetizers. Chop chicken into smaller pieces, mix together with sauce and fill small pastry shells with chicken mixture. Serve these appetizers hot or cold.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 311 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 5 g |
| Cholesterol | 81 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 29 g |
| Saturated Fat | 14 g |
| Sodium | 348 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 20 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Made as directed but used 1 tsp red curry paste instead of dry curry powder. It was delicious! Served it over cauliflower rice for a low carb meal. I’d probably add chili garlic sauce next time – I like my food spicy!
I do add more spices, and I omit the cornstarch, other than that I love this dish!
Outstanding. This was very good. Did everything as called for except used a little more curry. Not a USA curry, which can be bland on its own. My curry is from the Indian Market in Durban South Africa. I have various blends. I didn’t use the corn starch and water either which could have also had something to do with it being bland to some. Simmering for a bit naturally thickens it. Served over rice and it was perfect. Great recipe and I’ll make it often.
Excellent recipe! Made these changes to my taste -Added some ground coriander (I never measure spices) -About tripled the soy sauce -About doubled (and a bit?) the paprika -Salt and peppered the raw chicken -Used yellow curry, as is my preference because my household doesn’t like spicy food -Added the spices in the pan at the same time as the garlic and onion to enhance flavour DElicious!!
I didn’t think it was too special. It was a bit messy when I made it but the flavour was alright.
terrific! i had to tweak the recipe as i didn’t have curry powder or pine nuts. i toasted pecan bits in the oven, i used coconut cream and added 1/2 tsp chicken base and 2 tbsp chunky peanut butter, all served over brown and wild rice. TO DIE FOR!
Like majority of reviewers, this was far too mild for me. So added more of the spices (took lots of taste tests) and also threw in a granny smith apple cut into chunks along with a heaping handful or so of raisins. YUM!
I swapped cashews for the pine nuts, doubled the curry powder, and added diced red pepper and a generous amount of fresh basil leaves with the garlic and onion so that it mimicked my favourite thai dish. So satisfying served over fluffy brown rice! This recipe is gladly added to our family’s dinner rotation 🙂 Thank you!!!
I was enticed by the description that showed up in my search results, but when I clicked on the recipe, the description said “a delightful recipe with a touch of curry…” which made the recipe sound boring so I am not gonna try it. Too many people change their descriptions once they get published and they change it for the worse. Leave it the way it was, that was why you were flagged for test kitchen review. I cant make my voice heard without rating the dish, so I will give it a neutral 3 stars.
I did need to add more spices to this; increased them by about 50%. Skipped the cornstarch/cold water step at the end, because I wanted more sauce for dipping our naan bread in. Included some green onion I had in the fridge, just to use it up. Added some chili paste for more kick. And I used slivered almonds (toasted) instead of pine nuts, which was just as good as the first time I made it with pine nuts. This will remain a repeat recipe for sure!
Well, here it is 2011 and I printed this recipe off in 2005. I finally made it and it is outstanding! I was only using 4 chicken thighs which I cut into bite size. So I reduced everything by at least half. The curry powder was my own mix, so maybe that is why I found it just fine and not so mild as others mention. I might add a wee tad more curry next time… but I thought it was perfect as is. I also used a whole onion. I did not thicken the gravy but I might if serving to guests, I just didn’t think it needed to be. I used a premium grade baking coconut milk, again thou, only half. Slightly worried the thighs wouldn’t be tender – wrong, they were wonderful. William Anatooskin, THANK YOU so much, I’m sorry I took so long in trying this recipe.
Pretty bland. Could use way more spice and maybe some ginger.
Excellent! One of my favourite dishes. Works well with pork tenderloin too. I’m not crazy about pine nuts so I don’t use – and the dish is still fantabulous!
Very good base recipe! I always add more spices though!
I have used light coconut milk and it is still yummy
Very mild but satisfying flavor if you follow the recipe. I enjoyed it but my husband would have liked a stronger Indian flavor.
This dish was just delicious. Superb! I made the dish exactly as written. I believe in order to truly rate and review a recipe you can’t make your own substitutions. Go ahead and substitute, make changes, but don’t review the recipe. I was intrigued by the description by some reviews of being bland. The ingredients dis not read as bland This recipe was not bland! The flavors are subtle and compliment each other, there is a big difference between bland and subtle. We found the meal to be just pure taste satisfaction. I look forward to preparing again…soon!
To make this dairy-free I used olive oil instead of the butter, did everything else the same as the recipe, but omitted the curry powder because my husband doesn’t like curry. It was a total hit! We loved it, the flavours were great without being really curry-based, and we will definitely make it again. I will try to use coconut oil next time instead of the olive- a good alternative I think.
This was awesome!!! I did make several changes because of the ingredients I had around, to add flavor and to make it healthier. I only used 2 T of butter. I added 1 t of cumin (which I sauteed with the onions) and 3 t of curry powder to increase the flavor, as well as salt and pepper. I added zucchini, shredded carrots and 1 C of frozen peas to include veggies. I want to try it with mushrooms and maybe also broccoli. I used cashews instead of pine nuts. Wow, thanks William!
Wonderful recipe, I used chicken thighs. Make sure you make rice or pasta to pour this wonderful sauce on top of. Soooooo good, and different from the main stream boring meals. I will be making this again only change I’m going to make is to add mushrooms and maybe frozen peas for added colour. LOVE IT!!
What everyone needs to remember when making a recipe like this is that CURRY POWDER IS A VERY GENERIC TERM. Your recipe will vary GREATLY depending on the ‘curry powder’ you use. Some blends are sweet and incredibly mild while a teaspoon of another variety will blow your face off. My advice is to MAKE YOUR OWN BLEND. Regardless, I used a hot madras style curry blend of my own creation and threw a few curry leaves in with this chicken. I toasted the cumin before adding. I don’t recommend toasting paprika as it burns very easily. Speaking of, paprika varies widely and wildly as well as it can be a blend of ground bell pepper or chili pepper. This will also greatly affect the flavor of a recipe like this one.