Pistachio Crusted Curried Chicken

My mom would buy massive bags of pistachios from Sam’s when we were growing up. My sister, cousin, and I spent hours on the front porch while our hands and mouths worked – our hands would open the shell and our mouths would consume them. It’s the first nut I remember gorging on and will forever have a special place in my heart.

Sadly for the pistachio, it’s flavor often gets lost when paired with other ingredients. Even my beloved pistachio ice cream often doesn’t have enough nuttiness. The good news is for some crazy reason, the pistachios holds it own against the curry. It’s truly a work of art created by Ahmed M. Obo in “The Jambo Café Cookbook”.

If you haven’t had nut encrusted fish or chicken, you’re in for a treat. The nuts compliment the protein and bring an extra oomph to the texture of the batter. This recipe is for chicken but you could use it on fish. I would go with a thicker cut because thin filets would get lost. Simply salt the fish before using the egg wash – you won’t brine it.

Ingredients

2 pounds chicken breast
2 tsp salt
1.5 c pistachios
½ c bread crumbs
2 Tbl curry powder or hot curry powder
2 Tbl dried parsley
½ tsp salt
1 – 2 eggs
coconut oil for frying

Directions
Chicken breasts comes with a challenge – it’s not all the same thickness which makes cooking challenging. Cut the breasts to have uniform thickness. Slice the point of the breast off. On the thick part of the breast, place the palm of your non-dominant hand on top of it and using your dominant hand, hold the flat part of your knife parallel to the cutting board and slice the chicken in half like you’re creating cake layers. If you have a large breast, you may need to do it into thirds for the thickest part of the breast. It’s more important for the thickness to be even than the width and height.

Lay the chicken pieces touching, but not overlapping and evenly coat the surface with half of the salt. Flip it over and repeat. Put the chicken in a Ziploc on a plate and place in the fridge for a couple of hours. This is called dry brining and will help to keep the chicken moist without the risk of it becoming mushy like during a wet brine.

Heat a frying pan to medium heat and put the pistachios on the bottom of a dry pan in a single layer. Occasionally stir the nuts so the tops become the bottoms. When they take on a little color and become fragrant, remove the pistachios from heat.

Add bread crumbs, curry powder, parsley, and salt to a food processor. Pulse until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Add the pistachios and pulse until the nuts are large crumb size and uniform in shape.

In a tea cup saucer, whisk 1 egg with a fork until it’s well combined. You probably won’t need the second egg so don’t use it until the 1st egg is out. Add the pistachio mixture to a dinner plate.

Heat coconut oil (about half the height of the thickness of your chicken) in a Dutch oven. You can do this in a frying pan but I like taller sides so prevent splatter. This is called shallow frying. You want to heat the oil to 325.

Working with 3-4 pieces of chicken at a time, coat them in the egg mixture then dip them into the pistachio mix. Pat the mix on the chicken to help it adhere. You have plenty of nut mix so don’t skimp.

Use tongs to place the chicken in the heated oil. If you have a thermometer, go for foil about temperature about 340 degrees. If not, judge the temperature by sight and sound. You should hear a little sizzle and see tiny bubbles around your food. You should never hit smoke point.

Do not crowd the pot because the oil temperature will drop too much. When the underside is golden brown, flip it. When that side is cooked, place the chicken on a paper towel lined plate and eat it soon. If you want the chicken to be hot all at once, place cooked chicken in a single layer on a cooling rack on a sheet pan in a 200 degree oven. You don’t want to hold it there too long because it will dry out.

Add a little egg and milk to the remaining nut mix. Form into a ball and fry it. The first time I did it I thought it would be like a hush puppy but it was closer to the texture of falafel.


Notes
If you’re using store bought frozen chicken, read the label. If it’s enhanced with salt and sugar – skip the dry brine step.

You can get good curry mixes from an ethnic grocery but I prefer mixing curry myself instead of keeping another spice on hand. The main ingredients in curry powder are turmeric, coriander and cumin. From there you can add what you like based on the dish it’s going in. My rule of thumb is the sum of the components should equal the amount of curry powder you use. For this recipe I use 2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp coriander, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp funugreek, 1 tsp chile powder. If you don’t have funugreek, increase the amounts of the spices with the exception of turmeric.

If you don’t have coconut oil, use whatever you have. The original recipe calls for olive oil.