Long Pepper Chicken Curry

When I heard about long pepper and how it was used for spiciness in cooking before chilli peppers came across from the Americas, I was intrigued. Luckily I found a good recipe describing how to use them.

Ingredients

• 50g greek yoghurt
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp ginger puree
• 12 long peppers, finely ground in a spice grinder or on a microplane grater
• 8 skinless chicken thighs
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 0.5 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Mix the yoghurt, garlic puree, ginger puree, 100ml of cold water and half of the ground long pepper together in a bowl.
2. Add the chicken thighs, mix well and then cover.
3. Refridgerate overnight
4. Heat the sunflower oil over a medium-high heat in a large frying pan.
5. Add the mustard seeds, turmeric and other half of the ground long pepper to the frying pan.
6. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, remove the chicken thighs from the marinade (but keep the marinade for later) and lay down in the frying pan.
7. Cook for 6 minutes before turning the thighs over.
8. Cook for a further 6 minutes on the other side.
9. Add the liquid from the marinade bowl and lemon juice and reduce the heat to medium-low.
10. Bring to a simmer and simmer for another 6 minutes.
11. Check the chicken is heated through to 74 degrees Celsius with a meat thermometer and then serve.

Serves 4.