Curried Ginger Split Peas with Chicken

Homemade Food, Main Course Leave a comment

When the COVID shutdowns started, we loaded up on dried legumes. While we prefer fresh peas, green split peas were available, so we bought some. We first used them to make Savory Rhubarb and Pork Pie, so we wanted to try making them into something totally different the second time around.

Inspired by some of the really cool entrees from Jaffron, our local Indian restaurant, we decided to try to create a new sauce building on some traditional Indian flavours but with our own flare. It may not be the prettiest dish (not necessarily an appetizing shade of green), but what it lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for in flavour! We served this over long grain rice.

Time: 2 Hours (although you can drastically cut this by cooking the peas ahead of time)

Ingredients:

  • 3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs (pictures on how to debone the thighs at the very bottom of the post)
  • Onion
  • Butter
  • For the sauce (use proportionate ingredients if you want your meal to be less saucy than in our picture)
    • 1 Cup Dried Split Peas
    • 4 Cups of Water
    • 1/2 Can Coconut Milk (more if you want a creamier sauce)
    • Fresh ginger, grated with a microplane grater
    • Ground Turmeric
    • Ground Cloves
    • Ground Cumin
    • Ground Cayenne
    • Cilantro (dried or fresh)

Method:

  • Rinse and start soaking your peas in the 4 cups of water about 2 hours before you plan to eat (or you can make your pea sauce ahead of time and refrigerate it).
  • After an hour of soaking, simmer your peas until they get mushy (not to be confused with “mushy peas” though). This will take about 35-45 minutes.
  • As your peas simmer, cut your chicken into chunks, and dice your onion.
  • When your peas are nice and soft, puree them with an immersion blender (best) or food processor/Ninja/blender (second best). You may need to add a little more water as you do this.
  • Melt some butter in a skillet, and start to cook your onions. After a few minutes, add your chicken, and turn your attention back to your sauce.
  • Grate your ginger into your peas, and add all of your other seasonings too. Then, pour in your coconut milk, and stir to combine. Bring back to a simmer.
  • When your chicken is nearly fully cooked, pour your pea sauce into your skillet, and stir to combine/coat, and let simmer together for the flavours to blend for another few minutes (or until your chicken is fully cooked).
  • Plate over rice, devour, and enjoy!

Steps to debone a chicken thigh:

Remove the skin from your chicken thighs and put the skin side down on your cutting board.
Make an incision directly atop the bone, and then work your knife down each side of the bone after so that you can pinch under the bone and feel flesh between your fingers. Don’t cut through the thigh to your cutting board.
Pinch under the bone, and carefully work your knife through under to separate most of the bone from the thigh. You want to work in the direction of the rounded edge of the bone that was sticking up in the first picture.
Cut around the flat edge of the bone by making a large triangular cut on either side. At this point, the bone should come right out. Be sure to feel around on your chicken thigh with your fingers to make sure no bone fragments remain before you cook. You really want to do this so you don’t get a little surprise later when you are eating.

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