For Mystery Box Madness we're allocated a list of ten ingredients, and we need to find a recipe from one of the featured chefs containing at least three of them. This week's ingredients were chicken, seaweed, sesame seeds, parsley, mozzarella, pasta, mango, brown sugar, zucchini and mint. I was absolutely sure I'd find a Nigella or Ottolenghi recipe using pasta, zucchini and mint. Or a Jamie Oliver recipe using mango, brown sugar and mint. But the first recipe that caught my eye was Diana Henry's take on Coronation Chicken.
Coronation chicken is the sort of post-War British cooking that gets a pretty bad reputation - invented by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume for the coronation of Elizabeth II, it can be an extremely lurid combination of cold chicken, mayonnaise, curry powder and raisins. It's the dish that Americans should point to every time we say rude things about American food. But it can be absolutely wonderful. Made carefully, with a kick to the dressing and a good balance of fresh ingredients it's a really wonderful combination of savoury, sweet, creamy and crunchy. Diana's recipe uses fresh mint, mango and chicken breast - I used thigh fillets - and the mint gives everything a wonderful lift.
12 comments:
Chicken salad with a history. Sounds wonderful to me!
The recipe looks really good - far removed from the traditional coronation chicken though. Perhaps it should really be called something different!
Haha well you tried! And this dish sounds wonderful, so I doubt anyone is disappointed.
Flourish - thank you!
Suelle - still has curry powder and chutney in it!
Joanne - it's a tasty recipe.
Quite a few delicious-looking Diana Henry recipes fit the mystery box challenge this month so I don't blame you for choosing one. I've never heard of Coronation chicken but this rendition sounds wonderful.
I have never heard of this dish so no negative thoughts here. It sounds delicious and I love mango.
Diana Henry's recipe is always satisfying! :D
These mystery box challenges sound exciting! And what a tasty result.
we have a mint plant now, so i find myself trying to slip it in everything! this sounds like a delicious dish--nicely done!
Why do people always assume British food is so blah! I found it to be delicious. Nice job with the Mystery Box.
What an interesting name for a dish! And I love it, chicken and mayonnaise always are good together!
I am so delinquent about my commenting these past couple of months and I am trying to catch up! ;-) I made a version of Coronation Chicken once from Delicious magazine but this one looks even better. Great use of the MBM ingredients.
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