review: Curried Chicken Penne with Fresh Mango Chutney June '04

[SallyJ]

I made this for dinner tonight. My husband LOVED it because it was SOOOOOOO spicy. My mouth is still burning. I made it exactly as the recipe stated. I think the red curry paste contributed to the heat. It was so hot for me that I couldn't taste the other ingredients. I will make it again but will reduce the curry in the mango salsa to about 3/4 Tbsp from 1 Tbsp and reduce the red curry paste to 1/2 tsp. from 1-1/2 tsp. Anyone else try this yet? The red curry paste that I used was the Thai kitchen brand.

[laurelhiker]

Red curry paste is hot, hot, hot! :) Knowing this, I reduced the amount in the Curried Chicken Penne by 1/3 (enough to give the dish a little kick, but not enough to overpower the flavor - which was quite good.) I learned the red curry paste lesson the hard way, when I made the Spicy Yellow Soybean, Lentil and Carrot Curry from the Jan./Feb. '04 CL. That dish called for a tablespoon (!!!) of red curry paste and I couldn't finish my plate because it was so fiery hot. I made the dish a second time using just a teaspoon, and the results were yummy.

Good luck with your next try!

- GG

[jellyben]

This sounds like something I must try! Can some kind soul post the recipe??

Thanks for the review!

[laurelhiker]

Curried Chicken Penne with Fresh Mango Chutney
From Cooking Light


Chutney:
2 cups diced peeled ripe mango (about 2 mangoes)
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt

Chicken:
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup light coconut milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons red curry paste
1 to 2 teaspoons Thai fish sauce
2 cups broccoli florets
2 cups cauliflower florets
4 cups hot cooked penne rigate (about 2 cups uncooked tube-shaped pasta)
2 tablespoons chopped green onions (optional)

To prepare chutney, combine first 9 ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until most of liquid evaporates and mixture is thick, stirring occasionally.
To prepare chicken, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and chicken; sauté 5 minutes. Combine coconut milk and next 4 ingredients (coconut milk through fish sauce), stirring with a whisk. Add coconut mixture to pan; bring to a simmer. Add broccoli and cauliflower; cover and cook 7 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in chutney and pasta; toss well to combine. Sprinkle with green onions, if desired.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: about 1 1/3 cups)

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 216 (18% from fat); FAT 4.3g (sat 1.8g, mono 0.9g, poly 0.4g); PROTEIN 20g; CARB 25.9g; FIBER 3.6g; CHOL 44mg; IRON 1.9mg; SODIUM 724mg; CALC 52mg;

[SallyJ]

Thanks Laurel. I will definitely make this again with LESS red curry paste. I want to taste the combination of the other ingredients!

[jellyben]

Thank you so much for posting. It is on the weekend menu!!

[Fig]

I reviewed this last weekend on a now buried thread, and basically, I found the same thing you did, good, but very spicy! I didn't find it too spicy for my tastes, but did feel it overwhelmed the flavors, esp the mango. Dh actually preferred this dish cold as leftovers!

Sarah

[Kuvy]

Since I have a jar of Indian Mango Chutney in the fridge needing to be used up, I'm going to convert this recipe to Indian instead of Thai. Tell me if this sounds bad for any reason?
Basically I'm going to substitute Indian curry for the Thai curry and take out the Thai Fish Sauce, and replace plain yoghurt + a little water for the coconut milk...

??

[laurelhiker]

Personally, I would hesitate to substitute yogurt for the coconut milk. I think you'd lose the character of the dish. Coconut milk has a texture and sweetness that makes it unique and it works wonderfully in this dish.

But cooking is largely about creativity and experimenatation; your substitutions may create something entirely new and delicious! :)

As a rule, I generally make a new recipe as-is, substituting only that for which I have an extreme dislike (I always sub parsley for cilantro, for instance). I do my tweaking the second time around. But that's just me. I'd love to hear if your ideas worked in this dish, though, I love curries of any kind. :)

-- GG

[laurelhiker]

By the way, my husband is rooting for your substitions to work wonders, Kuvy :) . He is NOT a fan of coconut milk, although he rated this dish an 8 (out of 10) -- not knowing there was coconut milk in it. When I clued him in, his rating dropped to a 6/7.

He did the same thing last night when I made the Nutty Pasta Toss with Shrimp from this month's CL. He took two bites, gave me a big "thumbs up" sign...and then I told him there was peanut butter in it. Now, he LOVES peanut butter when spread between two slices of bread, but "not in a sauce", whatever that means. What a (lovable) goofball! :)

-- GG

[stacy7272]

I LOVED this dish! I made it last night and it was a big hit with DH too. I was worried about the spice since I read these reviews so I tasted my red curry paste to see how hot it was. It didn't seem that hot. I don't know the brand it is since I opened the can some time ago and I have it in a storage container in the fridge. I halved the recipe and used 1/2 t of curry paste. That is a slight reduction of the halved amount and it was great. It probably would have been fine with the full amount. I guess brand makes a big difference (or maybe age - of the curry, that is - since I have no idea how long it has been sitting in the fridge).

[Ralph]

YUM!!!

Interesting variation on what would seem to be a classic curry. Other than not doing much measuring (:o ), the only change I made was to use green curry paste rather than red (that's what I had on hand). I did cut the amount in half after reading the prior postings.

[tmsl]

I have some Major Grey's chutney in a jar that needs to be used up. How much chutney do you end up with making it fresh? Also, I have mild red curry paste as opposed to hot but have never used it before. Should I use the full amount or just add some and taste?

TIA

Laura

[EmilyK]

We made this dish and really enjoyed it! I didn't see the reviews until just now, so ours had the full amount of curry paste. We like our food spicey and thought it turned out just right.

[Ralph]

Originally posted by tmsl
I have some Major Grey's chutney in a jar that needs to be used up. How much chutney do you end up with making it fresh? Also, I have mild red curry paste as opposed to hot but have never used it before. Should I use the full amount or just add some and taste?

TIA

Laura

QUESTION 1: Can't answer that real well because, as I said, I didn't really measure anything too precisely! My guess was that I had about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of chutney:confused:

QUESTION 2: I think the red is less spicy than the green I used which is why I cut down the amount. Certainly, you could taste test it before adding the pasta in.

[Tina V]

I made this for dinner tonight. I left out the onion due to absent-mindedness and left out the fish sauce due to inability to open the bottle. I cut the recipe in half and cut down on the red curry. Turned out great - fresh and tasty. A very resilient recipe :-)

[sandee]

another positive review for this recipe. i made it only adjusting the red curry paste (1 tsp) and used one whole head of broccoli.

i underestimated the time it took to cook the penne...i'd probably start the water boiling at the same time i started heating up the oil for the chicken. i had to wait for the penne to finish cooking and my broccoli got a bit overdone and leeched a lot of water so the coconut mixture was a bit watery. but the dish was still really good.

[tmsl]

DH thought this was too sweet and it didn't thicken and resemble anything creamy. I thought the flavor was good but would reduce the sugar and maybe some of the coconut milk. Did anyone else have these issues?

Laura

[123Alice]

Flavor-wise, I liked this a lot, but I also had the same issue as Laura in that it didn't thicken up. I was expecting a much thicker sauce. Maybe it will be thicker when we have the leftovers. I didn't really notice it being too sweet, though. I actually used a whole tablespoon of curry paste since we LOVE spicy food (maybe that also cut the sweetness a bit). I thought the chicken was especially good and flavorful prepared this way. DH really liked this a lot and would love to have it again.

Alice

[blazedog]

This was really excellent. I made it pretty much as specified in the recipe using whole wheat penne. It was quite easy to make as I use Trader Joe's frozen mango and the combo bag of fresh pre-cut brocolli and cauliflower.

I didn't have any of the issues other posters did - the dish wasn't unduly hot but had a nice undertone that enhanced all the other flavors.

This is not really a traditional curry which has a lot of liqud which is then spooned over the rice. However, everything came together with the perfect texture and quantity of sauce to really pull everything together.

For posters who complained that the sauce was too liquidy -- the initial mango chutney mixture needs to be simmered for a longer time than suggested until all liquid has evaporated and it has a thick consistency. If the chutney has residual liquid, the consistency of the finished dish will be too liquidy.

I also measured the pasta instead of eyeballing since I think the proportions of the recipe needed to remain pretty much per the recipe.

I think it would work well with other veggies but I'm always glad to find a tasty recipe for the some cruciferous veggies:)

[kristalsnow7]

Just wanted to add more enthusiastic praise for this recipe. We loved it! I looked at these reviews yesterday and was concerned about the heat, but after doing a taste test, decided to use the full amount of red curry paste. I thought there was a nice background of heat, but nothing that would burn-out your tastebuds. My red curry paste has been in the fridge for a long time, so maybe it has lost some of its kick. Anyway, the only change I made to the recipe was increasing the garlic to 4 cloves instead of 2. Next time, I might add the cauliflower first, then the broccoli after a few minutes. I find cauliflower takes longer to cook than broccoli, and I like my vegetables still a little bit crunchy instead of soggy (the broccoli was a wee bit overcooked). This has been one of my favorite recipes of the summer, and I can't believe I waited so long to try it! Definitely will be a repeater in our house. :)

[AvrilH]

Ditto with the positive reviews. It's the first time in a LONG time I have used curry, and it was a great change of pace for us. Both Dh and MIL were happy (kids had chicken with penne and jarred pasta sauce, so no reviews from them).

I loved the level of heat.

[eks]

Would this work with a rice noodles? I don't have any penne. Also, what was the verdict on the Major's Grey chutney in place of the fresh mango chutney? Did it work?

[Kristal]

eks,

I definitely think it would work with rice noodles. I made the recipe pretty much as written, so I can't comment on the chutney question, although I would think Major Grey's would work just fine.

[eks]

FYI..Just made this with rice noodles and major's grey chutney and it turned out great. The sauce is definitely on the thinner side IMO. Very quick dinner recipe when using the major's grey chutney!

[MaryH]

Another two thumbs up. I decreased the red curry to 1 tsp but added a chopped jalapeno to the chutney. Mine has a definite kick. I love it that way. I also subbed baby carrots and half a red bell pepper for the broccoli and cauliflower (two things I didn't have - mostly because I really don't like them much).

We'll see what the DDs think - they'll tell me "it's TOO spicy........" Oh well, I'm just training their taste buds.:D

[helene]

Thanks for reviewing this recipes. I'll have to give it a try.

[DmOrtega]

Wow!!! Over 1000 hits to this thread. Is it the chicken or mango chutney that is of interest?. Just curious.