Country Captain Chicken with Rice, Slow Cooker

Whenever I am crunched for time, one solution is to try and find a recipe that I can prepare in a Crock Pot.   Such was the case the other day.  As I was searching the web looking for yet another interesting and unusual dish to prepare, I came across today's featured recipe.  

At first glance I thought this was an Indian dish because of the inclusion of Curry in the recipe.  However, I discovered that this is actually a well known Southern Dish.  I found this very intriguing because Judy is from the south and has never mentioned the dish to me.  Maybe Oklahoma isn't really in the south after all. So I did a little research and found the following information;
 

Country Captain Chicken – A curried chicken dish. The chicken is browned and then stewed in a sauce of tomatoes, onion, garlic, and curry powder. At the end, golden raisins are added. The dish is served over rice sprinkled with toasted almonds. As with all chicken recipes in the South, Country Captain Chicken varies with the cook. Some recipes call for a long cooking time and other use quick-cooking chicken breasts. One thing is always certain about this dish; it is perfumed and slightly spiced with curry. 

 

The Hobson Jobson Dictionary states it this way;

COUNTRY-CAPTAIN. This is in Bengal the name of a peculiar dry kind of curry, often served as a breakfast dish. We can only conjecture that it was a favourite dish at the table of the skippers of ‘country ships,’ who were themselves called ‘country captains,’ as in our first quotation. In Madras the term is applied to a spatchcock dressed with onions and curry stuff, which is probably the original form. [Riddell says: “Country-captain.—Cut a fowl in pieces; shred an onion small and fry it brown in butter; sprinkle the fowl with fine salt and curry powder and fry it brown; then put it into a stewpan with a pint of soup; stew it slowly down to a half and serve it with rice” (Ind. Dom. Econ. 176).]

1792.—“But now, Sir, a Country Captain is not to be known from an ordinary man, or a Christian, by any certain mark whatever.”—Madras Courier, April 26.

c. 1825.—“The local name for their business was the ‘Country Trade,’ the ships were ‘Country Ships,’ and the masters of them ‘Country Captains.’ Some of my readers may recall a dish which was often placed before us when dining on board these vessels at Whampoa, viz. ‘Country Captain.’”—The Fankwae at Canton (1882), p. 33.

This delicious dish, known throughout Georgia, dates to the early 1800s. It is thought that this dish was brought to Georgia by a British sea captain who had been stationed in Bengali, India and shared the recipe with some friends in the port city of Savannah, Georgia. Savannah was then a major shipping port for the spice trade. The dish was named for the officers in India called “Country Captains.” 

 

In the 1940s, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), 32^nd President of the United States and General George S. Patton (1885-1945), U.S. Army General, were served this dish in Warm Springs, Georgia, by Mrs. W. L. Bullard. Their praise and love of this dish helped to rekindle its Southern classic status. 

We are so happy to be able to bring this dish to you. It's quick. It's easy, and it's so delicious. Enjoy!


Country Captain Chicken with Rice, in a Slow Cooker.

Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil
2 cups Shitake mushrooms, fresh, sliced
1 cup onions, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 cups fat free chicken broth
1 & 1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1/4 tsp paprika
3 cups canned crushed tomatoes
1/4 cups golden raisins
2 cups cooked brown rice

Instructions

Coat a large skillet with olive oil. Add mushrooms, onion, celery and garlic. Saute until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Place vegetables in slow cooker and add Chicken.

In a cup, stir together flour and chicken broth until smooth. Add to slow cooker. Add curry powder, salt, pepper, paprika, crushed tomatoes and raisins, stir into mixture.

Cover and cook on low for 5 hours. Stir occasionally.

To serve, spoon 1/2 cup of rice onto each of 4 plates. Top each with chicken and sauce and serve.

Yields 2 1/2 cups chicken mixture and 1/2 cup rice per serving. Total servings is 4. Prep time is 20 minutes, Cooking time is 5 hours. Level of difficulty is Easy. Weight Watchers PointsPlus value per serving is 9.

Weight Watchers is a trademark of Weight Watchers Intl. Inc. www.weightwatchers.com

Photo by Barry Baruh