I always heard growing up that a guy appreciates a good home-cooked meal, luckily for me that is true, and my husband enjoys cooking just as much as I do. For an after Valentine’s Day meal I decided to try a recipe from the numerous Playboy cookbooks we have (6+). Yes, most of the recipes are chuck full of classic beef and potato sides, but I decided to try Breast of Chicken with Curry Dumplings. Looking at the empty bowls I think it was a success.

Breast of Chicken with Curry Dumplings

Ingredients

6 boneless breasts of chicken
6 tablespoons butter, room temp.
1 small green pepper, 1/2 inch dice
1 small red pepper, 1/2 inch dice
2 tablespoons cognac
3 tablespoons dry sherry
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup light cream
3 tablespoons flour
salt, pepper

Curry Dumplings

1 cup AP flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh chives
1 egg, well beaten
1/3 cup of milk

Instructions

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in heavy wide saucepan fitted with a tight lid. Add chicken and peppers, saute uncovered slowly, turning chicken once, until it just begins to lightly brown. Add cognac and sherry and set aflame. When flaming subside, add chicken broth and cream. Bring to a boil. Mix to a smooth paste with remaining 3 tablespoons butter and flour. Add to sauce. Simmer until sauce is thickened, stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper. Add dumplings, following procedure in recipe that follows. Cover pan. Keep over ver low heat 15 minutes. Place chicken in center of service platter. Spoon sauce over chicken and spoon dumplings around. (We didn’t want to waste the yummy sauce, so I served over rice. I added a dash more of curry and turmeric to the sauce.)

Curry Dumplings

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, curry powder and turmeric. Cut in butter, until pieces are no larger than rice grains. Add chives, egg and milk, stirring until well blended. Batter should be a little lumpy. Drop mixture by large spoonfuls into pan with chicken. Cook as above.
A bit later I made the classic martini from the Playboy Bar Cookbook; the more olives the better, and gin only please, don’t waste my time with vodka!