Coronation Chicken

is a combination of pre-cooked cold chicken meat, herbs and spices, and a creamy mayonnaise-based sauce. It can be eaten as a salad or used to fill sandwiches.

We have had versions of coronation chicken a couple of times as a sandwich filling and well lets just say that is does create a sloppy sanga when they put lettuce leaves either side.

Sadly both times here in Scotland the untrained cooks palate's and the use of too much turmeric has made it a very bitter mess!

maybe 3rd time lucky or else below is a recipe that I can try at home. Love to concept just the Scottish execution tragic. 

 

(Research highlighting turmeric’s powerful health-boosting properties, with some recent research showing that the super spice can help to prevent diabetes)

Normally bright yellow (from the turmeric in the curry powder), coronation chicken is usually flavoured with curry powder or paste, although more sophisticated versions of the recipe are made using fresh herbs and spices and additional ingredients such as flaked almonds, raisins, and crème fraiche.
The original dish used curry powder, as fresh curry spices were almost unobtainable in post-war Britain.
Constance Spry, an English food writer, and  Rosemary Hume, a chef, both principals of the cordon Bleu Cookery School in London, are credited with the invention of Coronation Chicken. Preparing the food for the banquet of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953, Spry proposed the recipe of cold chicken, curry cream sauce and dressing that would later become known as coronation chicken.
Coronation chicken may have been inspired by jubilee chicken, a dish prepared for the silver jubilee of George V in 1935, which mixed chicken with mayonnaise and curry. Additionally, for  the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, another celebratory dish was devised, also called jubilee chicken.


From a 1953 English recipe
2.3kg (5lb) chicken
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small, finely chopped onion
1 tbsp curry paste
1 tbsp tomato puree
100ml red wine
1 bay leaf
1/2 lemon juice
4 finely chopped apricot halves
300ml (1/2 pint) Mayonnaise
100ml (4 fl oz) whipping cream
Salt and pepper
Watercress to garnish

Method

1. Remove the skin from the chicken and cut the meat into small pieces.
2. Grill the chicken pieces until cooked.
3. In a small saucepan, heat the oil, and fry the onion for about three minutes, until softened.
4. Add the curry paste, tomato puree, wine, bay leaf and lemon juice.
5. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes until well reduced.
6. Strain the mixture and leave to cool.
7. Puree the chopped apricot halves in a blender or food processor or through a sieve.
8. Beat the cooled sauce into the mayonnaise with the apricot puree.
9. Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold into the mixture.
10. Season, adding a little extra lemon juice if necessary.
11. Fold in the chicken pieces, garnish with watercress and serve.