Chicken Curry

I made this dish from a recipe in the original White House Cookbook, 1887 edition.  Here's the link .. it's written a little old fashioned, but you can figure it out easily enough.  I used bone in chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken because that's what we had in the freezer; the ingredients have been highlighted.

Chicken Curry Recipe link

Our version of Chicken Curry

Recipes from this book are written with ingredients and instructions written together.  This one calls for you to use a 1-1/2 to 2 pound chicken (ready cut portions from the store were not an option for the home cook in 1887).  I had that weight in bone in breasts so that's what was used.  Wash well and put it into a stew-pan with sufficient water to cover it; boil it closely covered, until tender; add a large teaspoonful of salt, and cook a few minutes longer; then remove from the fire, take out the chicken, pour  the liquor into a bowl (I strained this and had approx. 4 cups) and set it one side (aside).  Now cut up into the stew-pan two small onions, and fry them with a piece of butter as large as an egg (don't you love this measurement ;) ... as soon as the onions are brown, skim them out and put in the chicken (I shredded and de-boned mine); fry for three or four minutes; next sprinkle over two teaspoonfuls of Curry Powder (use your own blend or to taste).  Now pour over the liquor in which the chicken was stewed, stir all well together, and stew for five minutes longer, then stir into this a tablespoon of sifted flour made thin with a little water; lastly, stir in a beaten yolk of egg (I forgot to add the beaten egg yolk .. but instead added/used 2 tablespoons flour/water), and it is done.  Towards the end of the cooking I threw in some frozen sugar peas for our veggie and served over boiled rice.  This was fun to decipher and there were NO leftovers!  Very tasty.