Vintage Eats Recipe: Curried Chicken with Cream

My first experience cooking curry turned out great! We loved this recipe!

It came from a 1960 ‘Ladies’ Home Journal Cookbook : New and Basic Recipes.’ The cover contains vintage dishes in full color. Even the font looks retro.

It was hard to know which recipe to choose from the literally thousands included within the 727-page hardback.

I settled on this one known by French cooks as ‘Poulet au Curry a al Crème.’

Admittedly, the first time around, this was a cumbersome recipe to prepare, but it is a large one so it is good for leftovers.

Or you can freeze half of it to enjoy later as we did.

And it’s cost-effective with so many veggies.

Have you made chicken curry previously? How did your recipe differ from this? Enjoy!

Curried Chicken with Cream

2 (5-6 pound) stewing chickens, cut into pieces

2 ½ quarts water

1 onion

2 carrots

2-3 stalks celery with leaves

2 bay leaves

4 peppercorns

2 t. salt

5 T. butter

7 T. flour

3 c. cream or evaporated milk

1 ½ t. curry powder

½ t. paprika

¼ t. red pepper

1 clove garlic crushed

6 T. grated fresh coconut or flaked coconut

Rice

Put water, onion, carrots, celery, bay leaves and peppercorns into a large kettle. Bring to a boil and add chicken, a piece at a time so as not to disturb boiling. Cover pot and cook gently for an hour.

Add salt and continue to cook for 2 more hours.

Put chicken in a bowl, strain the broth and pour enough over the chicken just to cover it.

Set the rest of the broth aside to cool.

When chicken is cold, remove bones, gristle and skin and cut into bite-size pieces.

Melt butter in a saucepan, remove from heat and add flour, stirring until smooth.

Add cream or evaporated milk and 2 c. of broth the chicken cooled in, slowly at first, stirring constantly.

Moisten the curry, paprika and red pepper with a little broth and add to sauce with the garlic.

Return pan to heat and stir constantly until thickened. Add the coconut and chicken and reheat.

Serve with rice.

10-12 servings

My notes:

• To save time I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces.
• I’m uncertain if it’s necessary to use evaporated milk. Next time, I may just use 1% which we normally drink and settle for a less creamy, less caloric and expensive, version.
• My version of this recipe didn’t include peppercorns or red pepper as we can’t handle the heat in our food. My daughter who lived in Indonesia for many years called my curry ‘bland but delicious.’ She is more used to spicy food and likes to show off her international palate.

**

This big volume of a cookbook was a Christmas present to me this past year. My sister found it in Hyde Brothers Booksellers in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is in great condition for its age and I’m sure the pages will be turned much in my quest for other great recipes like this one.

Have you made a form of Chicken Curry? How did your recipe differ from this one?

Bon Appetit!

Vintage Find of the Week

This recipe called for a big pot. I found this one at my wonderful local thrift store. There is no brand marking on it so I can only surmise it is vintage. Even if it is not, it is heavy and has already served its purpose so it was a good buy!

#Curriedchicken #VintageEats #Vintagerecipe #Vintagecookbook #cookyourbooks2025 #cookingfrommyshelf #cookbookchallenge #cookbooks #vintagerecipes #BakingFromScratch #BakingLove #Recipes #Food #Recipe #Cooking #Homemadefood #soup