Country Captain...

Country Captain Chicken

A while back Ben and I watched an episode of Throwdown! with Bobby Flay where he was competing against the Lee brothers of Charleston in making the southern specialty Country Captain.  This chicken and curry dish looked delicious (and the Lees won), so we decided that we would try to find it when we were in the Charleston area.  As it turns out, the Lees do not have a restaurant, nor did we see Country Captain on any menu of the places we did dine.  

Frustrated by not finding it anywhere in our excursions, and still wanting to try this dish, I decided to make it myself yesterday.  I found the Lee's recipe at the Food Network's website, purchased the ingredients I was lacking, and set out cooking.  I will say that the flavors in this dish were incredibly delicious, and Christopher seemed to particularly enjoy it, BUT...as delicious as it was, I have several issues with the recipe.  The recipe calls for a 4 to 6 qt. dutch oven, and as mine is a 5 qt., I thought I was good.  Once I started preparing this, I quickly determined that this food was NOT going to fit, so I prepared the steps in the pan, but transferred every thing to a VERY large baking dish (incidentally, the recipe stated that it was 4 servings, 6 to 8 is more accurate).  I don't normally like to make stew-like dishes using chicken with bones and skin, but as this was called for, I followed the directions.  I still am not fond of these in my stew, and wish I had subbed the skinless, boneless chicken, as had been my inclination.  We were left with more than enough food for another meal, but before stowing it away, I pulled the meat from the bones and discarded those along with the skin.  I will definitely make this again, but will probably cut the quantities (unless I want to make a LOT) and will use skinless, boneless thighs.  I also think this recipe would lend itself beautifully to slow cooking.

Fresh from the oven in my very large bakeware.