• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
✮ The Food Dictator ✮

The Hirshon South Carolina Chicken Country Captain

March 9, 2017 by The Generalissimo 1 Comment

2
SHARES
FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditWhatsappYummly
Light Dark Dark Light
()
The Hirshon South Carolina Chicken Country Captain

    Country Captain Image Used Under Creative Commons License From southerncastiron.com

Citizens, behold a recipe from the swirling mists of Britain, India (and America’s) past! 🙂

Country Captain is a curried chicken and rice dish, which remains very popular in the Southern United States. It was introduced to the U.S. through Charleston, Savannah, New York and Philadelphia, but has origins in India. The dish was once included in the United States military Meal, Ready-to-Eat packs, in honor of it being a favorite dish of George S. Patton! Chef Cyrus Todiwala served his version of this recipe to Queen Elizabeth II as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

In its basic form, country captain is a mild stew made with browned chicken pieces, onions, and curry powder. Almonds and golden raisins or zante currants are usually added. Many versions also call for tomatoes, garlic, and bell peppers. The dish is served over white rice. With the exception of the rice, it is meant to be cooked all in the same pot. Chef Mamrej Khan has referred to the dish as one of the first fusion dishes to be developed, making it part of the Anglo-Indian cuisine.

Country captain originated in India as a simple spatchcock poultry or game recipe involving onions and curry and possibly enjoyed by British officers. One theory is that an early 19th-century British sea captain, possibly from the East India Company, working in the spice trade introduced it to the American South via the port of Savannah.

The dish remains popular amongst the communities in Mumbai, India. The “country” part of the dish’s name dates from when the term referred to things of Indian origin instead of British, and so the term “country captain” would have meant a captain of Indian origin, a trader along the coasts of India. Others claim that the word “captain” in the title is simply a corruption of the word “capon”.

In 1991, New York Times columnist Molly O’Neill researched the origin of the dish known as country captain, which had been a steady feature in southern cookbooks since the 1950s. Working with Cecily Brownstone, they discovered that the dish originally published in the United States in the pages of Miss Leslie’s New Cookery Book published in Philadelphia in 1857. The recipe required a “fine full-grown fowl”. It also appeared in the kitchens of Alessandro Filippini, who was a famous chef with a restaurant on Wall Street in the 19th century.

Citizens, this dish is still enjoyed today throughout the genteel city of Charleston, South Carolina (as well as most of the American South) and my version is especially savory, if I do say so myself. My tweaks to the original recipe are noted and I hope you will enjoy its savory, mildly spicy goodness!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
The Hirshon South Carolina Chicken Country Captain

The Hirshon South Carolina Chicken Country Captain


★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

  • Total Time: 0 hours
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 bunch parsley, chopped (if available, TFD prefers to use 1/2 a bunch chervil and 1/2 bunch Italian parsley)
  • 4 peppers, chopped (TFD prefers a mix of Anaheim (green), red yellow and orange bell peppers, as opposed to the original recipe using all green bell peppers)
  • 2 large onions, chopped
  • 1/4 pound slab bacon, diced
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 large can crushed tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
  • 1 teaspoon freshly-ground mace
  • 2 teaspoons best-quality curry powder – TFD likes Penzey’s Maharaja curry powder
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon freshly chopped thyme (TFD addition)
  • 2 whole chickens. cut into pieces (TFD note: I personally would use all breast (bone in, skin on) here, but go for whatever works for you!)
  • Paprika
  • Flour
  • 1/2 cup currants
  • Cooked rice
  • 1/2 pound slivered skinless almonds (preferably Spanish Marcona almonds)

Instructions

  1. Render the bacon in a large skillet and add the butter. Fry the parsley, peppers and onions slowly for 15 minutes.
  2. Transfer the bacon, parsley, peppers and onions to a Dutch oven or stock pot, leaving the bacon fat and butter in the skillet, then add the tomatoes (undrained), curry powder, mace, thyme, salt and pepper to taste into the stockpot. Simmer this for 15 minutes, then add garlic.
  3. In the meantime, dredge the chicken, skin on and bone-in, in flour, with paprika, pepper and salt to taste. Fry this in the bacon and butter mixture until brown.
  4. Place the browned chicken in the stock pot with the sauce, cover and simmer at 275 degrees F for 90 minutes to 2 hours. Stir in the currants 30 minutes before the end of cooking time.
  5. Twenty minutes before the end of cooking time, place almond slivers on a cookie sheet in a 200 degrees F oven until lightly toasted.
  6. To serve, spoon white rice onto individual plates, top with chicken pieces and a generous amount of sauce, top with almond slivers and serve.
  • Prep Time: 0 hours
  • Cook Time: 0 hours

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @thefooddictator on Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook and hashtag it #TFD

How useful was this post, Citizen?

Click to rate My Recipe, Citizen - 5 hearts are ALWAYS appreciated!

Average rating / 5. Vote count:

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

As you found this post useful...

Follow us on social media, Citizen!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Related posts:

Old Original Bookbinder's Shrimp du Jour
The Hirshon Medieval Egypt Fried Fish with Sumac Sauce - سمك محشي
The Hirshon Byzantine Rice Pudding
The Hirshon Bengali Royal Chicken Rezala - চিকেন রেজালা
The Hirshon Peranakan Butter Prawns - 奶油蝦
The Hirshon Palestinian Black Tahini Pie - فطيرة الطحينة السوداء
The Hirshon Irish Soul Cakes For Halloween
Alton Brown's Coconut Cake

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: Chicken, Indian

About The Generalissimo

The myth of the Generalissimo is far more interesting than the reality.

Previous Post: « The Hirshon Turkish Sultan’s Delight – Hünkâr Beğendi
Next Post: The Hirshon Italian Veal Chop of the Priest – La Costoletta del Curato »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Suhail Saifi

    March 11, 2017 at 9:52 AM

    I love spies

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Primary Sidebar

➤ Citizens – Please Support TFD Nation!

Donate to Help TFD!

⇔ Search, And Ye Shall Assuredly Find!

✮ Citizens ✮

TFD currently has a total of 1,363 posts and 1,159,134 words written since December of 2014! Add your voice to My 50,000+ dedicated readers, comment on My recipes and thus become an active member of TFD Nation! Looking for a particular recipe? Search for it in the box above or via the category tags below - there are THOUSANDS of the finest in world and historic recipes here!

❧ TREMBLE Before Our Categoric Zeal!

Appetizers (145)Beef (143)Beverages (24)Bread (111)Cheese (64)Chicken (132)Chinese (121)Chocolate (16)Condiments (262)Dessert (166)Drinks (23)Duck (20)Egg (47)Fish (56)French (56)Game (30)Georgian (34)Indian (60)Italian (58)Jewish (84)Lamb (73)Manifestos (1)Pasta (90)Pork (147)Salad (40)Sandwich (42)Seafood (84)Shrimp (53)Soup (109)Spices (12)Tofu (7)Turkey (15)Veal (18)Vegetables (108)

✺ Click to Follow Us Across Social Media!

Facebook   

    instagram

☥ TFD SPEAKS!!!

https://www.thefooddictator.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/TFD-Avatar-Cold-Open-FINAL.mp4

 Enjoy TFD’s Mellifluous Podcasts, Citizen!

Listen on Apple Podcasts

© 2023 · The Food Dictator is abjectly served by WORDPRESS

✮ The Food Dictator ✮
Manage Cookie Consent
Citizens!

Be advised that as an enlightened Dictatorship here at TFD, we are indeed on the side of right when it comes to protecting the privacy of TFD Nation!

We do use technologies such as cookies to store and/or access device information, solely to improve your browsing experience and to show personalized ads.

Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions - trust us, we really ARE on your side!

YOUR LOYALTY IS NOTED! 🎖️
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
4316
SHARES
FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditMailYummly