Quick answer: On poultry, Madagascar curry is sautéed with the onion for a simmered dish, ginger lightens a marinade or a sauté, and pepper, in a crust or as a finishing touch, is often kept for the end of cooking. One recipe also pairs poultry with vanilla.
Poultry, chicken, guinea fowl or duck, pairs with many spices, from simmered curry to the ginger of a marinade. This page presents these pairings and points to one of our recipes for a more unexpected version, with vanilla.
Curry, on simmered poultry
A curry, a spice blend made of turmeric, ginger, pepper and other aromatics depending on the recipe, accompanies poultry in simmered dishes whose origins go back several millennia in South Asia. Our Madagascar curry is briefly sautéed in oil, with the onion, before adding the poultry and the cooking liquid: the heat develops its flavour before the sauce arrives.
Ginger, to cut the fat and lift the dish
In several Asian cuisines, ginger readily accompanies poultry: it masks strong odours and brings a biting, slightly lemony note that lightens a dish in sauce. In powder form, it mixes into a marinade with oil and garlic; fresh or powdered, it also goes into a poultry stock, at the end of cooking a sauté.
Peppers, from a dry rub to a sauce
Crushed black pepper, rubbed dry onto a chicken's skin before roasting, forms a flavourful crust during cooking. Wild Voatsiperifery pepper, on the other hand, is kept for the end: it is a finishing pepper, ground at the last minute over poultry that is already cooked or into a reduced jus, so as not to lose its finest notes to the heat.
Curry and ginger in the same marinade
For a chicken to be marinated before cooking in the oven or on the grill, curry and ginger pair well together, with a little oil and lemon. A few hours in a cool marinade are enough for a piece of chicken; a whole bird benefits from a longer time.
Before or after cooking
Curry and ginger fully reveal themselves when added at the start of cooking, in the oil or the marinade, so their flavour infuses the whole piece. Peppers, on the other hand, are rather ground at the end of cooking or at the table: too long a cooking time makes them lose some of their most volatile aromas.
Chicken, guinea fowl or duck: adjusting the strength of the spice
Chicken, with its rather neutral flesh, takes well to a whole curry or a ginger marinade without the meat disappearing behind the spice. Guinea fowl, with slightly more distinctive flesh, takes the same pairings with a lighter hand on the curry. Duck, fattier and more assertive in taste, pairs better with a pronounced pepper, black or wild as a finishing touch, than with a curry that might mask its own flavour.
Another path: poultry and vanilla
For a more unexpected roast poultry, where vanilla replaces curry and ginger with a warm note in the jus, our recipe for roast poultry with vanilla and a short jus details this pairing, which this page does not repeat.
Thigh, breast or whole bird
A chicken thigh, fattier and slower to cook, takes well to a whole curry simmered for a long time: the spice has time to infuse into the meat as well as the jus. A chicken breast or a guinea fowl fillet, quicker to cook, pairs better with a ginger marinade applied before cooking, so the flavour settles in without waiting for a long cooking time that would dry it out. For a whole roast bird, pepper is often kept for the end, straight onto the golden skin or into the cooking juices collected at the bottom of the dish.
Where our spices come from
Our family grows ginger and peppers in Vangaindrano, in south east Madagascar; our curry is a blend made from spices from the same region.
Frequently asked questions
How to use curry on simmered poultry?
Madagascar curry is briefly sautéed in oil with the onion, before adding the poultry and the cooking liquid, so the heat develops its flavour.
Can curry and ginger be paired in the same marinade?
Yes, for a chicken to be marinated before cooking in the oven or on the grill, with a little oil and lemon, for a few hours in a cool place for a piece of chicken.
When to add pepper to poultry?
Peppers are rather ground at the end of cooking or at the table, because too long a cooking time makes them lose some of their most volatile aromas.
Can vanilla go with poultry?
Yes, for a more unexpected roast poultry, where vanilla replaces curry and ginger with a warm note in the jus, as in a recipe for roast poultry with vanilla and a short jus.
Our products to go further: Madagascar curry · Ground ginger · Madagascar black pepper · Madagascar wild pepper
The Vanille Désiré team
