House recipe 02 · Curry Chicken with Buss-Up-Shut (Paratha Roti)
Curry Chicken, Buss-Up-Shut
Curry chicken with buss-up-shut is roti-shop food at its best — chicken simmered in a chadon beni-heavy green seasoning and a curry gravy, mopped up with paratha roti beaten until it shreds like a busted-up shirt. In Trinidad this is Saturday lunch, wedding food, the plate you order without looking at the menu. Scotch bonnet has always belonged in green seasoning, so we blend a spoonful of our sauce straight into the marinade and keep the bottle on the table for the rest.
- Serves
- 4 to 6
- Active
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Total
- About 4 hours, including marinating and dough rests
The cook
- 01
Blend the green seasoning
Blend the chadon beni, scallions, thyme, garlic, onion, and pimento peppers with a splash of water until you have a loose, deep-green paste. Stir in 1 tablespoon of Sunny Island Pepper Sauce — the Scotch bonnet and mustard do the work a fresh hot pepper would.
The sauce moment
- 02
Season the chicken
Wash the chicken pieces with the lime juice and cold water, drain, and pat dry. Toss with the green seasoning and salt until every piece is coated, then cover and marinate in the fridge at least 2 hours, or overnight if you can.
- 03
Make the dough
Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add the warm water gradually and knead 3 to 4 minutes into a soft, slightly tacky dough. Cover with a damp cloth and rest 30 minutes.
- 04
Form the cones
Divide the dough into 4 balls. Roll each into a thin round, brush with oil, cut a slit from center to edge, and roll into a tight cone; tuck the point into the base and rest the cones, covered, another 20 minutes.
- 05
Bloom the curry
Stir the curry powder and amchar massala into the 1/4 cup water to make a slurry. Heat the oil in a heavy pot over medium heat, add the slurry, and fry, stirring, until it darkens, smells toasted rather than raw, and the oil breaks back out at the edges — 2 to 3 minutes.
- 06
Curry the chicken
Add the chicken and turn until every piece wears the curry. Cover and let it spring its own water for 10 minutes, then add the hot water and the potato if using, and simmer, partly covered, 30 to 35 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the gravy coats a spoon. Taste for salt.
- 07
Cook the roti
While the pot simmers, roll each cone into a thin round about 12 inches across. Cook on a hot, lightly oiled tawa or wide skillet, brushing the top with oil, about 2 minutes per side until blistered and gold in spots.
- 08
Buss it up
Working while it is hot, clap each roti between your hands inside a clean kitchen towel — or beat it on the tawa with two wooden spatulas — until it breaks into soft, ragged folds. Pile it beside the curry chicken, spoon gravy over, and put the Sunny Island bottle on the table where it belongs.
The sauce moment
From the family
Let the chicken spring its own water before you add any — the pot looks dry for the first few minutes, then releases plenty. Add water too soon and you boil the curry instead of frying it.
This one needs the jar.
1 tbsp blended into the green seasoning marinade · At the table, spooned over the gravy plate by plate