This is an old California recipe that likely dates from the 1960s.   For those of you old enough (and who were up in Northern California) to remember the Nut Tree - this is exactly the kind of recipe they would serve.  The fun part is... this recipe can be done either hot or cold!

So without further ado:

Kelly's Chicken Curry

For starters, this recipe works equally well as  cold or hot dish.  If you're doing it as a hot dish, then it works well on a bed of rice/etc.  If you're doing it as a cold dish, then bed it down on some lettuce as a cold curry salad, or even make a sandwich of it (though it might be a touch messy...). 

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, or 2-3 chicken breasts.  May favorite "easy" way to do this, to be quite honest, is to go to Costco and get one of their $4.99 rotisserie chickens. Let it cool a little so you can handle it, then completely strip ALL the meat off the carcass.  Failing that, use 2-3 chicken breasts, and cut up into small, ~1/2" chunks. 

1-2 cups mayo. Seriously, how much you use is (a) going to depend on hot or cold, and (b) what taste profile you want.

Curry powder.  Again, this is a "to taste" thing.  But you'll _start_ with a 1/4 cup, and go up from there (and no, Kelly doesn't know. She eyeball's it EVERY time).

2 apples, peeled, cored, and diced

Approx 3/4 cup raisins.

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

1 jar of Major Grey's chutney (or equivalent).  What you use here will change the spice profile up and down.

Optional - if you're doing the hot version, 1 onion diced

Tools

You will want a BIG frying/saute pan, or a dutch oven or pot equivalent

Recipe

1. Prep your ingredients.  Especially the chicken.  

2. If you're using chicken breasts, cook them (after dicing them). If you are making the hot version, cook your onions at this time as well.

If you're making the cold version, do not use onions.

3. With the chicken fully processed and, if necessary, cooked, add 1 cup of mayo, and mix thoroughly. Your goal is to get a light coating on all of the chicken.

4. Add the initial 1/4 cup of curry powder and powdered ginger. Mix thoroughly. 

5. Add the apples, raisins, and chutney. Again, mix thoroughly.

6. Now comes the challenge. You have to taste-test this to make sure you have a robust but not overpowering curry flavor that still lets the chicken and fruit elements come through.  Don't be afraid to add more curry powder (to bring up the spice) or a bit more mayo (to get a better consistency). 

7. Once you've got the taste more or less right, mix it all up thoroughly, then taste test one more time to make sure you've got it all balanced. 

One note - if you're making the warm curry variant, you want a semi-liquid sauce to result from this. 

8. Serve as follows:

- If you're making cold curry, then either on lettuce, as a curry salad, or as a sandwich.

- If you're making warm curry, then over rice or equivalent.