Coronation Chicken

This is the original recipe for Coronation Chicken created by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume for the coronation banquet of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It's a great sandwich filling and is always a party favorite either served in a large salad bowl or in vol-au-vent pastry cases as an hors d'oeuvre. It's hard to find the original recipe on the internet and I had to search a long time for it (can't remember where I found it to give them credit) which was surprising considering this was the queen's diamond jubilee year, so here it is:

                                      [video coming soon...]

Ingredients:                                           

·         2 1/2-3 lbs cooked chicken breasts (chicken pieces or whole cooked chicken)

·         2 teaspoons vegetable oil

·         1 small onion, peeled and diced finely

·         1 tablespoon curry powder

·         1 tablespoon tomato paste

·         2 fluid ounces red wine

·         1 bay leaf

·         1/2 lemon, juice of

·         4 canned apricot halves

·         1 tablespoon apricot jam

·         1 cup mayonnaise

·         4 fluid ounces whipping cream

·         salt & pepper

Directions:  

1.    Remove the skin and any bones from the chicken and cut into small pieces.

2.  Heat up the vegetable oil in a medium saucepan and add the onion. Cook on a medium heat for about 3 minutes until the Onion is soft and translucent.

3.    Add the curry powder, tomato paste, red wine, bay leaf and the lemon juice to the cooked onions.

4.  Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes until reduced. Remove the bay leaf and leave to onion sauce to cool.

5.    Finely chop the apricot halves and puree them through a sieve or with a hand held blender.

6.    Place the pureed apricots into a bowl and mix in the mayonnaise.

7.    Add the onion sauce and apricot jam and mix well.

8.    Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold this also into the mixture. Mix well.

9.    Season with salt & pepper and if necessary add a little extra Lemon Juice.

10.  Finally, fold in the chicken pieces coating them with the mixture well.

  Here's a link to an easy way to make vol-au-vent at BBCGoodFood which I think has  better results than the frozen Pillsbury pucks you buy from the supermarket. It's a foolproof method that works every time:  http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2219652/party-volauvents