When preparing chicken curry, prepare to visit your neighborhood Asian (preferably Indian) store for the your most important ingredients – spices.

Sometimes mistaken for a single ground spice, curry is actually a blend of many different spices–meaning there is no such thing as curry plant, seed, bark or root.  There is no specific combination with the spices that go into the mix.  The blend is often a matter of geography or culture and simple preference.  Some commonly used spices include (but certainly not limited to) allspice, white pepper, mustard, ginger, cinnamon, roasted cumin, cloves, nutmeg, mace, green or black cardamom seeds and pods, bay leaves and coriander seeds.  In most restaurants, the menu sometimes calls dishes by the color of the sauce which is usually red (from chilis), yellow (due to turmeric) or green.

Curry is often associated with Indian cooking with a wide variety of dishes from different regions containing a variety of blends resulting in different flavors and colors.  With a population of over one billion Indians spread over an entire sub-continent, not to mention immigrant communities across the world, it’s no wonder that there’s different kinds of spice dishes from the northern, central and south part of the country.  It is also prevalent in other parts of Asia like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, even China and Japan.  Outside Asia, curry dishes are also widely served in Polynesian and Caribbean cuisine.

Unlike grilled, baked or roasted chicken, curry dishes lend well to moist types of cooking as cooking liquids like coconut milk, yoghurt or broth are often required in the recipe.  There are dry curry dishes also but these still use a cooking liquid that are allowed to evaporate leaving a savory spicy mixture coating the meat.

The recipes shared here include a creamy dish with rice, a creamy sweet-spicy soup with mango, a salad with crunchy grapes and a couple of hearty filling main courses.  Surprisingly these dishes are very easy to prepare and involve simple steps like pan frying, stewing or simple assembly.  The only potential challenge for the novice cook is getting his or her hands on ingredients.

Vindaloo a popular dish in the United Kingdom and the U.S. is basically a variety of chicken (or lamb) curry that is typically extremely spicy and usually has potatoes. Another British-Indian dish that exemplifies the ties between the two countries is chicken tikka masala, a grilled skewered dish with several spices, tomato sauce, cream and cilantro.