Coronation chicken is a popular cold-prepared chicken dish in the UK that combines British and South Asian/Near Eastern flavors. It includes cooked chicken, mayonnaise, herbs, and spices like curry powder or paste. It can be garnished with almonds, raisins, or apricots and is a comfort food that doesn’t need reheating.
The dish commonly called coronation chicken originated in the United Kingdom, where this type of preparation followed the industrialization of the country and became popular in the post-war era. Coronation chicken is a type of cold-prepared chicken that can be used as a sandwich filling. It combines classic elements of British cuisine with some of the vibrant flavors of South Asian and Near Eastern nations. This food is what some people would call a “comfort food” — it’s easy to prepare and used in meals that can be quickly put together. It has the added benefit of not needing to be reheated, making it even more of what some in the UK might call a ‘ready meal’.
Coronation chicken includes cooked thin slices of chicken meat, cooled, mayonnaise or a similar condiment, and a variety of herbs and flavorings. In many coronation chicken dishes, a premixed curry powder or curry paste provides the herbal flavoring and coloring for the dish, which is usually a bright yellow. Premixed curry products replace a more traditional preparation of carefully blending raw spices and herbs. In these ancient curry recipes, turmeric is often responsible for the bright yellow color.
Other spices used in coronation chicken include hot peppers, garlic, ginger, and coriander. Some advanced recipes call for using whole spices like star anise with chicken broth and indirect flavoring of the dish. Spices can be used to flavor the chicken or the additional sauce element. Some coronation chicken recipes may include a particular marinade.
In addition to the spices and herbs used to flavor this chicken dish, some of the more formal versions of this dish feature garnishes that favor a British way of cooking, while other additions to the dish reference the regions of the world where the curry originated . Chefs in the UK might use almonds, raisins or apricots as a side dish. Some versions of the dish call for a mix of yogurt and lemon juice for a side dish. Other types of coronation chicken include exotic items like mango chutney.
The coronation chicken dish is an excellent example of the polyglot influences that surround British cuisine in general. The adoption of these flavors is part of what elevates English cuisine from its reputation as a “bland” menu. Anyone in the world can create dishes based on traditional UK dishes based on simple dishes like this.
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