Coronation Chicken
Photo: James F. Carter, CC BY-SA 2.5
Coronation chicken is a cold chicken salad in a curried apricot mayonnaise, created by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume for the 1953 coronation banquet of Queen Elizabeth II. This version follows the official 1956 recipe, so there are no raisins. Instead, a reduced sauce of onion, curry paste, tomato and red wine is beaten into mayonnaise with apricot purée, then loosened with whipped cream for a mild, fruity, creamy dressing.
Instructions
Skin the chicken if needed and cut the meat into small pieces. The chicken is traditionally cooked whole ahead of time, but you can instead cut up raw chicken and grill the pieces at this point.
Warm the vegetable oil in a small saucepan. Add the chopped onion and cook gently for about 3 minutes, until soft.
Stir in the curry paste, tomato purée, red wine, bay leaf and lemon juice. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, until the liquid has reduced well. Strain the sauce and leave it to cool.
Purée the chopped apricots in a blender or food processor. Beat the cooled sauce and the apricot purée into the mayonnaise until smooth.
Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold it into the mayonnaise mixture. Season with salt and pepper, adding a little more lemon juice if it needs it.
Fold the chicken pieces into the sauce, garnish with watercress and serve.
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