The other night as I was assembling ingredients for a chicken curry soup, it dawned on me how similar a curry and chili are to each other.

A basic curry calls for cumin, chili powder, coriander and ginger.

A good chili calls for chili powder, cumin, cilantro and jalapenos.

I happened to have fresh jalapenos and cilantro in the refrigerator and decided to marry the two dishes.

I started with seasoning the chicken like I would for a chili. I liberally covered the top of the chicken breasts with cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika and cayenne before baking them. Then I started on the vegetables.  Normally for curry I saute chopped onion, carrots, celery and grated ginger. But because I was making a Curli, (or a Churry, I haven't settled on the name yet) I also added a very large jalapeno including the seeds.

With chili I saute vegetables in beer, but for this I sauteed the vegetables in white wine. Then I added the cooked chicken, more cumin, more chili powder, a lot of curry powder and 6 cups of chicken broth. When the broth was heated I added peas and green beans like I would to any other curry.

After I let it simmer for about a half an hour I tasted it and thought it was incredibly flavorful, but not very spicy. But then just as I reached for more curry power the spices hit me. The "curli/churry had a big, bold, creeping heat that made my eyes water.

I topped our bowls with a lot of cilantro to round out the flavor and it was amazing. But until my taste buds had a chance to "man up" I had to eat a lot of bread to keep from crying.

(Photos by Launie Kettler)