The Chicken Curry vs Curry Chicken Debate

The never ending debate among West Indians (usually Guyanese and Trinis) is whether that classic dish comprised of chicken, curry powder, garam masala, and some kind of pepper; is whether it's called Chicken Curry or Curry Chicken.

Well it's time to settle that debate once and for all:

It's Chicken Curry.

Let's break it down.  Chicken - that's the easy part - the main ingredient and star of the dish - there is no debate over the usage of this word.  Curry - now this is the hard part.  The word Curry in Chicken Curry is a noun, and represents the type of dish, not how it was prepared.  The term Curry Chicken is grammatically incorrect.  To use the word Curry as a verb in the past tense (i.e. after the dish has been prepared), the dish would need to be called Curried Chicken, not Curry Chicken.  The word "Curry" can be used as a verb in the present tense, as in "I'm going to Curry the Chicken", but once the dish has been prepared, we revert to the past tense of Curried Chicken, when using Curry as a verb.

Although Curried Chicken is grammatically correct, no one says it that way - it's always said incorrectly as Curry Chicken.  The one argument that I always hear when calling it Chicken Curry is "Did you Chicken the Curry?" No, I Curried the Chicken when I made Chicken Curry.  Did you Soup the Chicken when you made Chicken Soup?  I didn't think so.

That is all - go tell your friends what you've learned.

~Curry Man