This is about making vegetables taste fantastic with spices. The chicken is wonderful and I love it but it can be left out and this same thing done and enjoyed just fine entirely vegetarian.
Spices are started in oil, then sweet chutney, then chicken parts or chicken chunks, then vegetables to coat. The pan is a fairly serious mess due to caramelizing sugar and all that is lifted off with dry sherry. The alcohol is an amazing flavor transporter and blender especially with butter. Then chicken stock is added to cover the bottom with a little extra so it always stays wet, the pan is covered and the mixture is braised on low for 40 minutes or so until everything is tender.
The color of the vegetables is lost to the color of the spicy sauce so it ends up not nearly as bright and attractive as it starts out, but it is extremely flavorful without being confusing with conflicting or overpowering flavors so the tradeoff is worth it. I suppose the color can be improved by topping with something bright to finish, chopped fresh red tomato, bright green herbs, chopped olives for black dots, crumbled feta for white dots.
There is cinnamon and five spice and clove and all that is used but in very conservative amounts. The chipotle is in powder form, very different from the chipotle in adobo sauce, so three types of chile there and they are all hot but the amounts of each used is moderate so the total heat is not overwhelming or even surprising. Overall the dish is sweet.
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