My Favourite Chicken Curry Recipe

My SISTER who happens to be my number 1 reader (she better be or else who’s gonna babysit her 2 boys!), has asked me repeatedly why I haven’t updated my blog in a while. Well, it’s because I haven’t been cooking all that much due to work commitments. However as things have settled, and I am more relaxed now I hope to resume my cooking adventures.

The one thing that I had been looking for was a basic chicken curry recipe which I could fall back on. I tried one here, but found that it involved too much work. Hence the search continued until I happen to purchase a recipe book titled ‘Curries’ from the mini cookbooks series.

I’ve tried the chicken curry recipe from that book and have to say it’s pretty easy and good enough for me. I’ve made some tweaks to suit our taste but will list the recipe down as per the recipe book with my notes in red.

Chicken Curry

Recipe courtesy of 'Curries' cookbook from the mini cookbooks series 

What you need:

1.5kg chicken – cut into large pieces (I prefer them skinned and cut into small pieces)

Onion – 1 large, peeled and quartered

Ginger – 3cm knob peeled

Garlic – 3 cloves peeled

Red chillies – 2 ( I use 3-4)

Shallots – 55g peeled

Meat curry powder – 70g mixed with 100ml water and combined into a paste ( 70g is about 5 heaped tablespoons  - if unsure use a weighing scale)

Coconut milk  - 500ml or 2 cups ( I use only about 100ml)

Water – 500ml or 2 cups ( I use about 700ml)

Potatoes – 3 large, peeled and quartered ( I sometimes omit the potatoes or just use 1)

Salt – 2 ½ tsp

Sugar – ½ tsp

What to do:

Season chicken with ½ tsp salt and set aside

Grind onion, ginger, garlic, chillies and shallots together until fine. Heat oil in a pot and stir-fry the blended ingredients for 3 minutes

Add curry powder paste and stir-fry for another 5 minutes until fragrant

Add chicken pieces and fry for 5 minutes until well-coated with mixture. Add coconut milk and water. Bring to a boil.

Add potatoes, remaining salt and sugar. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes until chicken is tender. (I only simmer the chicken for 20 minutes especially if not adding potatoes).

Dish out and serve hot.

Verdict:

I add the extra chillies to up the spicy level.

I lessen the coconut milk as I’m not a fan of curries with too much coconut milk. 2 cups seems like a lot to me.

I omit the potatoes sometimes if I forget to buy them or add just 1.

Overall, my husband and I love this recipe. We usually have the dish with wholemeal bread, or frozen paratha or chappatis which I will pre-fry.

Here's to more recipes to come!