Curry Chicken (咖喱鸡)

Curry Chicken - It's another common food in Singapore, Malaysia and other places in Asia.

This bowl of curry chicken is ordinary, but yet delicious. Not too rich with coconut milk, but spicy enough for Max to ask for another bowl.

Unlike those curries cooked by Indians or Malays that asking for a list of never-ending spices which I really have to salute them. But of course, their style of curry is another level and has it's Oomph! 

This is a simple curry that I'm cooking here. It doesn't taste complicated.

Gathering ingredient for such basic curry chicken is not difficult. You just walk to the wet market and you will have everything you want.

  Ingredient

• 1 whole Chicken (Est. 1 - 1.2kg), cut into big pieces
• 4 Potatoes, cut into big chunks
• 150ml Coconut Milk
• 500ml Water, or more if you want
• 5 to 6 tbsp Curry Powder
• 2 tbsp Chilli Paste
• 10 to 15 leaf of Curry Leaves
• 5 bulbs Shallots
• 5 cloves Garlic
• 1 stalk Lemongrass, bruised
• 2 to 3 tbsp Cooking Oil
• 1 tbsp Salt, or more to taste
• 1 tbsp Sugar, or more to taste

I'd prefer my curry to be more thick and spicy, but not too coconut milky. Too much of coconut milk will makes me not eating another bowl, and the richness of milk taste might over-powered the spiciness of the curry. But without coconut milk, you won't get good curry at least for such version. It's individual actually. Go ahead and increase the coconut milk to 200ml or upto 250ml if you wants your curry to have richer coconut milk taste.

Method

1. Grind shallot and garlic into paste. 
2. Mix curry powder and chilli paste with 3 to 4 tbsp (or more) of water to form a smooth paste.
3. In a large wok, or pot, heat up oil, fry shallot, garlic, curry leaves, lemongrass and curry paste till fragrant.
4. Add in chicken pieces, sear the chicken pieces, like for 5 mins or so.
5. Add in water, bring to boil. Once boiled, add in potatoes, mix well, cover up and let it simmer for about 10mins under low heat.
6. Season with salt and sugar. Add in coconut milk and let it boil. Once boiled, taste. If the taste is right, then heat off, leave it there for 10mins before you dish up and serve. 

The level of spiciness is very much depends on individual. Hence, you probably have to put lesser curry paste if you think you can't take too spicy food. You could buy chilli paste from fellow Indian shops that sell curry powder at the wet market. Or you could grind your own chilli paste using fresh red chillies. Or substitute with chilli powder if you are too lazy for that. It's okay.

Step 3 - Fry all the spices till fragrant, and then Step 4 - add in chicken pieces and sear it.

I always leave my curry there to cool down slightly (10mins or so) before I serve. This tips is given by one of our friendly Indian neighbour during my childhood time. The reason given was... If we are eating piping hot curry, we might not be able to savor the full flavour and richness of the dish properly because our tongue is affected by the hot curry dish. True eh? But well, I do acknowledge this logic since then :)

In Singapore, chinese usually eat curry chicken with bread, usually baguettes, rice or noodles. In Malaysia, curry chicken usually eaten with rice, roti jala / roti kirai, roti canai (we called it roti prata in Singapore), chapatti and other variety of bread.

I serve my curry with Roti Jala / Roti Kirai. 

(Recipe for Roti Jala / Roti Kirai will be out soon)

Due to the layer of oil floating on top, you won't be able to justify how thick the curry sauce is. Right? When you see this curry noodle, you will know. You could see the thick curry sauce in this photo...

This is upon Max request, a bowl of Curry Noodle! I just cook some yellow noodles and beansprout. Pour over the curry, and it's done! One pot of curry, multiple ways of eating!

Do you still remember when was the last time you cook curry at home? Do you prefer runny curry with lots of coconut milk? Or thick and concentrated curry? :)

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