Chicken Curry

TIME2 hours MAKES4-5 servings PORTION
0.5x 1x 2x 3x

A comfort food, this Singaporean chicken curry is uniquely different to standard Indian curries – spicer and soupier, with use of aromatics like lemongrass and galangal. Usually eaten with white jasmine rice, but can also be eaten with roti prata.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 3 cloves
  • 2 star anise
  • 6 chicken thighs (~1kg)
  • 6 stalks curry leaves
  • 1 kg potatoes (peeled and cut into 8ths) .
  • 3/4 cup or 200 ml coconut milk
  • 500 ml water

Rempah (spice paste)

  • 4-6 medium/large shallots
  • 4 large garlic cloves
  • 1 lemongrass stalk
  • 1 inch ginger
  • 1 inch galangal
  • 12-20 dried red chillies
  • 2 fresh chillies (birds eye preferable)
  • 4 candle nuts (roughly chopped)1
  • 20g or 1 tbsp belacan
  • 3 tbsp toasted ground coriander2
  • 1 tbsp toasted ground cumin
  • 1 tbsp toasted ground turmeric
  • 1 tsp toasted ground fennel seeds

STEPS

  1. De-seed the dried chillies, and soak in fresh boiled water for approximately 20 minutes, until re-hydrated.

  2. Wrap the belacan in foil, and toast it on both sides in a frying pan or in an toaster oven, until fragrant (about 4-5 minutes)

  3. Combine the ingredients for the rempah in a food processor and blitz to form a fine paste. Add the water from the dried chillies or vegetable oil to help the paste come together.

  4. Heat a heavy bottomed saucepan, dutch oven, or wok over medium high heat. Add the 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, and when hot, sauté the cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise, and curry leaves until fragrant (approximately 30 seconds).

  5. Add the rempah and cook until the paste is pulpy and dark and the oil has split from the paste, approximately 10 minutes.

  6. Add the chicken thighs and potatoes, and stir to coat for 30s to 1 minute.

  7. Add the water, making sure the chicken is covered. Bring to the boil, and immediately reduce to a simmer and add the lid. Leave to simmer until the chicken and potatoes are cooked, approximately 40 minutes – 1 hour.

  8. Stir through the coconut milk, and season with salt, sugar, and tamarind puree to taste (generally, ~1 tbsp of salt, 2 tsp of sugar, and 2 tsp of tamarind pulp).

  9. Serve hot with rice, and garnished with coriander leaves and chopped fresh red chilli.

NOTES

  1. Candlenuts are traditionally used to thicken chicken curry, but this can be substituted for macadamia nuts if hard to find. ↩︎
  2. If you are able to source a good Singaporean or Malaysian chicken curry powder like Baba’s, feel free to use that and leave out the ground spices in the rempah. ↩︎