Ahhh… curry… a spicy dish with origins from India that has spread so far across the globe that is has truly become a global dish. From London to Thailand to Japan and even Trinidad and Tobago, curry is as familiar as rice or bread, albeit cooked in slightly different ways. Even here in Malaysia a myriad of different curries exist, apart from the familiar options of chicken curry, fish head curry, curry noodles and so on.
Put head to head, Malaysians will probably be hard pressed to decide which type of curry they like best – Indian? Malay? Devil? Wet? Dry? Spicy? Not too spicy? They’re all good and uniquely flavoured and classic dishes in their own right.
And then there’s the endless variations from one household to the next – stock, coconut milk, normal milk, spice mixtures, possibly even vegan options – that there’s no way we can point to one definite recipe and say that’s it, that, right there, is the best and only curry recipe you’ll ever need. Maybe it exists somewhere – one recipe to rule them all, so good it conquers all biased opinions. But until we find it, we’d like to share with you our take on a classic chicken curry. And it’s pretty good too.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, cut into 12 pieces (Chef Nik shows how to prep chicken like a pro chef.)
- ½ cup low fat natural yogurt, beaten lightly
- 6 small red onions
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1” ginger
- 2 green chilies
- 2 tomatoes, quartered
- 3 potatoes, halved
- 3 stalks curry leaves
- 2 star anise
- 6 cardamom
- 6 cloves
- 3” cinnamon stick
- 3 tbsp meat or chicken curry powder
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ cup water
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
Method
- In a bowl, marinate chicken in yogurt.
- Using a pestle and mortar, pound onion, garlic and ginger to medium coarseness.
- Mix curry powder and chilies with water and stir to make a paste.
- In a large pot, heat oil until hot.
- Sautee curry leaves, star anise, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon until fragrant, then add onion, garlic and ginger mixture. Continue frying until fragrant and the mixture starts crackling and caramelizing at the edges.
The aroma is simply divine! - Add curry powder paste and fry on medium heat until the oil has separated and risen to the top (pecah minyak) and the chilies have blistered.
- Add tomatoes and cook until disintegrated.
- Next, add chicken, scraping down the bowl to get all the yogurt into the pot. Stir to coat chicken thoroughly.
- Cover and turn the fire down to low. Cook until the chicken juices have come out and the liquid becomes watery.
- Add potatoes and continue cooking, keeping the pot covered.
- When potatoes are half cooked, remove lid and let it simmer until the potatoes have cooked thoroughly and the gravy has thickened.
- Add salt and stir.
- Simmer until the chicken has cooked through, with an internal temperature of 66°C to 73°C.
- Serve with rice, bread, roti canai, string hoppers, noodles, or anything you like.
Extra tips
- If you want a richer curry, skip the yogurt and add the same amount of coconut milk instead. You do not need to marinate the chicken in coconut milk. Instead, add it in after the potatoes have cooked and the gravy has thickened.
- This recipe isn’t particularly spicy, so it’s suitable for young eaters.
Dig in and enjoy! Hashtag us with #butterkicap if you give our recipe a go.