Thai Style Chicken Curry
This meal was made for two but could easily be added to to make more. It’s very simple and very tasty.
Ingredients :
Two small red onions, peeled
6-7 button mushrooms cut into quarters.
3 peeled garlic cloves (inch of fresh ginger is great but I didn’t have any fresh)
2 large chillies. Add more to taste but 2 gives a nice heat without tears.
1 inch square piece of palm sugar or dark brown sugar.
Fish sauce.
Rice wine vinegar.
Handful of basil leaves. Coriander leave good too but didn’t have and in.
Coconut flour (normal flour works but coconut flour definitely better)
1 tin coconut milk
Sesame oil
Vegetable oil (again coconut oil is good but didn’t have any in) Tablespoon of dried coriander Tablespoon of dried cumin
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
Tablespoon of chilli powder (optional)
Chicken pieces. (I use thigh, never breast as it gets dry sometimes)
1 cup of basmati rice
2 cups of tepid water
Chop the chicken into inch sized pieces and place in a bowl. Cover with sesame oil and ensure all the chicken is coated. Then add 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar and the same of fish sauce.
Again ensure everything is coated. Add 4-5 large tablespoons of the coconut flour and massage it over the chicken with your CLEAN hands and make sure the meat is coated.
This can be done with prawns, thinly sliced beef or pork but I had chicken in. Leave the mixture to one side. Cover with cling film as the fish sauce is quite aromatic.
Slice one of the onions thinly and add to your blender. Add the slices garlic, chilli and ginger if you have it. Rip the basil and coriander and put them in too. Add 2-3 teaspoons of fish sauce and sesame oil. Blend into a smooth paste. Leave to one side. Again covering it with cling film is optional.
Put 3-4 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a brown or a jar. Add the dried coriander, cumin, chilli and turmeric and stir to get a paste. This is to ensure when added to the pan they don’t catch or burn.
Cut the remaining onion into bite size pieces. Quarter the mushrooms and break up the palm/ dark brown sugar. Open the coconut milk.
We are ready !
Heat your pan and add enough veg oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Never use sesame oil at this stage as it burns.
Add the onion and stir on a medium heat for 4-5 minutes until the onions start to go soft. Add the paste with the dried herbs and stir it through for a further 4-5 minutes.
Add the onion and herb paste and cook that for 4-5 minutes. It must cook out as it has onion in and nobody wants to taste raw onion in their curry.
Once cooked out add the coconut milk and mix well. Bring it up to a simmer and add the chicken pieces and the sugar. Stir well as the flour on the meat will thicken the milk. Lower the heat and cook for 15-20 minutes. Always stir it to ensure nothing sticks and everything is cooked evenly.
Whilst the curry simmers take the cup of rice and add into a microwave bowl. Add half teaspoon of salt and the two cups of water. I sometimes add teaspoon of cumin seeds or crushed cardamom seeds but not this time. Stir the rice, salt and water around and place in a microwave, uncovered, for 16 minutes. This trick was taught to me years ago by a Philippine friend of mine and I used it faithfully to this day. I leave if for 12 minutes, stir the rice with a fork then continue to cook it for the last 4 minutes.
When you have stirred the rice you now know it’ll be four minutes so now we add the chopped mushrooms to the curry. Taste the sauce at this stage. If too spicy add more sugar, if more seasoning required add more fish sauce, if more spice required add more chilli.
Once the rice is done turn off the heat from the curry. Take the rice out and using a fork stir it again. Place into your serving bowls and ladle the curry onto the brown next to the rice. The sauce should be thick and coating the veg and meat.
Added option is to add chopped coriander or sesame seeds but it’s not essential. Also optional is a naan bread or a tortilla wrap but that’s down to preference.
Enjoy it, I know we did.
KH.