Chicken curry is a dish that I grew up with. But the chicken curry of my childhood was just a coconut milk based stew made yellow with curry powder. Homey and really comforting but, well… it lacked fire somehow. Later on, when I learned to cook, I would add combine a teaspoonful of cayenne powder with the curry powder. And, much later, I would learn to add the spices during the sauteeing stage and not after. I tell you, I’ve cooked chicken curry so many times too and using various techniques but I never had a chance to cook it ‘properly’ until I finally bought a jar of sambal oelek and a jar of minced lemongrass.
Ingredients :
1 whole chicken, about 1.2 kg. in weight
250 g. of baby potatoes
1/2 head of garlic, peeled and finely minced
a thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely minced
1 large onion, diced
2 tomatoes, diced
2 pimientoes, deseeded and diced
1 tbsp. of Malaysian curry powder
1/2 tsp. of turmeric powder
1 tsp. of sambal oelek
1/2 tsp. of minced lemongrass
1-1/2 c. of coconut cream
patis or salt, to taste
4 tbsps. of cooking oil
12-15 stalks of onion leaves, cut in 1/2 inch lengths
Chop the chicken through the bones into serving size pieces.
Heat the cooking oil in a wide cooking pan.
Saute the garlic and ginger for a few minutes. Add the chicken pieces, curry powder and turmeric. Cook over high heat until the chicken starts to brown. Add the sambal oelek, lemongrass, onion, tomatoes and pimientoes and cook until the vegetables start to turn soft. Pour in about a cup and a half of water. Season with patis or salt. Bring to a boil then lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, wash and scrub the baby potatoes with kitchen towels and cut into halves. Of course, you can always use regular potatoes–it just so happened that what I had in the kitchen
were baby potatoes. If you use regular potatoes, cut them into wedges. Peeling potatoes is always optional.
After simmering the chicken for about 20 minutes, add the potatoes. Unless the mixture appears too dry, don’t add any more water at this point. You will be adding a cup an half of coconut cream later on and too much water will result in a soupy, instead of a saucy, chicken curry dish.
Simmer the chicken and the potatoes for about 10 minutes.
Uncover the cooking pan. Taste the broth and add more patis or salt if necessary. The potatoes will absorb at lot of the salt in the broth and the mixture might turn a little bland at this point.
Pour in the coconut cream and stir to blend. Turn up the heat to medium and cook, uncovered, for 5-7 minutes or until the sauce has reduced and thickened. Note that the sauce might not appear too thick at this point. It will thicken considerably after the heat is turned off and the cooked dish is transferred to a serving bowl.
During the last minute of cooking, add the onion leaves and stir a few times.
Serve hot.
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hi ate connie…..i’m trying to find that sambal oelek, what kind of spice is it? malaysian, indonesian or thai?
Grace it is a mixture of spices. Comes in jars. Am not sure of the country of origin.
where can i buy sambal oelek?
Market! Market! Sarj
Hi Ms. Connie,
I am an avid silent fan of your site. I tried your chicken recipe for my Father in Law’s birthday (my hubby’s request) & they love the chicken curry, my sister in law even requested me to cook it for their office party (hehehe). I am a bicolana & we love spicy foods, sambal oelek is a new ingredient to me but it makes the difference to the ordinary chicken curry… but instead of using just 1 tsp, i used half of the bottle… delicious… half of the bottle was used for my sweet & spicy shrimp… thank you so much for the inspiration…
Hi Connie, where in Market Market do I find the sambal oelek? Can I use siling labuyo instead? Your recipe sounds so mouth watering!
At the supermarket, Kate. Yes, you can use siling labuyo but you’ll have to grind them to a paste.
Hi Ms. Connie!
I live here in the US, and being away from the regular Filipino brands, I am not sure if I bought the right ingredient for this recipe. I read one of your posts that distinguishes coconut cream from coconut milk. So I specifically bought coconut cream for this recipe. However, when I opened the can of “coconut cream”, it was so thick and the color is that of (school) paste! I tasted it a bit, and it was very very sweet, like “runny” macapuno! I used coconut milk instead. Should I have used that “cream”? The label clearly said coconut cream, but I don’t know if that is the kind you used for this dish. Please let me know cause I plan to cook this dish again. Thanks and more power to this very helpful site!
The difference between cream and milk is the water content. Cream is the first extract (kakang gata) without (or with very little) water added. Coconut milk is either diluted coconut cream or the second and third extracts with much water added. I don’t know how coconut cream/milk are labeled in the US as it depends a lot on their country of origin.
Thanks Ms. Connie! The brand I got is from Thailand, but I think it is the kind that is used for pastries. Regular coconut milk worked fine, and it was delicious! I took a pic of it, and will try to send it to you for the Reader’s Gallery. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Hi miss connie. love chicken curry . May i suggest you try putting curry leaves next time. It will SMELL so great. Curry leaves are very easy to grow and we use them a lot in indian dishes.. Around 6 to 7 leaves in a dish will do…
When I find where I can buy potted curry, I will. Thanks.
Hello Mamsi,
Where could I get curry leaves?
I always thought that “curry” was a mixture of different spices and that it did not come from any particular tree.
Thanks for your suggestion.
Hi natz, curry leaves (kadi patta-in india ) are herbs. Currrry powder is a mixture of spicies.. The leaves are for flavor and aroma .I got mine in greenhills(tiangge area where plants are sold ) several years ago . They dont need a lot of work . Just water everyday..
Greenhills? Ok. Got that.
There are indeed many ways to cook curries. I love the recipe you used. So delicious!
hi Connie, it ok to use evap milk in lieu of coconut cream?
Yogurt is a better option.
hmn, i worked in saudi for 15mos or so. curry dishes never had any appeal and literally scares me specially after seeing bangladeshi and indian guys prepare it, (please don’t take it negatively.). they cook thier food for hours just letting it simmer and stew. in add, they put what ever it is available on thier fridge. that’s how i remember curry… its a real messy nightmare. too much said. i tried this curry dish and it was wonderful, it erases my curry-phobia. better way to simplify things, dishes are marvelous thier each and every way but its the people who makes it special and loved-filled.
I tried this recipe. Masarap talaga
hi ms. connie! If I use curry paste for this recipe (the green type, Thai Heritage brand), is the measurement the same as that of curry powder? Thanks.
No, go by your taste.
Will try this over the weekend
I found Kaffir lime leaves and Sambal Oelek in Landmark. I love Landmark!