Coconut Chicken Curry

Sharee from Savory Spice Rack is always sharing great looking recipes on her blog and facebook page.  But for some reason I pin her recipes to my pinterest boards to keep them safe and remind me to try them and then I never quite seem to get around to making them.  Until now.  And boy am I regretting not trying this recipe sooner.

I love curries. However aside from a couple of Thai curries that are pretty quick to cook, I don’t tend to make curries because they require lots of exotic spices that I don’t have and seem to require simmering for ages.  The combination of those two factors just puts me off completely.

But that is not the case with this delicious coconut chicken curry from Sharee.  Yes you do have to marinate the chicken for awhile and preferably overnight but the preparation of the spice mix that you marinate the chicken in requires minimal work.  The main thing is remembering to do it.

I am not sure what cuisine I would categorise this curry as.  It reminds me a bit of a Malaysian curry sauce that I used to buy but stopped because I used to eat way too much in one sitting.  But I am not sure the labelling on the tin as Malaysian was that accurate.

While the recipe does have a red curry paste and coconut milk in it, don’t expect it to taste like a Thai curry.  It is more along the lines of a lovely rich tomato based sauce that you would get in an Indian restaurant.  The thing I particularly like about this recipe is that you do get lots of lovely sauce.  If the chicken didn’t add flavour in the cooking process I could just eat the sauce and rice for dinner; it is that delicious.

 

I made a batch for two meals to have leftovers for dinner the next day – the temperature is 35C about 95F) here in Canberra at the moment and is going to be remain like that for most of the week so anything that reduces the amount of time I spend cooking in the kitchen is a bonus.  To make a batch for two meals I used the following ingredients:

For the chicken and spice mix:

• 250g of boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 tbs curry powder
• 1 tsp of ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp of ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• a pinch of ground black pepper

For the sauce and to cook:

• 1 tsp of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of tinned diced tomatoes (have leftovers from the tin on toast for breakfast)
• 165ml of light coconut milk (the small tins in Australia come in this size)
• 1/2 tbs of unsalted butter
• 1 tsp of minced garlic (equal to one clove)
• 1/4 of a brown onion, finely diced
• 1 tsp red curry paste
• 1 tsp curry powder
• a pinch of ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• salt to taste

Full recipe instructions are available on Savory Spicerack.

In terms of adjustments to the recipe, I reduced the butter significantly to get the calories down to about 290 but that does mean the sauce is perhaps not as buttery as Sharee’s and the coconut flavour was not as strong.  I only added the butter after removing the chicken from the pan.  I didn’t add the extra butter with the curry paste.

My curry also turned out a completely different colour.  I suspect that was the curry powder I used – I tried out a new one it was much darker than the usual one I use. But it still tasted grate so I wasn’t that fussed.

I also reduced the cooking time, I simmered the sauce for 10 minutes and cooked the chicken for 10 minutes; along with the other steps it took about 30 minutes to cook. The trick with the chicken is to make sure it is cooked all the way through but not overcooked.  So check at the 10 minute mark and then if it needs longer then keep it simmering.  You can keep cooking  if it is undercooked but there is no going back if you overcook.  In the chicken browning stage it can be a bit tricky to tell when the chicken is brown as the spice mix colours the chicken, but again at the end just make sure it is cooked through.

I did find that my onion and garlic got a bit crispy.  I would turn down the heat to medium-low after you finish browning the chicken if you have a gas stove.  With my electric stove I find it cools down too slowly to not crisp up the onions.