Easy
Indian Chicken Curry in Creamy Coconut Sauce
We all love
the soothing and sensual smells that a great Indian Curry provokes. Most think
that authentic Indian cooking is difficult and that you need to resort to store
bought packages of pre-made sauces and flavours…. Nothing could be further from
the truth! Indian cooking is actually quite simple as long as you have some
basic spices and ingredients on hand. It’s all in the technique and…. allowing
yourself a bit of time to ensure that those flavours have time to meld. Indian
cooking is SLOOOOW cooking….. not necessarily fussy though and you’d be
surprised how simple the ingredient list is.
This is a
really easy (and tasty!) recipe that doesn’t require any ingredients that you
shouldn’t already have on hand in your pantry/fridge and freezer. Unlike other
curries, this particular recipe is also incredibly versatile. Instead of
chicken you can easily use a firm white fish (such as cod or halibut) and you
could also use prawns. It’s entirely up to you and what you have on hand (or
what’s on sale). You can up the (hot) spices for more kick or mellow them down
depending on your taste preference. This is actually a fairly mellow curry as
written all considered so don’t be afraid. And you get to boast to all your
friends that you made it FROM SCRATCH!
Ingredients:
-
2x
cups basmati (or other long grain) rice
-
Approx
8-10 boneless/skinless chicken thighs – diced into 1” cubes (you can use 3-4
chicken breast instead but thighs have the best flavour)
-
3
tbsp of veg oil
-
1
medium to large onion
-
2
cloves of garlic – finely chopped
-
1
heaping tbsp of grated or finely chopped ginger (*see ginger tip below!)
 |
| Spices and Ginger.Garlic |
-
1
tsp of paprika
-
1/2
tsp of turmeric
-
1
tsp of ground coriander seed
-
1
tsp of red chili flakes (you can add more if you like it extra spicy)
-
1
tsp of ground cumin
-
¼
tsp of ground cinnamon
-
1x
can (400ml) of coconut milk (you can substitute the same amount of full fat
yohgurt if you don’t have a can of coconut milk on hand)
-
Water
as needed
-
Salt
and Pepper to taste (although pepper is not a common add on spice to Indian
cooking so focus on salt first
-
Fresh
coriander leaves to garnish
-
Naan
or Roti to serve with (*optional)
Method: For
the RICE (Fish eye method)
We all
struggle to get that perfectly cooked yet fluffy rice that we all want. Believe
it or not, even when I was cooking professionally and had formal chef training
under my belt, I just couldn’t master rice for some reason. Well…. Here is a
great tip! It changed my life and has made me love cooking rice now that I know
that it won’t be a disappointing outcome! The ‘Fish Eye’ method is virtually
fool proof and as long as you are not using wild rice or regular brown rice
(these take longer to cook) you will be happy every time.
-
pour
2 cups of uncooked rice into a 2qt saucepan and flush with cold water
until water runs clear. It will probably never be perfect so do the best that
you can. Alternatively, you can place rice in a fine sieved strainer and rinse
with cold water that way. Regardless of the method you choose, this is
always good practice when cooking rice - the main purpose is that not only will it
prevent your rice from being dirty but it will also prevent your rice from
being sticky when cooked – the goal
is FLUFFY, beautiful rice when done and this step helps ensures that.
-
Place
cleaned rice into a 2qt saucepan and add 3 ¾ cups of water (the 1:2 ratio of 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water is old
school and doesn’t work as well as you’d think) so a 1:1 ¾ ratio is better. Put on lid. Turn heat on high and bring to a
boil
-
Once
water is at a rapid boil, remove lid and let continue to boil
-
Add
a pinch of salt while at full boil (adding salt prior will damage your pot)
-
Watch
the water level in your boiling rice…. Once it reduces and ‘fish eyes’ form
(large air bubbles between the rice that resemble bulbous ‘fish eyes’),
continue to boil for 20-30sec
 |
| Fish eye Rice method |
- Return
lid to cover and turn OFF heat. Leave in place for 20min (focus on the rest of
your prep in the meantime – unlike traditional methods, you can’t over cook
your rice this way and it will be perfect no matter how long it takes you to
get back to it!). How great is that!
For the
Curry:
-
Pat
chicken pieces dry with paper towel and reserve until needed.
-
Peel
onion and cut in ½ top to bottom/tip to tail. Slice thinly (again going top to
bottom/tip to tail) in approx. 1/8” slices or thinner. *slicing onions this way
is key to Indian cooking!
-
Heat
vegetable oil in a 2qt pan (preferably with slopped sides but straight sided
will do) on med-low heat.
-
Add
onions and stir to ensure all are coated with oil. Continue stirring every now
and again to ensure they don’t burn for approx. 20min. Onions should have a
nice golden brown colour (not too dark/not too light – if they are dark your
heat was too high. This is a slow browning, not rapid saute). If you give
yourself the appropriate time at this stage of the recipe you will have that
returned in spades in terms of flavour.
 |
| Browned onions |
-
Add
chopped garlic and ginger – incorporate with onions stirring constantly for
approx. 1-2min so that garlic does not burn
-
Add
Paprika, Turmeric, ground coriander seed, chili flakes and cinnamon – stir to
combine and allow spices to release their perfume and natural oils. Approx 2-3
min
-
Add
chopped chicken pieces and stir to combine with spices/onion
-
Let
chicken brown slightly and meld with spices/onion and start to cook through (approx.
3-5min)
-
Add
Coconut milk – fill the now empty can ¾ full of warm water to get the remaining
coconut milk and add to pot. This extends you coconut milk so that it is not
too thick but also stretches your dollar as you’ve essentially now made one can
of coconut milk into almost two. Stir to combine and bring to a boil
-
Once
at a boil, reduce heat to med-low immediately (coconut milk will
‘break’/separate if it is boiled extensively). Cover with lid leaving ¼ gap for
steam to release
-
Cook
for 35min or until chicken is cooked and sauce is slightly reduced - remove
from heat.
-
Sauce
should have a ‘medium’ consistency similar to typical gravy. If sauce is too
thin, continue medium-low heat uncovered for another 5min (+/-). If it’s too
thick, add a splash of water to thin it out as needed.
-
Let
stand for at least 10min before serving *Indian food gets better with time.
This is a GREAT make ahead recipe that will only get better in the fridge if
desired. Once cooled, you can freeze it too! Simply thaw and reheat and serve
with fresh rice when ready)
-
Plate
rice and spoon chicken curry on top
-
Garnish
with chopped Cilantro
Serves 4
* If wanting to use fish or prawns for this recipe - Peel and devein prawns / Portion fish into equal single serving pieces (everyone should get one big piece of fish). Add fish/prawns at the END once sauce is complete so that it does not overcook and is able to remain as undisturbed by stirring etc. You're essentially poaching the fish or prawns and this should only take approx 5-7min depending on the size of your fish portions. DELICIOUS!!
*Ginger Tip
– fresh ginger is available in all grocery stores and it is an integral part of
many wonderful recipes (particularly Asian and Indian cooking). It’s not always
easy to use all of the fresh ginger that we buy before it goes bad though and
peeling ginger can be pain. Forget those tips and tricks that you see using the
back of a spoon to peel ginger etc. Follow this great tip and you’ll never have
to do that again! Place the whole fresh ginger in a ziplock bag and put in
freezer. Pull out when needed and let thaw on your counter for 5min. Grate the
ginger needed (no need to peel either!) directly onto your cutting board. Put
it back in the freezer for the next time it is needed! Yes… it’s THAT simple.
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