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Indonesian Chicken Curry | DonalSkehan.com, My favorite meal from our trip to Bali.
  • main-meals

Indonesian Chicken Curry

January 20

This is one of the best recipes I picked up while travelling in Bali a few years ago and it’s such a hit I still cook it often. With shrimp paste, tamarind, palm sugar and ginger, it has that complex sweet/salty/sour flavour that South-East Asian carries off so well.

  • serves Serves 2
  • time

Method

  1. 1. Place all the ingredients for the curry paste into a food processor and blitz until smooth.
  2. 2. Heat the oil in a wok over a medium heat. Add the curry paste, lemongrass, bay leaves and lime leaves. Cook for a minute until coated in oil and fragrant, stirring constantly.
  3. 3. Add the chicken and cook for two to three minutes until lightly browned add the tamarind paste and 100ml of water the butternut squash and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the liquid has reduced slightly.
  4. 4. Pour in the coconut milk slowly and stir through until it is fully incorporated.
  5. 5. Cook for a further five minutes, until slightly reduced. Season to taste. Serve with boiled rice.

Ingredients

For the curry paste:

2 shallots

1 small red chillies

1 tbsp finely grated ginger

6 cashew nuts

1 tomato, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp chopped fresh turmeric (you can substitute dried, but fresh is better)

1 lemongrass stalks, outer leaves removed and chopped roughly

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp palm sugar

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp shrimp paste

For the curry:

5 tbsp sunflower oil

1 lemongrass stalk, bashed and tied in a knot

2 bay leaves

2 lime leaves

13 oz chicken breast, diced

1 tsp tamarind paste

3/4 cup coconut milk

½ butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes

For the curry paste:

2 shallots

1 small red chillies

1 tbsp finely grated ginger

6 cashew nuts

1 tomato, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp chopped fresh turmeric (you can substitute dried, but fresh is better)

1 lemongrass stalks, outer leaves removed and chopped roughly

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp palm sugar

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp shrimp paste

For the curry:

5 tbsp sunflower oil

1 lemongrass stalk, bashed and tied in a knot

2 bay leaves

2 lime leaves

375g chicken breast, diced

1 tsp tamarind paste

200ml coconut milk

½ butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes

You'll Need

Food Processor

Wok

 

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This is very similar to a Thai green curry but it’s a lot lighter in terms of spices, sticking mainly with the fresh ingredients like ginger and lemongrass. I use Kaffir lime leaves here, which some supermarkets carry in the herb section, Asian markets are also bound to have them. Improvise with finely grated zest of lime. If you haven’t used lemongrass before it’s a fantastic little ingredient which is responsible for giving this dish that wonderful light and fragrant flavour. To prepare, slice off the woody ends and the root, you should be left with about 2-3 inches. If you don’t have a food processor, just chop the paste ingredients until they’re as fine as you can get them.

 

 

In small handblender blitz the ginger, lime leaves, garlic, red chilli and lemon grass until finely chopped.

 

Heat a frying pan over a high heat and add a little sunflower oil.

 

Season the chicken pieces and brown off in the pan until you have a nice golden colour on either side.

 

Remove the chicken pieces from the pan and place on plate with some kitchen paper.

 

Pour the remaining oil and scrape any crispy bits into a medium sized high sided pot and place over a medium high heat.

 

Add in the blitzed ingredients and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes until the they release lots of great fragrant smells!

 

Add the chicken back in along with the coconut milk and fish sauce.

 

Cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes until the sauce has reduced a little and the chicken is thoroughly cooked through.

 

While the chicken is bubbling away, get the rice on.  Rice can get people a little panicked but the easiest way to think about it is that it is 1 part rice to 2 parts cold water.  What I do is measure the rice in a glass and then use the glass to pour in the water, that way it’s easy to see the volume you need to add.

 

Add the rice and water to a pot, cover with a lid and simmer over a medium heat for about 15 minutes or according to the instructions on the packet.

 

Serve the chicken over the rice and give a generous sprinkle of spring onions and coriander.

 

Devour the dinner! 🙂