Indonesian Chicken Curry

In recent years, Ireland has become known as a serious food destination but as a nation who also knows how to have a good time we still have a few dirty food secrets. Take, for example, the 3-in-1 – an infamous concoction of curry sauce, chips and fried rice – a favourite of late-night Dublin. While I’m not comparing this katsu curry to the 3-in-1, it does have similar qualities: spicy curry sauce and crispy chicken all served with sticky rice. Let’s just say it hits the spot, late night or not.

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! 🙂

The difference between a good curry and a great curry is balancing the spices in your paste. Below I share my ultimate combination resulting in an aromatic chicken curry recipe you’re sure to return to again and again.