deepavali at home: a simple chicken curry

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10.19.2009

deepavali at home: a simple chicken curry

I think my new photographic muse might be floors, between all the time I’ve spent in the last week looking down between here and Singapore!

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Kolam at the Concorde Hotel, which has a fantastically loud and boisterous weekend dim sum

Naturally, I was inspired to bring a little bit of India home, so I took an Indian cooking class and made my first authentic Indian chicken curry, courtesy of my instructor, Sheela Kalaivanan.

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My own little kolam, which is made of (left to right, top to bottom) coriander powder, garlic paste, chili powder, canola oil, garam masala, ginger paste, turmeric, coconut milk, tomatoes and onion

Homemade curry is a wondrous thing — soon after I started cooking, our house filled with the most wonderful, warm aroma. For me, it also required several hours and a healthy dose of patience, as I found the sheer number and order of ingredients to be a heady experience. The end result, however, was well worth it; the curry flavor turned out deliciously spicy, and the sauce was thick and hearty.

Sheela’s Chicken Curry

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 50 mins

Serves: 4

A simple chicken curry adapted from Sheela, my Indian cooking instructor in Kuala Lumpur

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
3 medium onions, minced
1 large tomato, chopped
Two small green Thai chilies (or one jalapeno would also work)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated*
1 teaspoon fresh garlic, grated*
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon garam masala (Indian spice that can be purchased in specialty grocery stores)
1/2 cup coconut milk
4 tablespoons canola or other vegetable oil
Cilantro leaves, for garnish

Instructions

Rinse the chicken pieces and pat dry with paper towels.
Add one teaspoon of turmeric to the washed chicken, then rinse again and pat dry again.
Heat the oil in a deep skillet or wok and add the onion, sauteing until the onion is a deep golden brown, almost the color of milk chocolate. (This step is crucially important for getting a thick curry without having chunks of onion visible in the sauce.)
Add the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients, except for the chicken, and sprinkle a few drops of water, stirring constantly to keep the mixture fairly viscous.
As the mixture cooks, you may need to keep sprinkling water to maintain a gravy-like consistency.
Continue stirring until the oils from the mixture start to separate from the rest of the mixture (this may take several minutes).
Add chicken and turn several times to coat the chicken, mixing for about 5 minutes until the chicken is well-covered with the spice mixture.
Add 1 cup water and cover the skillet with a tight-fitting lid, allowing the chicken to cook for around 7-9 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the center.
Add coconut milk and bring the sauce and chicken to a boil for a few minutes, then turn off the burner and allow chicken to rest.
Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve with rice and naan (if you’re in a bind for naan, it’s available in the frozen food section of your local Trader Joe’s).
* Sheela ran garlic and ginger for her recipe through a food processor to create a paste, but if you want to save some time, grated would do just fine.