Spicy Sour Tasty Chicken

Easy and fast to cook....This chicken dish is yummy! I was browsing through some old recipe books recently and found this recipe card that read "Masala Chicken" and I find it appealing. Masala Chicken is an Indian cuisine. The most important factor for me is the dish must be easy to prepare and easy to obtain ingredients. This dish is spicy and has soft sour flavour and goes well with bread or rice, sounds appealing to you, try it then... :))

Simple Ingredients

Half chicken or 3 Chicken Thigh - chopped into small pieces

• 3 Tbs chilly powder
  
• 2 large red onion - cut it into 1/2 rings
• 2 cm young ginger - shredded
• 2 cloves garlic - cut into thin slices
• 4 dried chilly - cut into 3cm length
• 1 pc cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp cummin powder
• some curry leaves
• 1 Tbs rice vinegar
• salt and sugar - to taste

Simple Process :

1. Heat 2 Tbs oil in the pan and saute the onion rings, garlic, ginger, dried chilly, cinnamon stick and curry leaves till aromatic

2. Add in the chicken and sprinkle the chilly powder and cummin powder all over the chicken, stir mix well

3. Add 1/4 cup water, lower the heat and let the chicken simmer with the lid covered for the next 15 - 20mins or till meat is almost cook

4. Lastly, add in the rice vinegar, salt and sugar to taste, give it a good stir for 2 - 3 mins

5. It is ready to serve. You may eat with steamed rice or bread

Rendang Chicken

Look at this beautiful and flavorful dish, it is called Rendang Chicken ** (see extracts from Wikipedia). This is my version of Rendang Chicken aka dried spicy chicken with fried grated coconut. There are many versions of recipe for preparing Rendang and as long as the key ingredients are used I believe it would taste just as good the homecook way, sure we cannot beat the ones served commercially.

A friend of mine onced shared with me that the Rendang Beef sold at the Nasi Kandar stalls are cooked over those balanced and kept for days...no wonder it taste so good! hahaha....

Rendang Chicken dish is a little spicy and creamy to taste with a beautiful aroma from the kaffir leaves (daun limau perut), lemon grass (serai) and fresh turmeric (kunyit) plus coconut milk and a good blend of fried grated coconut to make it complete.

Extracts from Wikipedia :

Rendang is made from beef (or occasionally chicken, mutton) slowly cooked in coconut milk and spices for several hours until almost all the liquid is gone, allowing the meat to absorb the spicy condiments. The cooking process changes from boiling to frying as the liquid evaporates. The slow cooking process allows the meat to absorb all the spices and to become tender.

Look at those herbs n ingredients that were used for this dish :

All you need : for 1/2 chicken

• 10 shallots
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 pcs of lemon grass (serai)
• 1 thumbsize turmeric (kunyit)
• 5 pcs red chilli
• Blend all the above together to form a paste
• some kaffir lime leaves (daun limau perut) ** a must!
• 1 box coconut milk 200 gms
• 1/2 grated coconut - fried it till golden brown (kerisik)

** I have omitted galangal (lengkuas) to prevent it from "overshadowing" the beautiful aroma of lemon grass, kaffir leaves and tumeric

Simple Process

1. Heat the wok with some oil and saute the grounded paste till fragrant
2. Add in the chicken and mix well with the grounded paste, add kaffir lime leaves
3. Add the 1 box coconut milk and let it simmer over low heat for next 30 minutes
4. Allow the meat to slowly absorbed the coconut milk and its ingredients
5. Keep stirring and when gravy starts to evaporate, add in the fried grated coconut and give it a good coat all over
6. Ready to serve with steamed rice

Have a Happy and Enjoyable Meal....

Chicken Curry Jean

I enjoy simplifying recipes, same time ensuring getting the good taste. I called it the simple version Curry Chicken as compared to my Granny and Mum's way of cooking. Surprisingly, my nyonya aunty gave me lots of praises recently when she tasted my version curry chicken....phuhyo! You know something, it is not easy to gain praises from a good cook and I did it, WOW!

Cooking has been part of my hobby and also I have a great family who truly enjoy what I served...it's truly motivating, yeah! The cooking time for this dish is less than 1 hour.

What you require to make this curry....for a family of 4

1/2 chicken or 2 chicken thighs

5 potatoes

1 tin evaporated milk

2 lime - squeeze the juice

salt - to taste

Curry Paste

1 small pkt Fish Curry Powder

1 small pkt Meat Curry Powder

4 blended big onions

What is next?

1. Fry the curry paste till aromatic and add in the chicken and potatoes, stir well

2. Add a little water to keep the pan moist at low heat

3. Add in the lime juice and simmer the chicken till tender

4. Add in the evaporated milk and give it a final boil

5. Ready to serve....

a. Serve it as a dish by itself

b. Serve it as "kon lo curry mee" - Dry Curry Chicken Mee/Beehoon

garnish with Mint Leave (Pudina)....it taste Voila!