Nyonya loves their chicken curry, or kari ayam in Malay.
When it comes to making chicken curry, I always choose the easy way out—I buy instant chicken curry paste, which is both convenient and quite tasty.
However, back home in Penang, my family would always make chicken curry from scratch.
Well, first of all, you just can’t beat the authentic great taste of a red-hot chicken curry (click the picture above to check out the chicken curry gallery); secondly, no instant curry mix would rival the fresh and exotic aroma of homemade spice paste of turmeric, fennel, cumin, coriander seeds, and other aromatics.
So, the answer is pretty clear. If you want the best chicken curry, be prepared to spend some time in your kitchen…
Chicken curry is made with bone-in chicken traditionally, and curry leaves are used to infuse the chicken curry with the intense fragrance of the curry leaves.
My family love eating chicken curry with nasi kunyit (turmeric sticky rice) but I will have to share that recipe in the future. For now, do check out this mouthwatering chicken curry recipe prepared by my sister-in-law in Penang.
Nyonya Chicken Curry Recipe
Chicken curry is made with bone-in chicken traditionally, and curry leaves are used to infuse the chicken curry with the intense fragrance of the curry leaves.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, remove head, neck, feet and chopped into pieces
- 200 g potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
- 200 ml thick coconut milk, to taste (optional)
- 1 sprig curry leaves, use only the leaves
- 1 star arise
- 1 cloves
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 5 tbsp oil
- 1 ½ cup water
Spice Paste (ground):
- 3 cloves garlic
- 18 shallots
- 12 dried chili, soaked and remove seeds
- 15 g turmeric
- 15 g coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 20 g shrimp paste, toasted
- 1 stick lemongrass, white part only
Seasoning
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
-
Heat up your wok, pour in 5 tbsp oil, sauté cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves, fry over low heat, add in spice paste and stir-fry until fragrant.
-
Add chicken, potatoes, curry leaves and fry well. Add in water, cover the pot, braise over low heat until chicken and potatoes are cooked well.
-
Add the thick coconut milk, salt and sugar. Continue to simmer in low heat for 20-30 minutes or until the chicken becomes tender. Remove and serve with white rice, bread, nasi kunyit, or roti jala.
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Paul Martin
Thanks Bee . . I live in England, came here with British Parents but was born in Kamunting BMH in ’61. . We Love a Curry . . But a Curry from home! I’ll try your recipe, all the best, Paul.
Rasa Malaysia
Thanks Paul.
Juliet
Does the lemongrass need to be pounded as well?
TS
I tried this today. Whole family loved it! We replaced turmeric with old ginger after reading the other users comments. Perfect. Thanks so much for this recipe!
Rasa Malaysia
Awesome!
Antonio
Hi, when making it without belacan (shrimp paste – impossible to find here!), can you use some thai or vietnamese fish sauce to compensate at least a bit? If so, a few tablespoons added at the end maybe?
Also if using powdered turmeric instead of fresh, how much should you add? Thanks, the dish looks amazing.
Rasa Malaysia
Yes, you can. I think you can try 1 teaspoon or to taste. I am not 100% sure without trying the recipe.
Aileen Daurat
My dish was yellow! I want it red like yours. What went wrong?
Irvan Said
Did you use dried chili? It is important to make it “red’. I usually add a little capsicum powder to make it redder.
Rasa Malaysia
Yes I did. You can use red chili powder to make it red.
Wai Ling Suan
I tried it yesterday and it was my first time. It turned out pretty well but mine is more yellowish than red in your pic.
Probably it will taste better today. Thanks
Verenia
Can you freeze this please?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes.
Shebu
Can we make without shrimp paste?
Rasa Malaysia
Yes you can.
Serena
Hi :) The turmeric – is that 15g fresh or 15g powder?
Thanks. Looking forward to trying this out!
Rasa Malaysia
Fresh.
Lan
Mine turned out bitter, too. I used turmeric powder. Did you use fresh turmeric?
Rasa Malaysia
Cut down on the amount if it’s bitter.
Kaye
Be careful not to burn the rempah, garlic and tumeric turns bitter when burnt. Use low to medium low fire and slowly fry.
Gillian
Thank you so much Bee for this great recipe! We loved it for its aroma and tastiness.
We even substituted chicken with pork and it tasted just as nice. :)
Sherlyn
How many people that can serve with this recipe?
Ayberk
Thank you for sharing this tasty looking recipe. I don’t have access to Asian style shallots but I can get French shallots. I think using 18 of those would be too much as they are bigger than their Asian counterparts. What would be the equivalent of 18 shallots in your recipe in grams?
Rasa Malaysia
Use half if they are bigger.
Ayberk
Ok, thank you.
Lyn
Hi, thanks for the recipe. I just tried it out. My curry has a slight bitter after taste. Was wondering whether this is normal?
Rasa Malaysia
That’s not supposed to happen. Make sure you didn’t burn the curry powder before you add the liquid.
Steve
15g of turmeric? Is this right? Seems a huge amount