Try this Malaysian Chicken Curry recipe, or contribute your own.
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 teaspoons light brown sugar
- 8 chicken thighs
- 2 stalks lemongrass sliced
- 2 shallots, peeled and chopped
- 1 tablespoon freshly minced ginger
- 1-2 thai chilis sliced
- 2 tablespoon curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric
- 1/2 teaspoon chinese crushed chili or crushed red pepper flakes
- 4 tablespoons oil divided
- 3-4 small potatoes peeled and quartered
- 2 star anise
- 5 kaffir lime leaves
- 1.5 cups coconut milk
- Carbohydrate 9.43571686474009 g
- Cholesterol 97.5600000015216 mg
- Fat 90.3781331782253 g
- Fiber 0.755006786669267 g
- Protein 23.5334093373765 g
- Saturated Fat 28.2479051625329 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (325g)
- Sodium 532.672802919325 mg
- Sugar 8.68071007807083 g
- Trans Fat 4.87987360482494 g
- Calories 928 calories
Step-by-step
- Crush lemongrass, garlic, shallots, ginger, and Thai chilis in a mortar and pestle until it resembles a paste. Alternatively, you can blitz this in your food processor. Stir in curry powder, turmeric, crushed chili flakes, and 2 tablespoons oil.
- Coat chicken throughly with the curry paste and let marinate for 30 minutes.
- In a large dutch oven, heat up remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and fry the chicken, skin side down, until golden. Flip the chicken skin side up and add the potatoes. Stir in coconut milk, chicken stock, cinnamon stick, star anise, and lime leaves.
- Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 1 hour, or until chicken is soft and tender. Season with fish sauce and brown sugar and enjoy!
Substituting dried spice powders for fresh aromatics in the base paste alters the body of the sauce entirely, shifting a viscous, clinging gravy into a thin broth that fails to cling to the poultry. Breaking down lemongrass stalks, shallots, garlic, ginger, and chilis in a mortar and pestle releases cellular contents more aggressively than a mechanical blade, producing a fibrous purée that traps oil molecules during the initial fry. This mechanical disruption ensures that the suspended solids do not separate from the fat phase when high heat hits the Dutch oven.
Frying the chicken thighs skin-side down in two tablespoons of oil renders the subcutaneous fat directly into the cooking vessel, crisping the outer surface while infusing the pan with animal lipids. This browning stage creates Maillard compounds on the chicken skin that subsequently dissolve into the simmering coconut milk and chicken stock mixture, deepening the umami profile of the sauce. Allowing the meat to marinate in the spiced paste for thirty minutes penetrates the surface proteins, ensuring that the interior retains savory depth as the exterior cooks.
Simmering the contents gently for one hour allows the starch from the quartered potatoes to leach into the surrounding liquid, thickening the coconut milk naturally without requiring external thickening agents. Whole spices such as star anise and cinnamon sticks release fat-soluble volatile compounds slowly over this extended cooking window, whereas ground equivalents would release their essential oils too rapidly and turn bitter. Kaffir lime leaves contribute delicate citrus aromatics that remain stable during prolonged low-temperature liquid cooking.
Balancing the final dish requires the addition of fish sauce and light brown sugar only after the meat reaches fork-tender softness, preventing the sugars from caramelizing prematurely and scorching on the bottom of the pot. Fresh aromatics like lemongrass offer bright, grassy top notes that bottled purées lack due to pasteurization destroying volatile sulfur compounds. Pairing the finished curry with laminated flatbreads like roti canai provides a structural contrast to the tender poultry and starchy root vegetables.
