February 3, 2007
Chicken Recipe (6) - Dried Chicken Curry (Indonesian Style)
This is an interesting dish which marks the virgin use of my new mortar and pestle.
I remember I once chatted with a food stall owner (he sells rice with Indonesian dishes) on how I was not able to make my curry as tasty as his. I told him I had used a premix, and I think I detected a snigger as he replied in a half-scornful voice that it’s a lot of hard work to get the paste right.
Now I know what he meant when he said “get the paste right”. This Dried Chicken Curry dish (also known as “Kari Ayam Kering” - “Kari” means “curry”, “Ayam” means “chicken” and I think “Kering” must then mean “dry”?!?) requires mincing and pounding of ingredients to meld the paste ingredients into one aromatic paste, which is then saute’d till fragrant and stir fried with the chicken.
For this cooking attempt, I didn’t use an electric blender to first mince the paste ingredients which was why the paste still had little bits of garlic and shallots visible. A mortar and pestle die-hard fan would probably shake her head and wave a finger of shame at me, since the paste should have well blended indistinguishable ingredients.
That aside, this post is my contribution to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Kuchenlatein from Germany. Lemongrass is the herb, Dried Chicken Curry (Indonesian style) is the dish.
An ancient Malaysian legend has it that lemongrass was once considered a sacred herb by native tribes of Malaysia. The belief was that if warriors applied lemongrass balm on the skin, together with special incantations and prayers by a priest, they would be able to prevent a sword from penetrating their skin.
I don’t recommend that you rush to buy lemongrass to test this tribal belief. Instead, I would provide you with the Dried Chicken Curry (Kari Ayam Kering) recipe :):
Ingredients (Serves 4):
- 6 chicken thighs
- 4 tbsp yellow curry powder
- 1 pc galangal, 1 inch thick
- 1 stalk lemongrass (only use the whitish part)
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
Paste Ingredients:
- 8 dried chillies (soaked in warm water for 15 mins)
- 8 small shallots
- 6 candlenuts (or 12 raw cashew nuts. I did not have candlenuts, so I used 2 raw cashew nuts for each candlenut requirement)
- 5 cloves garlic
Cooking Method:
1. Rub yellow curry powder on chicken thighs and set aside for 30 mins.
2. Cut galangal into thinner slices. Flatten galangal and lemongrass with handle end of knife or using a pestle.
3. Squeeze dry soaked chillies. Use electric blender to mince chillies with the rest of the paste ingredients, then grind with mortar and pestle. If you do not have an electric blender, then use knife to cut the chillies and paste ingredients into small, minced pieces before grinding.
4. Heat 2tbsp oil in wok. Medium heat. When oil is hot enough, saute ground paste until fragrant, then add galangal and lemongrass and stir fry for a few minutes.
5. Add marinated chicken and stir fry briefly to mix well with paste. Add coconut milk and cook over low heat. Add sugar and salt, cover wok and continue to simmer chicken using low heat until chicken is cooked (about 20-30 minutes).
6. Serve with plain white rice.
Cook’s Notes:
1. If chicken thighs are too thick, make small deep slits on the thickest part of the chicken before cooking so that the marinate and paste ingredients flavor can penetrate. This also allows for more even cooking of the chicken.
2. To check if chicken is cooked, pierce chicken with fork and only clear juices should flow out, or pry into the incisions to see if the meat is no longer pink.
3. For leftovers, cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Throw out the bones. Mix chicken meat well with gravy so that the spice paste does not burn. Reheat in oven (450F) for 10 mins, then under broil (450F) for another 5 minutes.
Bite This!
More recipes:
Chicken Recipe (2) - Curry Chicken
I must! I MUST! I must increase my PUFF!
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February 3rd, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Ooooh, this dish looks delicious. I have never cooked Curry Chicken from scratch, always instant paste this and that. I will have to try your recipe. Mmm mmm mmm.
February 4th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Don’t get me started on the blender (remember my pizza?). How hard can it be for a blender to blend basil? Not sure if our blender sucks or if we just need new blades.
February 4th, 2007 at 12:49 am
Thank you for joining this week the WHB. This sounds delicious.
February 4th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Makes me miss my mom’s dried chicken kari (dunno what recipe she used though -maybe some paste also …heh heh). Need to pound till paste?…*no time*, man! ;p
semi-mortar pestle for me, with 50% electric food processor blending shd work!
February 4th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Oooh, this looks delish. Are you sure you can’t use a pre-mix? ;)
February 4th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Hey RM! You use instant paste too heh! Then I don’t feel so bad hehe.
DF - Erm… user problem? Oops kidding.
Hi Ulrike, thanks for hosting WHB!
Tigerfish - Ya ya… use electric blender first! Easier.
Thanks Chopsticks, I used Rasaku Chicken Premix before, it tasted nice too. Just that I have a nonya and an Indonesian cook book and I think it’s time for me to do some “advanced” cooking like making a paste from scratch :)
February 5th, 2007 at 1:43 am
yummys :)) You’ve used all the 2 important spices - galangal & lemongrass, this 2 goes a long way :)) wahh, u really use tt mortar thingy ya ? :)
February 5th, 2007 at 3:25 am
Hmmm. It´s great. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I´ve always looked for one in vain. :))
February 5th, 2007 at 3:46 am
Thanks for the recipe. I have saved it for future try! ;)
February 5th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Oh my!! My mouth was watering when I saw that picture and read the recipe. Congratulations on your new mortar and pestle. You putit to good use, I must say!
February 5th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Sounds very good. I have a mortar and pestle, which I admit I’m sometimes too lazy to use. I know it does make a difference though in some dishes.
February 5th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
MeltingWok - I find Galangal and Lemongrass go together in so many Asian recipes, which in a good way means no wastage for me when I buy these 2 ingredients :)
Helene - Hope you like it. This recipe is a step out of my comfort zone of using premixes!
Anh - You are welcomed! When you make it, I’d love to read about it!
Sher - Thanks! I pounded and ground the ingredients and they still didn’t get to become a paste!! I really need to use the electric blender to do the first half of the work next time!
Kalyn - I saw you used your mortar and pestle to grind your garlic and anchovies for that cauliflower post. You know what? I made that dish following your recipe and it tasted so so good! BTW, I didn’t use my mortar and pestle for that one. LOL!
February 7th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
[…] The good bites: 1. The end result for my Beef Rendang looks like my Dried Chicken Curry, doesn’t it? It did not look quite like the type you find in restaurants and I think the reason is because I used yellow curry powder instead of red curry powder. […]