Spicy Dry Curry Chicken

Making curry chicken was always an easy affair to me because of the ready-made paste that I brought from Singapore. To my 'horror', just when I have prepared all the ingredients the other night,I realized I have no more prepacked curry paste! This was a 'no choice' option or 'bo bian' but I was quite glad that circumstances entailed me try this out because it turns out to be quite good!

I added some potatoes and minced ginger (my Dad's secret) to the original recipe which I took from 'Malaysian Delicacies' from Patsie Cheong and tipped in the whole can (400ml) of coconut milk (because I wouldn't have know what to do with the remaining), so it has more gravy than what it is required for the dry version (which needs 250ml). Do the adjustment as you prefer along with the seasoning, it works well either way. But I was just proud of myself making curry from scratch for the first time ;)

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, cut into large pieces

3-4 medium potatoes, peeled, quartered

250ml (dry version) or 400ml (more gravy version) coconut milk

salt and sugar to taste

1/2 teaspoon chicken stock granules

1 medium size onion, minced finely or pounded

3 cloves of garlic, minced finely or pounded
2 cm section of fresh ginger, minced finely

3 tablespoons curry powder

1.5 tablespoons chili powder

1.5 tablespoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon fennel seeds (ground)/powder

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

4 cardamoms or 2 teaspoons ground cardamon

4 cloves

2 cinammon sticks

2 stalks curry leaves

Steps

1. Pan-fry the potatoes until they are half-cooked or slightly golden brown and set aside.
   
   
   
2. Heat 5 tablespoons of oil and stir fry the rest of the dry ingredients except the chicken and curry leaves until fragrant.
   
   
   
3. Add in the chicken and stir fry until cooked.
   
   
   
4. Pour in the coconut milk and season with salt and sugar if you are making the dry version, season with some chicken stock granules if you are making it with more gravy and add in the curry leaves last.
   
   
   
5. Serve with rice or you can have some toasted baguettes with it.