You're going to find out how to make some bombdiggidy Coconut Chicken Curry. I made this firstly in one of my cooking classes and I loved the taste of it so much I decided to come home and recreate it. Unfortunately my supplies aren't as good as what I had available to me in class but I'm on a college kid's budget. You can probably get a better product from this, as long as you follow the same basic principle.
Supplies: Chicken, pepper, curry spices, oil, soy sauce, salt, garlic, butter, flour, coconut milk or cream (cream makes for a better taste), potatoes, carrots, and chicken stock.
Step 1: Mis en place. We have some chicken tenders here that we will dice up. It doesn't have to be small and it can be big. Just think bite sized. Under that we have our marinating supplies. Your marinating supplies you will also use in your curry itself. Think about what curry is. Curry is a type of stew with earthy spices. I grabbed curry powder, which is something good you'll want (just get a better quality curry powder). Things like carroway seeds, cardamon, and cumin seeds essentially makes your base of curry spices. Think of earthy smells to season your curry.
Step 2: Let's marinate! We'll use the garlic, salt, curry powder, soy sauce, and some oil for our marinade. Olive oil isn't your best choice, if you're going to use anything use sesame oil, it provides a taste your looking for in your curry. I had olive oil and no sesame so I used olive oil, don't do it. You can do this right before you start cooking or a few hours before hand to let the flavors settle. I did this a few hours before hand. A great suggestion would to add a few drops of your coconut milk product to the marinade for a better flavor. I used some almond milk I had handy instead.
Step 3: Grab you pan! Let's start by melting some butter in your pan or pot. Once your butter is melted toss in your chicken along with the marinade. Let it cook down a little bit and then dump some flour in there. Make sure all the flour gets, absorbed so to speak. If its all mushy that's okay, that's what you want. This process is called making a roux, mixing flour and butter. Once you got a nice thick roux (you can add more butter if needed) we then dump all your coconut milk in. You can see the can of milk that I had, it is a very bad brand. I would suggest trying to find some coconut cream, it provides a richer and sweeter coconut flavor, or try and find a really good coconut milk brand. Once you got your whole can in there you can fill that can you just used with some water and pour that in there *unless you have straight up chicken stock*. If you have a chicken bouillon cube you may then toss that in after the water. What I have requires water, if you have already pre-made chicken stock just pour a can's worth into your curry. Once everything is inside your curry DON'T FORGET THE VEGETABLES!!
Step 4: Let it thicken. Alright, your curry should look a little like this now. If it doesn't have the right color, don't worry, its the curry powder that's missing. I tossed in about 2/3 of my curry powder container into my curry and then mixed it. Make sure you taste your curry every now and then, checking the flavor, add pepper and salt to adjust the flavoring. If you don't want to add salt, add soy sauce to help along your curry. Let the curry boil away for a while, stirring occasionally. Keep an eye on your curry as it thickens, if it is too thick you'll need to add more water or soy sauce but it should be fine. It should take about 15 minutes time for your curry to thicken right and be ready. Serve your curry on top of rice or by itself with some bread :D
A friend once asked me for recipe ideas for vegetarians. Well here you are. all you have to do to make this a vegetarian recipe is take out the chicken as well as the stock. Think up some other veggies like onions, maybe tomatoes, and water chestnuts to replace your chicken with. For the chicken stock alternative, just use veggie stock (or you can add more coconut milk). Enjoy vegetarians!!
