Indonesian Chicken Curry

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
4 dried red chilies, stems removed
2 fresh green Thai chilies, stems and seeds removed
1/4 cup cashew nuts
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large shallot, peeled
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
5 wild lime leaves
2 sticks cinnamon
3 small stalks lemongrass
3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
1 (14.5 ounce) can coconut milk, divided
1 cup chicken broth
4 tablespoons fish sauce

Directions

In a food processor, combine the spices, chilies, cashew nuts, garlic, shallots, and ginger. Blend into a paste.
In a large pan on medium-high, heat the peanut oil and add the cinnamon stick, lemongrass stalks, and lime leaves. Fry for 1 minute, add in the paste from the food processor, and mix well. Fry this for 2 minutes and then add in the chicken pieces, cooking for 2 – 3 minutes on each side until browned.
Add half of the coconut milk, and add the broth. Cover, reduce the burner heat, and let this simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked throughout.
Add the last half of the coconut milk, and add the fish sauce. Stir well to combine and then serve, making sure to remove the cinnamon sticks, lemongrass stalks, and lime leaves.

My Notes

I halved this recipe, except I used an entire can of coconut milk anyway. I didn’t have dried or fresh chilies so I used a cube of frozen red chili paste. In place of fresh garlic and ginger, I also used 1 frozen cube each of those. I didn’t have lemongrass so poured in about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Instead of lime leaves, I used fresh curry tree leaves. I skipped the shallots but added some red onion instead. Instead of cashew nuts, I used about 1/4 cup of ground almonds that I had in the house. I also used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth because that’s all I had.
I also added about 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and about 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds, I’m not sure why. 😀

This turned out nice, if a bit spicy because the frozen red chili cubes include the seeds and stem. I’ll need to make this again once I have the right ingredients and use maybe only 1/2 a chili cube! This froze okay. 🙂