Curry Chicken

Well, as usual, am on a "self-imposed" budget challenge, hence need to find ways to make our meals as economical as possible.  So, I bought a try of whole chopped chicken and I used half of it for stew.  Decided to use the other half for curry chicken since I have the other ingredients (curry leaves, lemon grass etc) in the fridge.  And becos I super love using thermal pot (wah, cuts down the cooking time by half!), so this round, instead of totally relying on stove, I used the thermal pot to help.


Ingredients:
- half chicken, chopped into pieces (can replace with frozen wings too)
- potatoes (skinned, chopped into halves)
- one stalk of lemon grass (chopped diagonally into 2inches long)
- curry leaves (2 sprigs, use leaves only)
- curry chicken paste* (see below)
- coconut milk
- pinch of salt
- oil (for frying potatoes and for the curry afterwards)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- half pot hot water

* This is the paste that I always use:

Steps:
1. Heat up the oil in wok on medium fire.

2. Add in the chopped potatoes and fry till golden brown.  Dish and set aside.  (I like to do it this way to prevent the potatoes from "disintegrating" lol!!)

3. Leave about 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok.  Add in the curry paste and stir fry continuously till all mixed and fragrance is out.  Throw in the lemongrass and curry leaves, continue to stir fry till you seen the chilli oil coming out.

4. Add in the chicken and give a good fry.  Ensure all chicken parts are coated with the curry paste. Fry for about 5-10 mins.

5. Toss in the potatoes and continue to fry.  By this time, the wok should be pretty dry.  Add in one cup of water.  Continue to fry again.

6. Add in the sugar, and a bit of salt.

7. Pour about half pot of hot water into the wok of curry and fry continuously.

8. Add in the pack of coconut milk and stir well.  Let the curry boil.  By now, the chicken should be at least 80% cooked.  At this stage, you can either:

a. continue to boil the curry till chicken are all well-cooked OR
b. dish into the thermal pot and let it self cook for 30mins or longer (if you want it to be more tender).

Happy Eating!

Happy mum