Chicken Curry with Rice

Name: Chicken Curry with Rice and Vegetables Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: Medium-heat curry paste 50 g; Basmati rice 1 cup (180 g); Chicken thighs 4; Coconut milk 400 ml; Water (boiling) 0.5 cup (100 ml); Carrot 1; Onion 1; Bell pepper 2; Lime 2 (1 for the sauce, 1 for serving); Hot chili pepper 2 (1 for the sauce, 1 for serving); Olive oil 2-3 tbsp; Cilantro 0.5 bunch; Lemongrass 1-2; Lemongrass paste (optional) 15 g; Ginger 1 piece; Green onion 4-5; Garlic 4-5 cloves

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1 h 30 mins

The most common dishes of India and much of South Asia are rice with a spicy sauce made with curry paste or powder and vegetables, often with chicken or meat added. The general name for such dishes is curry with rice. The flavor can range from mild to fiery hot, depending heavily on local tradition and the cook’s preference. There is a joke that anything made with curry counts as Indian cuisine.

Curry is a whole class of spicy dishes with a thick sauce of stewed vegetables, beans, and legumes, with or without meat, seasoned with a spicy blend of herbs and spices. As a rule, the dish consists of rice and sauce, although the sauce on its own goes very well with plain bread or an unleavened flatbread. By the way, the spice blend used for this dish is also called curry, and it comes as a dry powder or a paste.

Interestingly, the Tamil word கறி (kari) means “sauce.” In world cuisines, any dish or sauce that contains this seasoning is commonly called a curry. Chicken curry — pieces of chicken breast stewed in sauce. Serve with rice and herbs. Even plain fried cod becomes a tasty, piquant dish with curry. An ordinary piece of grilled chicken can be brushed with a curry-based sauce to get a beautiful and very tasty glaze. Try making chicken ala-too.

Curry powder is a widespread blend of many simple spices. In India a similar blend is called garam masala. The main ingredients of a “simple” curry are coriander, turmeric powder, fenugreek, cumin, and some chili. There seems to be no fixed, “classic” recipe, and everyone makes the blend to their own taste. The secondary and additional components change often, as do the proportions. There can be 15-20 of them, and the blend can be hot or gentle.

We decided to make a sauce with paste, vegetables, and basmati rice. As a bonus, we stewed chicken in the sauce. This kind of curry with rice is typical of island Asia, and the sauce uses coconut milk. Although the dish can be made with the dry blend sold in any store, we chose to use paste, which is also easy to find. To our taste, we picked a ready-made curry paste of medium heat; this is often shown on the package as a half or a third of a drawn chili pepper.

Ingredients

4 servings

Medium-heat curry paste 50 g
Basmati rice 1 cup (180 g)
Chicken thighs 4
Coconut milk 400 ml
Water (boiling) 0.5 cup (100 ml)
Carrot 1
Onion 1
Bell pepper 2
Lime 2 (1 for the sauce, 1 for serving)
Hot chili pepper 2 (1 for the sauce, 1 for serving)
Olive oil 2-3 tbsp
Cilantro 0.5 bunch
Lemongrass 1-2
Lemongrass paste (optional) 15 g
Ginger 1 piece
Green onion 4-5
Garlic 4-5 cloves

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparation

For this dish you need a ready-made spice paste from the store. Just pay attention to its heat level. Good canned coconut milk has long been an everyday product. Basmati rice is best here: it is very fragrant and slightly fluffy once cooked.

Before you start cooking, boil the rice (following the package instructions) and leave it covered with a plate. You will only need it when serving. If the chicken thighs are frozen, thaw them.
A thick sauce needs a good amount of vegetables. As usual: onion, carrot, and a few large bell peppers in different colors. For aromatics: garlic, ginger, and lemongrass. For serving: lime, cilantro, and green onion tops.

Prepare the chicken and cut all the vegetables in advance. Before the stewing starts, the dish comes together quickly, so it’s best not to get distracted or lose time. Trim the chicken thighs well of fat, skin, and membranes, leaving the bone in. Peel the peppers and dice them. Cut the carrot into thin rounds or half-rounds, and peel the onion and cut it into strips.
Separately, slice the lemongrass thinly across the stalk into pieces as long as a matchstick, and chop the garlic and the peeled ginger. Set aside one lime for juicing. These ingredients will be fried with the paste in which the chicken stews.

Chicken and the spice base

Brown the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and brown the chicken thighs on all sides, turning from time to time. The chicken will stay half raw inside. Move the browned chicken to a separate plate.
Fry the spices with the curry paste. In the oil left in the pan, fry the chopped ginger and garlic, add the lemongrass and one hot chili pepper. If the chili is very hot, it’s better not to peel it and to fry the whole pod. Fry everything together, stirring, for 2-3 mins, and make sure the garlic doesn’t burn.
Add all the curry paste, and the lemongrass paste if you like. Lemongrass stalks are easy to find in stores; the paste turns up, but not often. It adds a wonderful note of flavor to the dish, so if you find it, definitely try it.
Fry the spicy herbs and vegetables with the paste for 1-2 mins, so the paste blends with the garlic, ginger, and other ingredients and fries lightly. This creates the spice base for the sauce in which the vegetables and chicken will stew.
Fry the vegetables with the paste and add the lime juice. Add all the chopped vegetables to the fried paste: pepper, onion, and carrot. Stirring, fry over medium heat for 1-2 mins so the vegetables are coated with curry. Add the juice of half a lime. The sauce should be slightly sour, so you can squeeze in the whole lime to taste.

Stewing in the sauce

Pour in the coconut milk and water and bring to a boil. Shake the can of coconut milk well before opening, as coconut milk tends to separate. Pour the milk over the fried vegetables, add half a cup of boiling water (100 ml) from the kettle, stir, and bring to a boil. The total volume of liquid will be about 0.5 l, enough for the chicken to stew.
Stew the chicken in the sauce and reduce it until thick. When the liquid boils, add the pieces of browned chicken to the sauce with the vegetables, cover the pan with a lid, and simmer over low heat for 20 mins, turning the chicken thighs in the sauce once or twice.
Then remove the lid, turn up the heat, and reduce for another 5-10 mins. The chicken takes 25-30 mins in total. A significant part of the liquid should evaporate from the sauce, leaving it about as thick as store-bought tomato juice. Don’t make the sauce too thick.

Serving

Arrange the rice, vegetables, and chicken and pour the sauce over. Curry with rice is usually served on a flat plate, but for a very thin sauce it’s better to use a soup plate, otherwise the sauce will spread. Put the cooked rice in a mound or in balls, the vegetables from the sauce next to it, and spoon 1-2 tablespoons of sauce over. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables.
Sprinkle with herbs and add the lime and chili. Finely chop the cilantro and green onion tops and sprinkle over the chicken and rice. Divide the pieces of lemongrass from the sauce among the plates. Add 1-2 wedges of fresh lime, whose juice can be squeezed over the rice and chicken. Roughly chop the second chili pod and add it to the plate.
Curry with rice is served hot. It goes very well with plain white bread, and fresh lavash with herbs is a good choice too. The dish is very fragrant and spicy, but only moderately hot. If you don’t want to make it hotter, you can leave out the hot chili when serving.

Calories and macros

810 kcal

Serving ≈ 360 g

Protein30 g15% of kcal
Fat54 g61% of kcal
Carbs49 g24% of kcal

100 g223 kcalProtein 8.3 gFat 14.9 gCarbs 13.4 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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