2012 Cooking Club Week 2: Burmese/North Thai Chicken Curry

Curry Addict

I picked this recipe because its my favourite Thai/Burmese style curry for a few years now.
Im inspired to make it regularly and never tire of it. What makes it special for me is its slow cooked whole chicken thighs which impart an amazing flavour from the juices which is far superior to using stock and chicken fillet/breasts.
The Burmese influences are the onions and ginger typical to Burmese cooking. The original curry paste used is Kua curry paste, I have given the recipe below if you want to make it yourself. Any shop bought thai curry paste will suffice and give great results so its not necessary to make the paste.
Note: in the pictures I used basil, this was just an experiment and it didn’t work!


Burmese/North Thai Chicken curry
(serves 2-3 people)
2tbs Vegetable oil
6 chicken thighs (preferable free range)
2 onions finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2-3 tbs of any Thai curry paste
5cm piece of ginger finely chopped
1/2tsp salt
400ml coconut milk
400ml of water
2tbs lime juice
2tsp of palm sugar
2tbs fish sauce
2 types of Asian veg chopped

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
Add 2tbs of oil to an oven proof pot and heat up to a medium heat on the stove top.
Add the garlic, ginger, onion, salt, curry paste and sauté for 5mins.
Then add the coconut milk, 200ml of water and stir them in well.
Add the chicken thighs and bring to the boil.
Put the lid on the pot and transfer it to the preheated oven. Cook in the oven for minimum 1 hour but preferably 2 hours. Remove the pot from the oven and stir lightly every 30mins and ensure there is enough liquid in the pot and it doesn’t go to dry(add a little water if its going dry). Add the asian veg to the pot 20mins before the end of the cooking time
When the chicken is cooked remove the pot from the oven and take out the chicken thighs onto a plate(take care to keep all the juices in the pot, give the chicken thighs a little squeeze as you are picking them out). The meat should be falling off the bone so remove all the good edible meat from the thighs and put it back into the pot.
Sometimes there will be excess oil from the chicken floating on top and the sauce will look separated. At this stage you can stir the mix, spoon off the excess oil and add water if its too dry.
Put the chicken bones and remains into another pot, add 200ml of water and bring to the boil. Stir the pot well for 2 minutes to release all the juices from the chicken remains and then strain the liquid back into the main pot. Squeeze the chicken remains against the sieve to get as much of the juices out as possible.
Bring the main pot to the boil and stir in the lime, palm sugar and fish sauce. Simmer for 5mins, it should be ready now but check the consistency, it should be like a standard thai curry so add water if necessary. it should taste delicate, light and sumptuous, serve with boiled or pilau rice.

Kua curry paste
15 dried red chillies
1tsp salt
20g of shallots
50g of garlic
1tbs finely chopped ginger
4 stalks of lemongrass
1ts finely chopped kaffir lime peel or leaves
1tbs white peppercorns
1tbs ground turmeric

Grind all ingredients with a mortar and pestle or in a blender to a paste consistency.

Faith

I think I'll try that next week!

Malari

I've found it hard recently to get chicken thighs. At least, still on the bone. Which is annoying because I much prefer the meat to breast meat!

Anyway, always look forward to trying a new Thai dish!

Curry Addict

Malari wrote: »

I've found it hard recently to get chicken thighs. At least, still on the bone. Which is annoying because I much prefer the meat to breast meat!

Anyway, always look forward to trying a new Thai dish!

my local superquinn and dunnes always have packs of free range thighs, legs are also grand to use in the recipe.

littlehedgehog

That looks fantastic

reallyrose

The kaffir lime, where do I get that? Or is there something else I can use instead?

Curry Addict

reallyrose wrote: »

The kaffir lime, where do I get that? Or is there something else I can use instead?

kaffir lime leaves are widely available here. Tesco and superquinn do them and most asian shops.
its nice to make the paste yourself but it will work well with a shop bought paste, preferably thai green or red curry paste.

Mr Magnolia

I've Thai green curry paste made up in the freezer so I'll be giving this a whirl.

Curry Addict

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

I've Thai green curry paste made up in the freezer so I'll be giving this a whirl.

that should work great, as you can see from the pictures i used my home made green curry paste from the freezer

i have used the kua curry paste, there isnt much of a difference in the end result so no need to be fussy :pac:

Mrs Fox

Aaaaah comfort food... will give this a try.

BaZmO*

Had this for dinner earlier and it was gorgeous. Really beautifully balanced with a spicy kick.

When I make it again the only thing I'll do differently is take the chicken out with 20 mins to go and separate the meat from the bones, and put the vegetable in then. The chicken was so tender it was a bit difficult to take it all out with the veg in the way.

Thanks again OP, another top curry recipe!

Curry Addict

looks great, glad you enjoyed

Susie_Q

Hi Curry Addict,

Naturally I'm dying to try this after your amazing recipe last year. Two quick questions. Can I use lemon juice instead of lime? I'm in India now and can't get limes where I am. Anything else that I could substitute or just leave it out?

Also I don't have an oven, just a gas stove. Can I cook this in a big pot on the stove? I have a pressure cooker if that would help at all. Looking forward to giving this a go this weekend

Curry Addict

hi susie, i think its better just to leave out the lime, it will still taste great without it.
if you simmer the pot with the lid on for an hour an a half that should do it.
i would give it a light stir every 15 mins to make sure its not sticking to the bottom of the pot, careful not to break up the chicken pieces. also keep it a saucy consistency in the pot while cooking by adding water if necessary. if your sauce is a little thin at the end simply boil it down.
hope it works out

Faith

I made this yesterday. It was gorgeous! I'm not good with spicy things, so I used a yellow curry paste, but doing it again I'd definitely use red or green (or add some chilli). My boyfriend went back for seconds, demanded we have the leftovers for lunch today and went back for seconds on that too . Fab recipe!

Malari

I made this at the weekend. Butcher only had 5 x chicken thighs left :pac:

I made the paste and everything, so I found the whole process quite time consuming Also there seemed to be an awful lot of oil to remove from the surface of the sauce, although I did remove the skin off the chicken before cooking. I liked the flavour though, it was quite subtle and fragrant and the chicken was just delicious and falling off the bone. I have a fair bit of paste left over for my next Thai curry too.

Curry Addict

Malari wrote: »

I made this at the weekend. Butcher only had 5 x chicken thighs left :pac:

I made the paste and everything, so I found the whole process quite time consuming Also there seemed to be an awful lot of oil to remove from the surface of the sauce, although I did remove the skin off the chicken before cooking. I liked the flavour though, it was quite subtle and fragrant and the chicken was just delicious and falling off the bone. I have a fair bit of paste left over for my next Thai curry too.

the amount of oil you get varies widely and is wholely dependent on how fatty the chicken pieces are. its better to leave the skin on the chicken while you are cooking it as it imparts its flavor and its easier to take the chicken out of the pot after cooking.
good move to make the paste yourself. it may be a bit of hassle but its better than shop bought imho.

Mr Magnolia

Sumptuous. Twas really lovely. The curry paste was a big factor in mine so I'd urge people to put the effort in, the texture and flavour that the thighs brought to the table was new for me in a curry and I'd go with them again! I'd mine with coconut rice. Thanks again Curry Addict.

hdowney

this sounds AMAZING. i am going to try this. i am going to look out in my local tesco for the lime leaves (living in wicklow we don't have the same amount of choice as places like dublin) but if not i shall use green curry paste. can't wait to try it. think that might be tuesdays dinner sorted.

Curry Addict

hdowney wrote: »

this sounds AMAZING. i am going to try this. i am going to look out in my local tesco for the lime leaves (living in wicklow we don't have the same amount of choice as places like dublin) but if not i shall use green curry paste. can't wait to try it. think that might be tuesdays dinner sorted.

tesco should have lime leaves. if not a teaspoon of lime zest would do just as well.
green curry paste works perfectly well also if u want to save yourself some work.

hdowney

Curry Addict wrote: »

tesco should have lime leaves. if not a teaspoon of lime zest would do just as well.
green curry paste works perfectly well also if u want to save yourself some work.

i like the idea of doing the whole thing from scratch (culinary arts student!) but my house is tiiiiinnny, so sometimes time and space savers help. i shall decide tomorrow. i think this is going to be tomorrows dinner had home-made spag bol tonight!

Little Alex

This is my attempt at it. Thanks, Curry Addict! I'll be making my way through the other curry variants too...



I used tofu, sugarsnap peas, mushroom and red pepper.

Curry Addict

i guess you would have had to use veggy/chicken stock with the tofu as u had no juices from chicken pieces. looks very appetizing indeed