So, as I have stated in some previous posts, I used to live in the wonderful country of Sri Lanka. Besides all of the friendly people, tropical rain-forests and beautiful beaches, Sri Lanka has some of the best food I have encountered. My family only spent about two years there, but we tried to eat as much of the local food as we could. Our helper and cook wrote down some of our favorite dinner dishes and I treasure these recipes.
Today I am going to show you how to make some delicious Sri Lankan coconut chicken curry. In Sri Lanka, they often like to make curry dishes with coconut milk, instead of cow milk or tomato based curried that are popular up north in India. Many of the dishes are similar to the ones from Southern India, but Sri Lanka definitely has a distinct cuisine that should not be confused with Indian cuisine.
This particular curry we like to enjoy with Sri Lankan Daal, deviled potatoes and green beans (recipe coming soon), Coconut Sambol and Basmati rice.
Lets get started!
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of chicken (2-3 breasts, 4 small wings or drumsticks)
- 1 Tbsp Chili Powder
- 1 Tbsp Roasted Curry Powder
- 1 Tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Fenugreek Seeds
- 2 Onions (chopped)
- 4 Garlic cloves (minced)
- A square inch of fresh ginger (minced)
- 2-3 Cinnamon sticks (in 1 inch pieces)
- 1/2 cup Curry leaves
- 3 Tbsp oil (preferably Grapeseed oil, but olive oil will do)
- 1 cup coconut cream (or the top creamy layer in a can of coconut milk plus some of the juice). Most of the time I just use a whole can, because I like it extra coconut-y.
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Many of these ingredients you might have to search for in an Indian or Asian food market. If nothing like that exists in your neighborhood the internet is a beautiful place and you can get almost anything through amazon.
Cut the chicken into 2.5 cm sized bites. Place the chicken in a bowl and mix with the chili, curry powder, turmeric and salt and pepper to create a dry rub marinade. You can do this the night before if you want to add extra flavor. I generally just marinate it for about 20 mins before I cook it and there is still plenty of flavor to go around. You should definitely do the dry run though because this seriously how you lock in the amazing flavor. I have found it’s so much more effective then adding the spices into the chicken after you have browned it.
Heat the oil in a sauce pan and fry the onion, garlic, ginger, curry leaves and cinnamon sticks until the onions start to look slightly cooked and translucent. Add in marinated chicken and cook until the chicken is browned. When you think the chicken is decently cooked through add the coconut cream and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
Serve it over some Basmati rice and Enjoy!
(More pictures to come!)
To all the Sri Lankan viewers out there, how do you do your chicken curry?
The Food Mosaic 