Dry Red Chicken Curry

Dry Red Chicken Curry

Gaeng Hang Gai

dry-chicken-red-curry-recipeAnother great traditional Thai Curry, the direct translation from Khwanjai’s original Thai recipe is “curry dry chicken”. That means no oil or water is used in the cooking, and so there is much less sauce, but this sauce has an amazing flavour. It is thicker than the usual soupy Thai curries with a richer depth of flavour!

This is a recipe for curry you will not find anywhere else, as it is Khwanjai’s own, it takes much longer to cook than most curries, so it’s not the sort of dish you will find in a restaurant, however the cooking is well worth the effort

Khwanjai’s Red curries are famous amongst the locals for her ability to balance the power of the chillies with the more subtle ingredients so you get to enjoy every flavour with every mouthful, without losing the power of speech!

How to Make Chicken Red Curry

Ingredients: Serves 2dry-chicken-red-curry-ingredients

4 Chicken (wings, thighs or drumsticks)
1 Cup red/green bell peppers
5 Mushrooms
4 Thai Chillies (pik ki nu)
3 Kaffir Lime Leaves
500 ml Coconut Milk
1 tbs Red Curry paste
2 tbs Fish Sauce
1 Chicken stock cube (or 1tbs powder)
1tbs Palm Sugar (or Demerara)

Preparation:
Cut and wash chicken, slice into thighs to expose bone and same for drumsticks
Tear Kaffir lime leaves (not too small) and leave mixed in with chicken for 20-30 minutes
Cut your red/green sweet chilli peppers and mushrooms into bite size pieces
Pick the stalks off the Thai chillies and slice, or for less spicy you can use them uncut

Cooking:
Pour 1/2 the coconut milk into a wok and bring to the boil, stir and simmer until greatly reduced and bubbles of oil begin to crack the surface of the milk (about 4-5 minutes)
Add red curry paste; stir until you get a great smell and colour
Add chicken and Kaffir lime leaves stir/mix together and simmer
Next (no waiting) add the fish sauce, palm sugar, chicken stock and remaining coconut milk, leave to boil
When it boils, turn to low heat and stir 2 or 3 times and leave to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes
Once it is simmering the occasional stir is fine, checking occasionally to see if the chicken is cooked and soft turning as required
When it is, add red and green sweet chilli peppers, mushrooms and Thai chillies, stir/mix together and leave to simmer another 5-10 minutes and you’re done

Serving Suggestion:
Serve with hot Jasmine rice and to accompany this big flavoured curry you should have some soup and/or a savoury stir fry, the idea is to alternate between dishes when eating enabling each dish to refresh your palate for the next, even the soup is spooned onto the rice (one spoonful at a time) and eaten with the rice. A couple of great choices would be Lettuce and Pork Soup or Chicken and Beansprout Stir Fry or Pork Stuffed Cabbage Soup all of which have light and delicate flavours to contrast the rich flavours of this lovely chicken red curry.

More information on this and a complimentary stir fry in our Thai Food BlogDry Chicken Red Curry

Khwanjai’s Top Tips:
This is quite a long recipe as in, it will take well over half an hour to prepare and cook (a long time in Thai food terms) but I promise you it is worth every second you invest in it and your family and friends will love you for it, guaranteed! Did I mention it’s my own recipe?
Not to be found anywhere else or they copied it!
Do not stir before it boils or you will spoil the flavour of the chicken and it will smell bad
If you can’t get Kaffir lime leaves you can use finely sliced lime peel as an alternative
Have you printed the recipe?

Questions below and feel free to share with your thai foodie friends..

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