Burmese Chicken & Coconut Curry

Chicken Curry was one of the 10 most Googled recipes in Australia in 2018. So what better reason to share some of my favourite chicken curry recipes on The Cooks Room. Here is the first one. This curry, from Belinda Jeffreys book ‘100 favourite recipes’ has been a standard in our house for ages. It’s really rich and fragrant, easy to make, and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

• 8 chicken thighs, (chicken chops) skin on
• 2 onions, finely sliced
• 6 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 tbs fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 2 red chillies, seeded, unless you like it very hot
• 6 nice fat cardamon pods
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 1/4 tsp sweet paprika
• 3 tsp Thai red curry paste
• 1 lemon
• 1 x 140ml can coconut cream
• 1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Heat a non-stick frypan to high and cook the chicken chops, skin side down for about 5-8 minutes until well browned. Remove and set aside. I like to do this step first to render some of the fat from the chicken pieces.
3. Drain off most of the oil, leaving just a couple of tablespoons. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli and cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time until the onion is golden.
4. Crush the cardamon pods and scrape out the fragrant black seeds. Crush the seeds lightly. Add to the onion mixture, along with the turmeric, paprika and curry paste.
5. Cook for another couple of minutes, stirring occasionally, then turn off the heat.
6. Peel the lemon, making sure all the white pith is removed. Segment the flesh, remove any seeds, then cut into little chunks.
7. Add the diced lemon, coconut cream and tomatoes and a little salt to the spice mixture, and stir in well.
8. Put the chicken thighs in a large baking dish. Pour the spice mix over them, making sure they are well coated.
9. Bake uncovered, for about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, turning the thighs after about 40 minutes.
10. When the curry is cooked, there may be a thin film of oil from the coconut cream on top.
11. To remove it, just blot with some paper towels.
12. To serve. Transfer to a warm serving dish and sprinkle with coriander sprigs.