Chicken Curry

Chicken Curry or Curry Kapitan (as the Nyonya call it) is one of my favorite dish. I love it with bread, particularly white bread or rice. I like it saucy so I can soak my bread into it like a sponge or pour it over my rice until the rice drown in the sauce. I would drink the sauce like soup when we have emptied the potatoes and chicken and clean the pots and plates with bread. I can't have enough of it.
Where ever I go, when I am away from home for too long, if I miss any food back home, curry chicken is one of them.

The following serves 2 very hungry adults.

Onion Paste:
Blend the following into a smooth paste. Drizzle in some cooking oil and pulverize if you have difficulty getting a smooth paste. If you have a stone mortar, even better. Just work your arm until you get a smooth paste.

   A handful of shallots or 1 large red onion

   2 cloves garlic
   1 small piece of ginger* (no larger than a medium size olive, optional)
   dried chilli, soaked in hot water until soft or chilli powder (optional)

Curry paste
   1 packet of Miss Curry Kapitan powder
Mix the curry powder with 1 or 2 tablespoon of water, just enough for the curry power to combine into a thick paste.

Ingredients:

2 whole chicken thighs
4 potatoes
1/2 cup of vegetable oil or olive oil
1/2 cup coconut milk or 1/2 cup milk
1 cinnamon stick (about 2 - 3 inch)
1 star anise
few black pepper corn, crash
1 lemongrass (white part only), crashed 
1/2 liter of liquid, water or chicken stock
salt to season

Preparations:

1. Separate the drumstick from the thigh part. You can ask your butcher to do this for you.
2. Clean, peel and chopped the potatoes into large chunks.

Cooking:
Heat the cooking oil until pipping hot. Turn to medium heat, add in the onion paste and stir occasionally to prevent the onion paste from sticking to the pot. Saute until fragrance or soft, take care not to brown the paste. Add in the curry paste, cinnamon stick, star anise, crashed pepper corn, crashed lemon grass and continue to saute the mixture until you smell the fragrance of the spices. Another indicator is when the paste is just about to start sticking at the bottom of the pot.

Add in the chicken and coat it evenly with the curry paste. Gradually add in the liquid, mixing and diluting the curry paste into a sauce. Add in the potatoes and add more water or stock making sure that the chicken are well covered if required.

Bring the liquid to a boil before turning down to medium low heat, cover and simmer. Gently stirring the bottom occasionally (to make sure that the bottom does not stick), simmer until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the potatoes are soft. Turn to high heat and bring to a boil before stirring in coconut milk and mixed evenly. Add salt to taste and bring the sauce to a boil and it is ready. Serve with cooked rice or bread.

Notes:
Miss Khoo's curry powder can be ordered online or simply use the generic chicken curry powder from the supermarket or Asian store. The curry powder I used here contains coriander, cardamon, cloves, turmeric, fennel, cumin, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, chilli (it is labeled as moderately spicy), white pepper, star anise seeds and salt. Alternately, any generic curry powder for meat.