Dry Chicken Curry

I've always thought that cooking a curry dish is a daunting task. Long list of ingredients that involves lots of chopping and grinding, squeezing of coconut milk... Oh, that really puts me off!

I chanced upon a dry chicken curry recipe from one of my mom's cookbooks. As in any curry dish, it comes with a long list of ingredients, but one look at the instruction got me interested, it is very short, only 4 steps! Well, I thought, it looks so simple that there's no way that I'm going to screw up this dish. And if I manage to cook well, hopefully I will be more willing to try out other types of curry dish!

This dry chicken curry was a simple dish indeed. It is "dry" because it does not have lots of gravy like a standard curry dish. All the dry ingredients were ground with a blender, then stir-fried it until fragrant. Next, pieces of chicken were added in, then squeezed some lime juice in it. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes and that's it, it's ready to be served! Oh, by the way, this recipe does not call for coconut milk. :-D

Hubby was out running some errands when I was cooking and he's still not back yet by the time I was done. By then the whole house was filled with the aroma of the curry. I wanted to wait for him but I just couldn't resist.. I tried a piece of chicken and I was pleased with the result, it was flavourful, and the spiciness was just right. The lime juice gave an extra tang to it. However, I could taste the lemongrass fibers in my mouth. I guess I should've crushed it instead of grinding it with other ingredients.

Dry Chicken Curry Recipe

Ingredients A:
1 whole chicken (cut into small chunks)
lime juice

Ingredients B (grind with a blender or pound with mortar and pestle):
2 sticks lemongrass
7-8 shallot
2-3 cloves garlic
1 piece ginger (length of a thumb)
7-8 dried chilies
2 pieces tumeric (length of a thumb)
1 piece of belachan (about 1 inch)
2 tsp chopped curry leaves

Method:
1) Heat oil in a saucepan, sauté Ingredients B until fragrant.
2) Add chicken chunks and season with salt, cook in medium heat for about 10 minutes or until the chicken is softened.
3) Add lime juice and cook in low heat for another 1 to 2 minutes.
4) Serve.