indian chicken curry

There are so many different ways to make curry. But it was my first time making curry from curry powder. It took 30 minutes to cook - another busy-people-friendly dish! The original recipe can be found here. I tweaked it a bit to get the 'Woo family' taste. Happy cooking!

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts - 2 (cubed)
Potatoes - 2 sm (cubed)
Onion - 1 sm (minced)
Garlic - 2 cloves (minced)

Bay leaf - 1
Curry powder - 4 TBS (or more if you like more curry flavor)
Paprika - 1/2 TBS
Cinnamon powder - 2 tsp
Salt - 2 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp

Plain yogurt - 1 cup
Coconut milk - 1 cup
Tomato ketchup - 3 TBS

Prep:

1. Cut onion and potatoes in small pieces. Mince garlic.
2. Cut chicken breasts in small pieces. Set it aside.  

Cook: 

1. In a pot, heat 2 TBS olive oil. Fry onion until fragrant (about 2-3 minutes) or until the edges are turning brown. Make sure to stir to get even cooking. 
2. Add in garlic and fry for another minute.
3. Add in curry powder, bay leaf, paprika, cinnamon powder, salt and sugar. Mix until well integrated. 
4. Add in chicken and fry for another 2 minutes. 
5. Add in yogurt, coconut milk and ketchup. Mix well. Let it simmer for 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking to the pot. 

Serve:

1. Serve with rice or paratha or naan. Veggies like salad or fried green beans will be a perfect match for this dish. 

 TIPS

• If you want veggies in the curry, add in carrots, celery, etc. Making it for picky eater? Just boil the veggies, blend them in the blender and add to the curry.

peanut butter chicken curry

Whenever we buy peanut butter (thinking that we will finish them) we always have left overs. So we were thinking of other ways to use up the PB, and we came across this recipe that uses peanut butter with Indian curry paste. We make this quite often -- whenever we have left over PB. :) 

Ingredients:

Chicken - 2 breasts (cooked & shredded)

Garlic - 3 cloves (minced)
Onion - 1 large 
Curry paste - 3 TBS (I use Madras curry paste - I love the flavor and smell of it)
Crunchy Peanut Butter - 4 TBS (it's ok if you use smooth ones, too)
Ketchup - 1 TBS
Tomatoes - 2 (cut in cubes)
Sultanas (raisins) - 1/4 cup

Coconut milk - 1 can (400mL)
Chicken broth - 400 mL

Salt & Pepper - to taste

 [Optional ingredients]

Potatoes - 1 (cubed)
Carrots - 1 (cubed)
Green peas - 1/4 cup

Grated coconut

Prep:

1. In a blender, blend together onion (cut up first into small pieces) and garlic. Blend until mushy.
2. Cut other ingredients and set it aside.
3. In a pot, boil water and add in 2 breasts of chicken. Cook it for about 10-15 min, take it out and shred it using 
4. For optional ingredients, it's easier to cook it separately by boiling the cubed potatoes and carrots until soft (about 10 minutes). 

Ready to go in the blender

Mushy garlic & onion

 Cook:

1. In a wok or deep pan, put about 2 TBS of oil, add in mushed onion/garlic. Fry until it turns brown. Keep stirring.
2. Add in curry paste and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
3. Add in peanut butter and fry for another minute.
4. Add in ketchup, tomatoes and sultanas. 
5. Add in 1/2 can of coconut milk and about a cup of chicken broth. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Stir to avoid sticking.
6. Add in the remaining 1/2 can of coconut milk. Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes, then slowly add more  chicken broth until your desired consistency (drier curry = less broth).
7. Adjust the taste by adding salt & pepper.

Serve:

1. Garlic butter rice (fry 2 TBS of garlic in 6 TBS of butter, add in 2 cups of cooked rice and fry until fragrant about 5 minutes. Add in 1 tsp of salt or more if you prefer stronger taste) makes a perfect match for this curry. Sprinkle grated coconut on it.
2. Serve with salad.

TIPS

•  You can make different variations by using different curry pastes.

simple biryani with spiced fried chicken

We love Indian food, but it seems quite impossible to make it from scratch. But no worries for those who are craving for Indian food! This simple biryani recipe is another quick and easy recipe from the book, The Feed Zone. The spiced fried chicken turned out pretty good, too (it's my own recipe, so I didn't know how it will turn out. But made it to the blog = taste good!) 

Ingredients:

[Biryani]
Rice - 3 cups (Not 3 rice, use measuring cup. Also, see TIPS)

Zucchini - 1
Carrots - 1
Onion - 1/2
Raisins - 1/2 cup (or more if you want)
Cashew nuts - 1/2 cup (or more if you want)

Curry powder - 1 and half TBS
Salt & Pepper

[Chicken wings]
Chicken wings - 12 wings (about a pound and a half)

Curry powder - 2 tsp
Cumin - 1 tsp
White pepper - 2 tsp
Garlic salt - 1 tsp (regular salt is fine, too)
Paprika - 1 tsp (or more if you like it more spicy)
Soy sauce - 2 tsp

Corn starch - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup

 Prep:

 [Biryani]

1. Slice, chop or cube zucchini, carrots and onion into small pieces (however you want your veggies to look like)
2. Cook the rice or take out the previous day's rice.

[Chicken wings]

1. Make few slits on the wings (see pic). 
2. In a bowl, combine wings with all the spices (don't add cornstarch and water). Marinade for about an hour or more.

Cook:

[Biryani]

1. Heat up wok/frying pan, add 1 TBS oil. Fry onion until transparent, add carrots and fry for another minute or two. Add zucchini and fry for additional 2 minutes. 
2. Add raisins with the veggies. Fry until the raisins are somewhat plump. 
3. Add curry powder. Mix well. 
4. Add rice and fry. The rice should be yellow. Add cashew nuts at the end. Taste it and add salt and pepper if you need to.

[Chicken Wings]

1. Heat a pot with oil. 
2. Mix water and cornstarch.
3. Dip the wings, one at a time, in the cornstarch mixture and deep fry the wings until golden brown. Take it out on a paper towel-ed plate. 

 Serve:

1. Serve biryani with chicken wings and simple garlic green beans or picked vegetables. 
2. The recipe book also suggested to eat with yogurt.

TIPS

• Use long-grain rice (such as Jasmine rice).
• If you are cooking the rice the day of making this recipe. Add a bit less water and cook the rice. When it's done, turn the rice cooker off, open the lid and let it cool before using.
• You can add other vegetables (such as yellow squash, broccoli, etc) to biryani.

chicken tikka masala with pickled cucumbers

We love collecting cook books. This recipe is from one of our favorite cook books, The Feed Zone. The recipe is very (yes, VERY) easy to make. It's perfect when you feel lazy and tired! I added picked cucumbers to this dish for a refreshing kick.We made it few times and tweaked the recipe a bit. :) 

Ingredients:  

Chicken breasts - 3 (cut in bite size pieces)
Onion - 1/2 (thinly sliced)
Curry powder or paste - 2 TBS (I prefer curry paste)
Tomato sauce or ketchup - 1/4 cup (I use ketchup, since I don't always have tomato sauce around)
Plain yogurt - 3/4 cup
Garlic - 2 cloves (minced)
Ginger - 1 TBS (minced)

[Pickled cucumbers]
Cucumber - 1 English cucumber (Persian or Japanese cucumbers will work, too)  
Vinegar - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 3-4 TBS (try with 3 TBS first and add more if you like)
Salt - pinch

Prep:

1. Cut the chicken in bite-size pieces. Cut onion into thin slices. 
2. Put all the ingredients in big zip lock bag. Let it marinade in the fridge for one hour. 
3. [Pickled cucumbers] Cut the cucumbers into small pieces. Mix vinegar, sugar and salt. Adjust the taste to your liking.

 Cook:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Transfer chicken in marinade to a oven-proof dish. Cover with foil. Bake until chicken is thoroughly cooked, about 1 hour (cook it for about 45 minutes and check and cook for another 10-15 minutes) 

Serve:

1. Serve with Pratha (prata), roti, rice or bread. (see TIPS)
2. Sprinkle pickled cucumbers on top, or serve it on the side. 
3. Add salad or fried garlic green beans for more greens. :)

  

TIPS

• Paratha (or prata) is Indian (can be found in Singapore or Malaysia, too) flat-bread. You can usually find it in Asian market or Trader Joe's frozen section. My husband likes to eat the paratha with sugar, too.