Curry Chicken with Kaffir Lime Leaves

By pixen

Ingredients

• To be pounded finely:
• 600 g - 800 g Whole Chicken or Chicken parts (thighs, drumsticks, etc)
• 8 shallots
• 1 stalk Lemongrass - use only the white portion
• 4 pips Garlic
• 6 dried chillies
• 5 fresh red chillies
• 3 cm fresh Tumeric
• Thumb-sized Galangal
• 10 pcs Kaffir Lime leaves
• 4 pieces Tamarind Slices
• 2-3 Tbl Cooking Oil
• 250 ml Fresh Thick Coconut Milk
• Some water

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from pixieate.blogspot.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Clean the chicken and cut into pieces. I preferred to remove the skin before cooking. If you don't bother, you can leave it on.
2. Smash the galangal with the back of a knife or you can use a pestle and mortar if you have it.
3. Soak dried chillies in warm water for 15 minutes or until soften.
4. Pound the shallots, garlic, fresh chillies, tumeric and dried chillies until fine. You can use a blender if it's more convenient :-P
5. Wash the Kaffir Lime leaves and cut off the hard middle stems. Roll the leaves up tightly and with a sharp knife, julienne the leaves finely.
6. Heat a deep pan or a wok until hot. Add the cooking oil and the pounded ingredients. Stir until fragrant.
7. Add the cut chicken pieces and stir. Make sure the chicken pieces are thoroughly coated with the spice mixture for about 5 minutes.
8. Add 1/4 cup water, tamarind pieces, galangal and the julienned kaffir lime leaves. Stir until the chicken pieces are well coated with the spices.
9. Pour in the fresh coconut milk. Stir and add salt to taste. Cover the pot or wok and turn the heat to medium, stirring occasionally. Simmer until chicken meat thoroughly cooked.

This curry is great with rice, bread, naan, chapati or even as stuffings for buns, puffs, pies...