Singapore curry chicken is famous among all ethnic groups in Singapore. This dish may look fiery and scary but you can control the heat by reducing the number of chillis added in it. Here I’ve removed the seeds and veins of the chillies too.. 🙂 Another way to reduce the heat is by adding palm sugar / jagary or brown sugar to the dish. I’ve added few shavings of jiggery too( not in the picture). I would rate the spiciness of this dish to be 5 in a scale of 1 – 10 .. 🙂 Don’t be scared try and see, its very tasty and goes with plain rice , nan, chapattis, parata or fried rice..
The amount of gravy required is a personal preference. You can add as much of water you want or as little.
Preparation time : 15 mts
Cooking time : 20 mts
Serves : 6 – 8
Ingredients for blending:
- Dry red chillies – (6 – 8 ) soak this chillies in water for 10 mts. (I recommend you remove seeds 🙂 ).
- Shallots – 15 ( you can use 1 medium size onion too )
- Ginger – 1″
- Garlic – 5
- Lemon grass – 1 stick
Blend all these ingredients to a fine paste.
Other ingredients:
- Chicken – 1 kg
- Potato – 2 (medium size ,cubed)
- Tomato – 2 ( pureed)
- Curry leaves – 2 stalks
- Lime leaves – few
- Tamarind – 1 small lime size (or 1 tsp tamarind pulp). If you’re adding tamarind soak it in a bit of water and squeeze it to get the pulp.
- Oil – 2 table spoon
- Water – 2 cups
- Jagarry / palm sugar / brown sugar – 1/2 table spoon
- Lime and fresh red chilli for garnish
Spices :
Whole spices
- Cinnamon stick – 4 cm
- Cardamom – 5
- Cloves – 5
- Star anise – 1 (optional)
- Fennel seeds – 1/2 tsp
Dry spices
- Coriander powder – 1 tsp
- Cumin powder – 1/2 tsp
- Turmeric powder – 1/8 tsp
- Garam masala / all spice powder – 1/2 tsp (optional)
Method :
- Heat oil in a wok or large pan and add the whole spices and fry it.
- When the spices releases aroma add the blended paste and fry till the oil starts to release.
- Now add in the tomato puree and cook till the oil separates.
- Add in the dry spices and roast for a few seconds.
- Add in the curry leaves and lime leaves, 2 cups of water and the tamarind /tamarind pulp.
- Mix everything very well and add in to the chicken and potato pieces.
- Cook for around 20 mts closed with a lid.
- When the chicken and potatoes are cooked add in the jagarry or brown sugar.
- Allow it to cook for few more minutes. If the gravy is too thick add water ladle by ladle and let it boil.
Comments by Seema Nair