When cooking curry, we often think about many exotic spices, perhaps lots of grinding and searing the aromatics to begin with. The long list of preparation can be daunting, but not this kuku papa curry recipe.
Kuku paka is a type of coconut chicken recipe with African, Indian, and Arabic influences. Of course you can elaborate on the spices, but generally speaking the key ingredients involved are far less compared to Indian curry. You can also use store-bought coconut milk and tomato purée to finish the job. So when working on homemade curry, kuku paka can be one simpler variety to begin with.
Kuku paka coconut chicken curry -
Ingredients (about 4 to 6 servings)?
- 4 boneless skin-on chicken legs
- 1 medium small onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 chunk ginger
- 270ml coconut milk
- 500ml tomato purée
- 1 lemon
- 1 small bundle cilantro
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Some salt
- Some black pepper
- 2 teaspoons cumin powder
- 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
- 2 teaspoons coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- Some basmati or quinoa basmati rice (optional)
How?
Pat dry the chicken with paper towel. Sprinkle some salt and black pepper on both sides.
Drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a big pot and switch to medium heat. Wait till the temperature rises a little then transfer the chicken over skin side down. Sear till the skin on the bottom turns golden.
Flip and sear the meaty side, also sear till slightly golden. Scoop out and set aside for later use.
Peel and dice the onion. Peel and chop the garlic cloves. Scrape the skin off then finely chop the ginger, we will need about 2 teaspoons chopped ginger in the end. Chop the cilantro.
Use the same pot for the chicken, there should be some oil and chicken fat remain. Switch to medium heat and add in chopped onion. Stir and cook for couple minutes then add in the garlic and ginger. Cook till aromatic but not burning the garlic.
Add 2 teaspoons of cumin powder, 2 teaspoons of turmeric powder, 2 teaspoons of coriander powder, and 1 teaspoon of chili powder. Cook till aromatic, again but not burnt. This step will be fairly quick, should be done in less than one minute.
Pour in coconut milk and tomato purée. Mix and give it a taste test. I added one more teaspoon of salt here.
Transfer seared chicken legs back to the pot along with any remaining juice. Bring the whole thing to a light bubbling stage then adjust the heat to keep the pot at a light simmer. Cover with lid and cook for another 20 minutes.
I opened up the lid and scraped the bottom once a while, just to make sure nothing is burning or sticking to the pot. Towards the end, squeeze in juice of half lemon. Also add most of the chopped cilantro, especially the stem section. Mix and cook for couple more minutes.
The kuku paka is now ready. I prepped some quinoa basmati rice to eat along with the it. Remember to sprinkle some more chopped cilantro after plating.
The flavor is always better if bone-in chicken was used, but I'm just too lazy to deal with it. So to compromise, I used boneless but still skin-attached chicken instead. It's totally up to you, but I find my boneless version still quite yummy in the end.
One other note, the ingredients listed here will give you more curry sauce in the end. So if you want to use more chicken leg, maybe up to six chicken legs, there's no need to adjust the amount of seasonings whatsoever.
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