I love curry. ALL curries! I just do. Ours is mixed in with an Indonesian chili paste for a deep, comforting, and rich curry that will have you calling home—or maybe your Malaysian friend’s home to tell her how much you miss her home. Interestingly, the best Indonesian chili paste is made in the Netherlands, where a huge Indonesian community lives. Shout out to the Indo-Dutch diaspora!
2–4 SERVINGS
1⅓ tablespoons Yeo brand Malaysian curry powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon
1 pound dark meat chicken (cut, uncut, bone-on, boneless—whatevs)
⅔ cup coconut milk
2⅔ tablespoons whole milk
2½ teaspoons sambal badjak*
¼ yellow or white onion, sliced
2 kaffir lime leaves, ripped in half widthwise
⅓ pound Okinawan sweet potatoes (aka Hawaiian purple sweet potatoes), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
⅓ pound carrots, cut into 1½-inch-long pieces
Buttermilk Beer Beignets (optional)
Scallions, coarsely chopped, for garnish
BALLS OUT
40–80 SERVINGS
3⅓ cups Yeo brand Malaysian curry powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup kosher salt
1 cup chicken bouillon
40 pounds dark meat chicken (cut, uncut, on bone, boneless—whatevs)
6 ¾ quarts coconut milk
8 cups whole milk
2 cups sambal badjak*
4 yellow or white onions, sliced
66 kaffir lime leaves, ripped in half widthwise
13⅓ pounds Okinawan sweet potatoes (aka Hawaiian purple sweet potatoes), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
13⅓ pounds carrots, cut into 1½-inch-long pieces
1. Heads up, kids! The best version of this dish takes three days to make. If you have to have it now, the shortest amount of time it takes is probably 2 hours.
2. Combine curry powder, sugar, salt, and chicken bouillon in a mixing bowl and hand mix together Sling Blade–style (“mmmmmm hmm”) until it’s all one love, one mix.
3. Rinse chicken under water, pat dry with paper towels, then transfer to a mixing bowl. Next, pour the beautiful curry spice mix all over that chicken, then gently dominate that chicken. Mix and rub the spices all over the chicken until no chicken remains uncovered with spice. Cover it all up, like it’s your only goal in life.
4. Marinate overnight. Alternatively, if you’re in a hurry, marinate for 1 hour, though the curry mix won’t fully penetrate the chicken or touch the souls of others, which is what eating is all about.
It was over. We quit. We were burned out.
—DEATH AND REBIRTH
5. When ready to cook, you’ll need a pan to sauté with and a pot for stewing and braising.
6. Combine coconut milk, whole milk, and sambal badjak in pot.
7. Next, heat the sauté pan to medium-high heat. Add a little bit of cooking oil, add some onions and some kaffir leaves, and sear batches of chicken until chicken turns golden brown all around, while sweating onions and leaves. Do not cook the chicken through; just brown and sear. The kaffir leaves will fill your kitchen with their incredible citrus scent—a pretty amazing smell (unless you don’t like citrus, then it might be kind of annoying).
8. After each batch is evenly seared, transfer into pot. To ensure the chicken cooks evenly, do not heat up the pot until all chicken is seared. Continue searing onions, kaffir leaves, and chicken. Once all chicken is seared, sauté any remaining kaffir leaves, and onions, and transfer to the pot before cooking. If there is any excess spice mix in the chicken marinade bowl, also transfer into the pot because the spice mix is measured specifically to give the best flavor for the curry sauce itself and not just the marinade.
9. Bring pot to a boil over high heat, then simmer covered with a slight opening for 35–45 minutes, or until the chicken is tender but not falling apart. The curry consistency should be thin and almost milky. Once chicken is done, turn off heat.
10. While waiting for the chicken to finish cooking, prepare an ice water bath in a bowl. Bring 2 inches of water to a rolling boil in a pot over high heat. Cook the sweet potatoes in the boiling water for 6–8 minutes. Check often to see when the potatoes are cooked through; they should be crunchy, still firm and not mushy. Once they’re done, remove the potatoes from pot (but do not dump the boiling water; save it for blanching the carrots) and shock them immediately in the ice water bath for 2 minutes, or until they are completely cool to the touch. Strain and set aside cooked potatoes in a fresh bowl.
11. Next, blanch the carrots by repeating the steps as for the potatoes, checking for nonmushy doneness. If you use baby carrots, they take about 4–5 minutes to blanch. Adjust time accordingly for the type of carrots you’re using and how they’re cut. Cook, shock, strain, then set aside with the potatoes.
12. Chicken can be served immediately, but it will be most flavorful if cooled down, stored, and covered overnight in the fridge, and then reheated and served the next day. Blanched potatoes and carrots can also be stored overnight.
13. When ready to serve (not long before—just right when you are ready to serve), add carrots and potatoes to the hot chicken curry. Garnish with scallions. Serve with steamed rice, and if you want to soak up that curry deliciousness (my favorite part), sop it up with some Buttermilk Beer Beignets.
And that’s the best experience with chicken curry that you can have—reaching the epitome of chicken curry enlightenment. Enjoy, kids!
* An Indonesian chili paste with minced onions and dried shrimp.