Eat Like A Viet: Chicken curry

Jenny’s signature chicken curry from her award winning cookbook, Eat Like A Viet

Jen’s signature Chicken Curry 

Serves: 6 - 8 

Cooking Time: 2 hours 

Ingredients 

• 2kg chicken pieces, bone in, cut into 10cm pieces 

• 1/4 cup vege oil 

• 1/2 cup curry powder

• 1/4 cup chilli power 

• 3 lemongrass stalks, cut and bashed 5cm stalks 

• 1/4 cup fish sauce 

• 1/4 cup soy sauce 

• 2 large onions, cut into large wedges 

• 1L coconut water 

• 1/4 cup sugar 

• 1kg potatoes 

• 1kg carrots 

• 800ml coconut milk

Tips

Use a saucepan 3 times the volume of the chicken and leave the saucepan uncovered the whole time you’re cooking this dish. 

Cooking with chicken with the skin on and bone in will intensify the flavour dramatically, and vice versa - using skinless fillets will take away from the flavour potential of this dish. 

Method

Marinate the chicken in oil & spices, leave to marinade for at least half an hour, preferably overnight

Place saucepan on a high heat and fry chicken until browned all over. The pot should be sizzling at all times for best results. Scrap the bottom of the pot frequently to stop the carmelisation on the bottom of pan from burning. Add the lemon grass in after few minutes. 

Once the caramelisation is a dark brown, add fish sauce and soy sauce to deglaze the bottom scraping all the curry off the bottom and sides, keep moving the meat around with your wooden spoon and add onions once liquid is mostly gone 

Fry until soft, add coconut water, bring to the boil, skimming off any dirty foam at the top and leave to simmer on a low medium heat for 45 minutes 

After this time, add carrots and potatoes, bring to the boil once again, then continue to simmer for another hour. 

Add coconut milk stir and turn off the heat. 

Taste and season according to your taste, it should savoury, spicy with a hint of sweetness to embody a true Vietnamese chicken curry.