Pan-Fried Nyonya Chicken

Flipped through some local recipe books in a book store at City Mall last weekend while waiting for Keshia and Leanne to get their school supply. Attracted to this recipe that sounded very promising. I only remembered the essential ingredients but not the quantity of each. Here the recipe became my own as I get to decide how much of each ingredient goes into the dish. 

I knew it turned out well when I saw Keshia and Leanne fighting over the last piece. To me, the star of this dish had to be the garlic and shallots that were used in the marinade. I put them in to cook with the chicken towards the end and they caramelized beautifully with an amazing aroma. You can see them piled at the front of the dish next to the slice of lime in the above picture.

 

1 chicken, cut into 8-10 large pieces or use 4 drumsticks and 4 thighs

5 stalks lemongrass, smashed with the side of cleaver

4 sprigs curry leaves, stalks removed

6 cloves garlics, crushed and peeled 

6 small shallots, peeled and crushed

1 T ginger juice

1 T curry powder

1 t turmeric (kunyit) powder

1 t salt

2 T oil

Marinate the chicken pieces with all the ingredients (but not the oil) for at least 3 hours, may taste better if marinated overnight in the fridge. 

Take out chicken from the fridge at least 30 minutes before cooking to make sure the chicken pieces are at room temperature when fried. This is to ensure that the inside of chicken gets to be cooked properly when the outside turns golden brown.

Heat a wok and add the oil. When hot cook chicken pieces in two batches on high heat until golden brown all side, dish aside and repeat with the next batch. 

Lower heat to medium, return all the chicken into the wok and add the lemongrass, curry leaves, garlic and shallots into the wok. Cover and cook for about 10-15 minutes (turn chicken pieces occasionally to see that they don't burn) or until chicken is cooked through.

Dish out, discard the lemongrass but keep the golden caramelized garlic, shallots and curry leaves (the next time I cook this dish I would certainly add more garlic and shallots as they tasted so good with the chicken).

Serve with a cucumber/carrot raita.

I chose to serve the chicken dish with this cold raita as it is yin to the yang of the chicken (??). The truth is, I just wanted to use up the yogurt I made a few days ago and all the veggie in the fridge. Anyway, the raita actually complimented the dish very well, truly 'yin' and 'yang'. 

The above picture was taken before I drench the veggie with a cup of seasoned yogurt because if I were to take it after there would be nothing to show except a bowl of milk curd with some veggie floating around (the way raita is served). 

Jo