Chicken curry with coconut milk

Dear diary,

Ever since I remember having my own kitchen, I've always had a shelf full of spices. And ever since I remember having a shelf for spices, it has always contained a little yellow jar. Once opened, the whole kitchen would be filled with colors, Orient, India and a very specifically strong smell: curry!

I can't remember where I first tasted chicken with curry... But I do remember that when I first started cooking, in this little kitchen in my first little flat in Athens, I was making chicken with curry almost every week! With only a few ingredients, chicken, rice, heavy cream and curry, a wok and a saucepan, it was dreamy, every time...

Now that I grew older (not that much...) and my home and kitchen grew bigger as well, I decided to retry my fav recipe, this time using coconut milk instead of heavy cream.

Besides, I think the original indian recipe uses coconut milk, and that the use of heavy cream is a western world adaptation.





For the dish you see in the pictures, I used:

• chicken, chopped in small pieces
• mushrooms
• onion (chopped)
• coconut milk (less than 500ml)
• curry
• corn flour (1 tbsp to thicken the sauce) 
• some olive oil for the wok
• some olive oil to marinate the chicken
• a pinch of salt

First, we let the chicken marinate for some time in some oil and curry. We saute the onion and the mushrooms with the butter in a deep pan or a wok. Then we add the chicken. 

Once the chicken has changed color, we add curry (at will), salt and the coconut milk. We lower down the heat and let it simmer.

Judging from the density of the sauce, we either add some more coconut milk if it's too dense (unlikely), or we add corn flour if it's too liquid. We close the lid and again let it simmer for around 15 minutes.

It's true that heavy cream makes the sauce unified and strengthens the taste. Coconut milk results to a lighter dish instead, with a slightly less homogeneous sauce.


Basmati rice comes as a traditional side dish to the curry chicken. 
I prepared rice with orange and almond,
as I tried to imitate the awesome rice if the Iranian  Persepolis and to convince Vasilis to start eating rice again... The recipe and photos with the result are coming in a following post!

I'm sure curry will be on the shelf for spices of any kitchen I ever find myself in! 

Funny thing is, I've never used curry for any other recipe!

Yours,
Jennoula