Thai Massaman Chicken Curry

Thai Massaman Curry is from Southern Thailand and has a lot of Malaysian and Indian influences.  It has a creamy coconut milk sauce that is flavorful.  You can substitute any kind of meat or tofu into this dish.

This the the most time consuming part of the dish.  I made a homemade Massaman Curry Paste.  To make your own you will need the following three components:

Dry Ingredients:
5-6 dry red chilies (roasted)
1tsp coriander seeds (roasted)
1tsp cumin seeds (roasted)
4 cloves (roasted)
4 cardamom pods (roasted)

example of dry roasting

1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1tsp of turmeric powder
1tsp of brown sugar


In a Stainless Steel pan dry roast the ingredients that have roasted next to them above.  You want to gently roast these ingredients so not to burn.  Once they are fragrant, place in a dish to cool.  Once cool, grind into a powder in a spice grinder.  ** Do not open spice grinder right away, let the spices have time to settle otherwise you will be coughing

Fresh Ingredients:
One medium onion chopped
1 stalk lemon grass finely chopped.  (only use inner part of the bottom portion of the lemon grass)
6-8 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
2 inches of  ginger roughly chopped

Liquid ingredients:
3-4Tbs of fish sauce (you can use soy sauce if you want to make this dish vegetarian)

My Massaman Paste

1/4 cup coconut milk (you will use the rest of the can of milk later)


Once you have all the components ready, put in a blender or food processor and blend into a loose paste.

Get wok heated on med-high heat and add 2tbs of oil.  Once heated, add the Massaman Curry Paste and fry for 1-2 minutes until very fragrant.






Add 1-2 Bay leaves and  a some cinnamon stick or pieces of cinnamon bark.

  

Add 2lbs of boneless/skinless chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes. I also rinsed out my blender with 1/2 cup of water to get all the curry paste out and let the chicken cook for 5 minutes.

Once the chicken is mostly cooked through I added some canned bamboo shoots (20oz) and a can of  diced water chestnuts (10oz).  I also added some frozen green bell peppers.  You can add any veggie you like here.  ex: Small diced potatoes, carrots, celery, etc...

Now add the remainder of coconut milk for earlier. Taste for seasoning here.  If you need salt here you can either add salt or more fish sauce.  Note: **Fish sauce is very strong so make sure it doesn't over power the other flavors in the dish.  I simmered the dish for 5-8 more minutes once I added the coconut milk.  .

This will serve 4-6 people.  I served it with brown rice (jasmine or basmati rice both work well too).  I also served it with Poppadums (a crispy potato chip like product) found in all Indian stores.  If you love things extra spicy, like I do, then you can marinate some sliced Thai bird chilies or jalapeno chilies in fish sauce and use it as a spicy condiment.   Enjoy.

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