Contrary to what the name of the dish suggests…..no, it’s not evil. It does however, pack some heat.
By some, I mean LOADS. Be warned you should only make this if you’re a lover of spicy food. That said, I imagine you could reduce the amount of dry chillies and substitute with more shallots for something with less heat.
# – Malaysian devil chicken curry.
For the curry paste:
- 30 shallots
- 30 dried chillies, seeded and soaked for 15 minutes
- 2 1/2 tablespoons of tumeric powder
- 1 inch length of galangal, chopped
- 2 stalks of lemongrass, chopped
- 1 teaspoon of brown mustard seeds, soaked for 5 minutes
The other ingredients:
- 2 onions, quartered
- 2 inches of ginger, sliced
- 5 cloves of garlic, sliced
- 2 red chillies, seeded & halved lengthwise
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 1 teaspoon of light soya sauce
- 4 tablespoons of sugar
- 4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
- 3 chicken thighs with bone, skin removed & chopped into serving pieces
- 125 ml of white vinegar
- 1 litre of water
# – Seed, soak, peel whatever you need to do for the curry paste (refer to ingredients list above).
# – Chuck them all in a blender or food processor and blitz.
# – Add some oil while at it to smoothen the paste. I’d say about 2 – 3 tablespoons.
# – Set the curry paste aside. By the way, you’re working with tumeric here and that stuff stains everything! So becareful.
# – Heat up some oil in a pan and fry up the quartered onions, sliced ginger, sliced garlic and halved chillies.
# – Remove from heat and set aside when they’ve browned & wilted slightly.
# – Now heat up about 4 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan and chuck the curry paste in. Fry for about 3 minutes.
# – Add 2 teaspoons of salt.
# – Followed by a teaspoon of light soya sauce.
# – And 4 tablespoons of sugar. Stir.
# – Now throw in the chicken.
# – Don’t forget the potatoes. Stir till everything’s coated by the curry paste.
# – Pour the white vinegar in..
# – And then the 1 litre of water.
# – Stir till combined and allow to simmer for 30 minutes or when liquid has reduced by half.
# – When the liquid has reduced by half, throw in the onions, garlic, ginger and chillies fried earlier. Stir and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
# – Malaysian devil chicken curry, DONE!
# – Serve with piping hot plain rice. Yums!
It’s also very helpful if you’ve got a helper to seed 30 dry chillies for it’s not a very pleasant task. My hands were still tingling 5 hours later. I found it much easier and faster to seed the chillies after they’ve been soaked in water and softened up. With a pair of kitchen scissors, do it under running water to quickly flush away the seeds.
Really, if you want to make this, make sure you’ve prepared the ingredients earlier on otherwise you may find your poor back on the verge of breaking by the end of it all. But…it’s all worth it. Because it’s interesting! It’s complex! It’s mind-bogglingly delicious!
The curry tasted better too after a day. The BF ate it with bread. He ate it all. He didn’t leave me any -_-
