Sri Lankan Chicken Curry

A one-pot wonder filled with delicious flavours

This fantastic one-pot meal is delicious, nourishing, filled with spices
but not too hot. Add the vegetables of your choice to make it unique.

This recipe is bound to hit the spot for the entire family!

In our house we love an Indian curry and are always looking for interesting and new recipes. This Sri Lankan recipe was the first time we have made a curry from scratch and it was simply delicious.

Being our first time we didn’t have all the ingredients of the traditional recipe so had to improvise. Curry leaves were replaced with lime juice (from a bottle) and basil, ghee was replaced with butter, chilli powder was omitted because not everyone in our house likes hot spice and we didn’t have enough basmati rice so used brown rice. This was a microwave dish but I cooked it on the stove-top as I love the aroma. The recipe below is my take on this dish, add more chilli if you like it hot!

Whilst it looks like a lot of work, this is a quick and easy meal to enjoy during the week, just make sure you prep everything before you start cooking. Enjoy with rice and some poppadoms. My only warning make sure you stock up on the spices because you’re sure going to want to make it again!

Ingredients

2 cups brown rice
4 cups water
40g butter
2 small onions, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 fresh green chillies, deseeded, finely chopped
2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp lime juice
Handful of basil, chopped
2 tsp tomato paste
600g chicken breast, cut in 3cm pieces
1 cup coconut milk
Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

Cook the rice as per the instructions on the pack (microwave, stove-top) or if your lucky enough to have a rice cooker, perfect!
On a medium heat melt butter in a large frying pan, add onion, garlic, green chilli, ginger and cook until onions are soft.
Add lime juice, basil, paprika, ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, and pepper. Cook until the aroma starts to fill the air
Add tomato paste and stir until well combined. Cover, and cook for about 5 minutes
Add chicken to the spice mixture and stir to combine. Stir in coconut milk.
Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
Add any further vegetables you desire (I used beans and savoy cabbage). Cook for further 5 minutes
Season well. Top with coriander. Serve with rice and pappadums.

Kai tōtika