Malaysian Chicken Curry

Gordon Ramsay recipes Malaysian chicken curry recipe

The F Word
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Date Published:
04/09/2007

Gordon Ramsay challenged a number of celebrities to cook their favourite dishes in series 3 of the F Word. Gordon would make a Ramsay version and the F Word diners would vote for their favourite. This recipe is Gordon's version of Malaysian chicken curry in a cook-off with Chris Moyles.

Watch step-by-step videos from Gordon on how to cook rice and how to joint a chicken

Serves 6

Ingredients:

Chicken

  • 1kg chicken thighs
  • 2 tbsp groundnut oil
  • 2 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 kaffir lime leaves
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 3 star anise
  • 400ml coconut milk
  • 100ml chicken stock
  • 1 tsp palm sugar (or soft brown sugar)
  • 2 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 400g green beans, trimmed and cut into 5cm lengths
  • Handful of coriander leaves, roughly torn

Curry paste

  • 5 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 4–5 long, red chillies, trimmed, deseeded and roughly chopped
  • 3 lemon grass stalks, trimmed with the outer leaves removed and thinly sliced
  • 5cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
  • 4 large shallots, peeled and chopped
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 2–3 tbsp groundnut oil

Coconut rice

  • 300g jasmine, Thai fragrant or other long-grain rice
  • 200ml coconut milk
  • 5 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled
  • Pinch of sea salt

Method: How to make Malaysian chicken curry

1. First make the curry paste. Put the garlic, chillies, lemon grass, ginger, shallots and turmeric in a food processor and whiz to a paste. With the motor running, trickle in a little groundnut oil and blend well, scraping the sides of the processor several times. (Or you can pound the ingredients together in batches using a pestle and mortar).

2. To make the curry, cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces (watch the step-by-step video from Gordon on how to joint a chicken). Heat the groundnut oil in a large cast-iron casserole or heavy-based pan. Tip in the curry paste and stir over a medium heat for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes until they are beginning to soften.

3. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add to the pan and stir to coat them in the spice paste. Add the lime leaves, cinnamon stick, star anise, coconut milk, stock, sugar, soy and fish sauces and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook gently for 30–40 minutes until the chicken is tender.

4. For the rice, rinse the grains in cold water to get rid of any excess starch (watch the step-by-step video from Gordon on how to cook rice). Drain and tip into a heavy-based pan. Add the rest of the ingredients with 200ml water, stir well and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Leaving the lid on, remove the pan from the heat and leave to stand for 5–10 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork and serve while still hot.

5. Skim off any excess oil on the surface of the curry. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Tip in the beans, put the lid on and cook for another 3–4 minutes until the beans are tender. Scatter the coriander leaves over the curry and serve with the coconut rice.

More chicken recipes from Channel 4 chefs:

Gordon Ramsay’s chicken tikka masala
Gordon Ramsay's chicken and paprika stroganoff
Jamie Oliver's Parmesan chicken breasts
Jamie Oliver's perfect roast chicken
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's chicken kievs

Most popular Gordon Ramsay recipes:

Gordon’s lasagne
Gordon's vegetable curry
Chilli con carne
Gordon's macaroni cheese
Gordon's shepherd's pie

Fast Food Book

Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food; recipes from the F Word published by Quadrille, £19.99, photography by Jill Mead.

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Comments

  1. I agree with Max. My ex mother-in-law was from Malaysia and this is more Thai influenced than Malay. I've been cooking Malay chicken curry for years and this bears little or no resemblance to traditional curries of this region. Sorry Gordon....
    Posted by Belacan on 30/07/2009 21:55:29
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  2. With green beans, fish sauce and palm sugar it's no Malay Curry I recognise. Sorry Gorden - you need to try harder to convince me on this one!
    Posted by Max Stewart on 18/07/2009 14:20:24
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  3. Good recipe - careful of the salt content; fish sauce soy sauce, seasoning and stock in the amounts suggested will invariably create a dish which is over salty ---> Don't salt the chicken prior to cooking as suggested, ensure the soy sauce is light, not generic dark, possibly half all salty quantities and check the taste before adding more. Also, use half ginger and half galangal if you can, in the amount suggested, add the juice of a lime, put about 3 dried red chilli's in at the adding coconut milk stage and add a midget's handful of basil and coriander at the very end. This will make it taste considerably better, and don't bother with the poncy rice, boiled rice is much better from an effort to reward ratio viewpoint.
    Posted by adstapleton on 25/05/2009 01:47:07
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  4. Great recipe! As for the spices, the new range of frozen spices (including lime leaves and lemongrass) from Waitrose / Ocado are brilliant. I find that a level teaspoon of the shredded frozen lime leaves is about the equivalent of a single, fresh leaf.
    Posted by Adrian on 07/05/2009 12:01:53
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  5. I have made this curry 3 times now and every time I start to cook all the spices together every member of my family leaves the kitchen as the fumes from the spices makes there eyes runs but after the curry has simmer for an 30 - 40 min they can't wait to come back to the kitchen and dive into the curry as my sister love's it so much that she has been asking me when am I going to do more as she say it the best curry she has ever had.
    Posted by Alwyn on 26/04/2009 19:17:12
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  6. My friend made this for me and my husband going over for dinner and I have raved about it ever since! I don't know if she followed the recipe to a T as it was cooked before we arrrived. However, I saw her doing the rice and she needed to add alot more liquid than was stated. There was no fish to taste, so that ingrediant may have been left out!
    Posted by Claire on 17/04/2009 13:14:44
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  7. I left out the fish sauce, used less lemon grass, milder chillies and added chopped carrotts, zuchini, mushrooms and sweet potatoes.
    Posted by WMoore on 14/02/2009 23:21:19
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  8. I tried the dried stuff, I don't like it though, mosit of the supermarkets outside of london are rubbish for fresh herbs, it's a pity.
    Posted by mjf on 28/12/2008 01:47:40
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  9. I agree with Cheesefist-even a tablespoon of fish sauce is heavy so I just use a few drops. When I first made it I used the 2 tablespoons but it just murdered it! Just out of curiosity has anyone made any of the curry in large batches? I'm making some for my staff on Boxing Day and wondered if double of everything would work...or would standard measures for the paste be fine and double up on the rest of the stuff?
    Posted by Rob on 18/12/2008 20:41:27
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  10. You can get kaffir lime leaves in any decent sized supermarket on the dried spices shelf. I make a double quantity of the curry paste then freeze half of it - works a treat.
    Posted by IL on 17/12/2008 15:40:10
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  11. Anyone know where i can get hold of the lime leaves? I live in north hertfordshire and cannot find them anywhere!! I've heard that bay leaves and lime zest together is a good substitute but i want the real thing!
    Posted by MJF on 26/11/2008 11:00:50
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  12. I agree with the first comment, I think it tastes too fishy. I would leave the fish sauce out all together as it drowns out the other flavours. It's far too runny, definitely doesn't need the stock as well as the cocunut milk. However the rice needs far more liquid, it had absorbed it all within the first 2 minutes of cooking.
    Posted by interactivesue on 19/10/2008 19:28:09
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  13. Having cooked this recipe several times I would advise only using 1 tablespoon of fish sauce, even this much is a little too fishy. Done.
    Posted by CheeseFist on 09/10/2008 20:19:01
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