Chicken Potato Curry: Kyet Tha Aloo Hin
Introduction
Who doesn’t love a fried potato? And the potato in this curry is deep-fried before being added to the chicken to give it an extra bit of texture and flavour. You could even make this a vegetarian potato curry by replacing the chicken with some extra vegetables such as cauliflower, carrots or beans, and omitting the fish sauce.
Ingredients
| 2 tbsp | gram flour |
| 1 tsp | salt |
| 2 | large potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2–5cm chunks |
| Oil (vegetable, sunflower or peanut), for deep-frying potatoes, plus 6 tbsp and a little extra for browning the chicken | |
| 3 | medium onions, chopped |
| 6 | garlic cloves, peeled |
| 1 | thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled |
| 6 | skinless and boneless chicken thighs, cut into 5cm chunks |
| 2 tsp | paprika |
| 1 tsp | turmeric powder |
| 2 tsp | medium chilli powder |
| 4 | medium tomatoes, roughly chopped |
| 2–3 tbsp | fish sauce |
| Handful of | coriander leaves, to garnish (optional) |
Instructions
Combine the gram flour and salt and coat the potatoes in it lightly. Line a plate with a few sheets of kitchen paper.
Pour the oil into a wok or heavy-based frying pan to a depth of 5cm and deep-fry the potatoes until golden brown. Make sure you don’t overcrowd the pan. Scoop out the potato chunks using a heatproof strainer or sieve and transfer to the kitchen paper.
Heat the 6 tablespoons of oil in a large casserole dish set over a medium heat. Add the chopped onions and cook slowly, turning down the heat to low-medium and stirring every 4–5 minutes until softened and starting to colour lightly and become oily – this will take at least 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, crush the garlic cloves and ginger to a paste using a pestle and mortar or blitz in a food processor. Once the onions are ready, add the crushed garlic and ginger and fry for a few minutes until fragrant.
Add a splash more oil, then brown the chicken pieces with the onion/garlic/ginger mix. Add the spices, tomatoes and fish sauce and stir for a few minutes until the tomatoes have broken down slightly. Add the deep-fried potatoes with 80ml of water and mix well. Leave to cook over a low-medium heat for 15–20 minutes, uncovered.
Serve with steamed rice, garnished with coriander leaves.
Storage notes: This curry can be stored in a container in the fridge for up to 4 days or frozen on the day of cooking for up to 3 months. Defrost carefully and reheat thoroughly before serving.
