Vietnamese Chicken Curry Cà Ri Gà
What is Vietnamese Chicken Curry?
Vietnamese Chicken Curry Recipe or Cà Ri Gà is a bowl of delicious savory comfort. This dish celebrates Vietnam’s exposure to so many different cultures during the countries history. Often called Vietnamese Indian Curry, this has become a staple in Vietnamese households.
The fresh herbed salad is something I put together in order to bring some freshness to the table. I pretty much take whatever veggies I have in the fridge and put it together in a bowl. For the dressing I make Nước chấm, in English it is translated Vietnamese dipping Fish Sauce. I will be adding my recipe for this soon.
Story Time
Have you ever had such a connection with a certain type of food, but have never been to the home country? Yes! Well, me too…and mine is Vietnamese cuisine. When I lived in LA, I would venture down to Westminster, CA in the OC to grab authentic Vietnamese food. I love the complexity of the flavors; bringing together spicy, sweet, salty, and umami. Much like my shakshouka story, I have yet to venture to Vietnam, but it’s on my bucket list.
From my kitchen to yours,
Mel
INGREDIENTS
2 lb chopped chicken any cut
2 rustically chopped potatoes
2 rustically chopped carrots
1 medium-sized onion sliced
4 gloves garlic finely chopped
2 stalks lemongrass cut into 3 inch pieces then split lengthwise, smash it before adding to curry
4 kaffir lime leaves
2 tbsp Vietnamese curry powder (I prefer Yeo Malaysian Curry Powder)
1 can of 13.5 oz of coconut milk (I prefer Chaokoh Coconut milk)
oil for frying (I prefer avo oil)
2 tsp sugar (add more if needed)
salt to taste
2-3 cups water
lemon wedge
cilantro/ thai basil medley
optional: sambal chili sauce, thai chili, fish sauce
*Rustically chopped means rough and without regular size or form.
INSTRUCTIONS
Start by chopping up your veggies up, and then your chicken. Make sure that you have all of your ingredients, it helps a whole lot when you have everything right in front of you, especially when this is a new recipe you’re trying or you need to tweak anything!
Heat up your pan on high heat, add 1tbsp of avo oil, after about a minute it should be hot. Add your finely chopped garlic and lemongrass, sauté for about 10 seconds, and then add your sliced onions, sauté this for about a minute over medium high heat. Once you see the onions start to soften add your chopped chicken, add the curry powder immediately after and mix this around.
After about 5 minutes you will see your chicken brown, add your potatoes, carrots, coconut milk, and water. (I use my coconut milk can and fill it up all the way with water.) Mix this around so that the flavors are captured in the coconut milk.
Soon after add your 4 kaffir lime leaves and and 2tsp of sugar (you may want to add more) and salt to taste. Let this curry come to a boil, turn to low heat and let your curry simmer soaking up all of the flavors for about 25 minutes.
Remember to taste as you go so that you can add more of this or that…everyone has their own preference, I love fish sauce but because I knew that I would have a dish on my table with this strong flavor I opted out of adding it to the curry, however please feel free to do so, and remember that a little goes a LONG way in this dish so add little at a time.
The dish should take about 3o minutes to make once in the pot. When you are plating, remember to add the cilantro/thai basil medley on top and dress it with a lemon wedge for a more complex flavor. If you want a little more spice add sambal chili sauce or thai chilis.
Serve with Vietnamese broken rice, Baguette, herbed salad, and or a Thai tea.
