<p>galo:</p>
<p>Stop making this so hard. Search for chicken curry, not chicken vegetable stew. You’ll get thousands of hits, including youtube videos. Indian chicken curry. Thai chicken curry. Whatever you want.</p>
<p>Well I’m looking for something suitable to make a big batch … kind of like katong / curry laksa.</p>
<p>My current batch is now simmering and very watery – I added in sour cream and flour to thicken. It tastes good, though it’s not what I intended to make. I’ll make the best of it (I still have two and half more weeks till the dining halls reopen!) – I didn’t use store-bought curry paste or the coconut milk this time, cuz I figured I could use them for more well-valued attempts. I did add lots of dry curry powders though…</p>
<p>Raw celery doesn’t keep well in my dorm fridge apparently – it got soft and flexible just over two days… (probably because I left it out for 6 hours at room temperature by accident). So I didn’t manage to add that in.</p>
<p>Here ya go. This one uses a tablespoon of storebought red Thai curry paste:</p>
<p>[Chicken</a> Curry Recipe – ThaiTable.com](<a href=“http://www.thaitable.com/Thai/recipes/Chicken_Curry.htm]Chicken”>Chicken Curry - Gang Gai แกงไก่ - ThaiTable.com)</p>
<p>If you can’t find the Thai basil, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. You could throw some scallions in there if you want a little green. The Thai basil has a licorice-like flavor, but the curry paste and coconut milk are going to dominate the flavors of this dish.</p>
<p>If you don’t want eggplant, throw whatever veggies you like in there. Carrots, celery, zuchinni, brocolli, whatever.</p>
<p>Are there any techniques for stretching the supply of coconut milk, or cooking replacements with regular milk, cream of mushroom/corn/rice/etc. perhaps with real coconut milk as a fraction of its ingredients?</p>
<p>(Just because I’m a college student who’d like to keep the cost of meals down. 
)</p>
<p>The recipe I linked calls for 1 cup of coconut milk and 3 cups of water. I don’t know how much more you could stretch it.</p>
<p>Or find an Indian curry. They usually don’t have coconut milk at all.</p>
<p>I’m just generally wondering about the theory of thick creamy curries in general, because Indian curries tend to be creamy too.</p>
<p>1 cup = 250 mL, yes? I have a can of 400 mL coconut milk … that I want to use for both curry and making coconut rice…</p>
<p>I wonder if you can use other creamy or thick things to stretch it out (beyond water) … e.g. sour cream, regular plain milk, condensed milk, etc.</p>
<p>Indian cooking is more likely to have actual cream sauces and cheeses. Remember, it was a British colony. For example, the tandoori orange coating is yoghurt based. Sang paneer, the spinach dish, has homemade cheese.</p>
<p>I can’t recall ever seeing a milk based sauce in southeast asian or chinese cooking.</p>
<p>For your Thai curry, the recipe I sent you has a pretty small amount of chicken. I would make a double recipe using a whole can of coconut milk and double the water. Then, make just plain jasmine rice and poor some of the curry liquid over your rice. </p>
<p>The recipe doesn’t call for browning the chicken. The Thai curries are usually kind of delicate like that. However, if I had chicken thighs with the skin, I’d brown them first. </p>
<p>1 cup = 236 ml</p>
<p>gals, i’m not sure if you’re looking for an indian recipe, but this one is fairly simple and easy. it’s not exactly traditional but i changed it because i’m lazy lol. it’s a pretty foolproof way to make some semblance of chicken briyani.</p>
<p>things you’ll need:</p>
<p>chicken breast (or whatever is your favorite. i prefer breast.)
plain yogurt
sindhi briyani mix; the company i use makes it in a yellow box. (company=shaan jaan? i’m probably wrong.) you can usually find it asian stores or at the indian store down 29.
ginger, minced (about 1 tbs.)
garlic, minced (about 1 tbs.)
salt
pepper
lemon juice (the juice of half a lemon is good.)
chili pepper (if you have it/want it. not really necessary.)
oil
a can of diced tomatoes</p>
<p>cut your chicken. wash it and then add a cup of yogurt, half of the briyani spice mix, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. let it sit for an hour. put some oil into a pan and then add the ginger/garlic. Let that fry for 3-4 minutes over medium heat (on a scale of 1-10, think around 8.) Add the chicken, about 1/3 c. of water, 1/4 c. yogurt, and the rest of the sindhi briyani mix, tomatoes, and chili powder. Stir it, let it sit for 5 minutes and then turn down the heat. (on a scale of 1-10, think 5-6.) let it simmer for 40 minutes, occasionally stir. To garnish, add some chopped cilantro. make some rice and enjoy once it’s done. </p>
<p>i’ve never measured anything for this recipe. You can change up anything and it would still come out great; everything is to taste. If you have any extra spices left over from cooking something else, you can dump it into this.</p>
<p>9-10 cups of water??? No matter it’s watery!</p>
<p>I just checked it this morning (after like 9 hours of stewing) and it’s AWESOME. Beautiful! </p>
<p>It must be caramelisation, the dissolved carrot or something … but this jook method does seem to pay off … probably not the milky kind I was looking for, and maybe the flour and sour cream is critical to its satisfactory thickness too, but I love it.</p>
<p>It tasted alright during 1st hour, a bit better in the 3rd hour, but I guess this 8th - 9th hour thing is magnificent. I don’t know what process turned my watery curry into a delicious curried soup (it’s quite thicker than soup, almost like chowder), but hey!</p>
<p>I can’t seem to fully activate the cilantro though – on high it barely boils, prolly because of the layer of fat on the bottom (that’s not really burning though, and it doesn’t mess up my curry soup). How much do you need for about 2 gallons worth (if not more) of curry soup?</p>
<p>(P.S. I think the total price tag on my big pot of “curry,” excluding heating costs that I don’t pay for, is anywhere from 4-8 dollars, with about $2.50 worth of chicken. I didn’t measure the amount of stuff I put in though.)</p>
<p>db123: Wow, thanks! After I finish my current batch, I will definitely try using your method. Do you make this often?</p>
<p>I realised my current batch doesn’t have any lemon (forgot to get it!), chilies, mint or tomatoes – so now I’m just wondering how much better my current batch could have been lol.</p>
<p>One of the best starts to any Indian curry that has onions in the recipe is to start with slow-cooking the onions (and garlic, if the recipe calls for it), while keeping the lid on to preserve the flavors. Cook till the onions just start to turn brown, then add the spices called for. If potatoes need to be added, I’d suggest cooking them in a separate saucepan till they are done, then adding them to the curry. </p>
<p>I’d be careful about keeping a chicken curry on the pot too long - it’s possible to overcook chicken!</p>
<p>How can you have 3-4lbs of chicken thighs for only $2.50? Where I live it’s over $1.00 per lb.</p>
<p>Thanks for posing the question, by the way. I’ve got good leads on how to make curry next time!</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice all!</p>
<p>Well I used half of that 4 ibs – I didn’t think I could fit it all at the time (the pot was nearly full). I do wonder if I could have fit more for even more chicken flavor though, since a lot of the chicken basically melted into the curry/soup. (Making my previously watery curry quite rich…) The browning and caramelisation(?) of the chicken fat seems to have turned the curry incredibly sweet (in a very delicious way) – and I never added any sugar!! </p>
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<p>Is it so? My chicken broke down and stuff, but my cooking style seems to match my painting – I love it when there’s like a gradient between solid and liquid, with the full range of bits of intact and nearly-dissolved chicken both in the pot. ;)</p>
<p>If there’s enough water the chicken shouldn’t overcook, should it?</p>
<p>I never cook leaf cilantro. I just toss it in at the end. Seed cilantro (where it’s call coriander) is really best ground fresh, though you can get it powdered. If you think you need more chicken flavor you could brown it first before adding the liquid. Or you could cheat and add a chicken bouillon cube. I’ve never made a curry that stews for hours though. I want meals that are done in less than an hour for the most part.</p>
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<p>You need to think this thru by yourself. :)</p>
<p>gals, i make this a lot lol. as enigmatic said, indian recipes usually call for onions. you can put them in, but it meant i had to wait an extra 15-20 minutes and had to cut the onion so I’ve slowly cut it out. When I make chicken briyani for real, there’s a whole host of other ingredients that go in that make the briyani better but it takes more time/money. Things like mint, butter, onions, fresh tomatoes, fresh chilies, chopped cashews, etc. If you’re looking for that recipe, let me know and I can post it up. There’s a LOT of other really easy, cheap indian recipes. can’t wait for a kitchen next year! :)</p>
<p>for any sort of meat briyani, don’t add potatoes. a lot of people add them and they’re horrible. there’s better uses for a potato. and as mathmom said, cilantro is more of a garnish.</p>
<p>My one biryani-making experience made me appreciate the good Indian restaurant in a town 40 minutes away. I agree - no potato.</p>
<p>Galoisien, if you still have the limp celery, trim the ends and put it in a container of water in the refrigerator for a while, and it will turn crisp again.</p>
<p>Love the stories of your cooking adventures. But it seems a good deal of angst goes into the process. Two easy, fast ways to make very different curries-</p>
<p>Japanese S&B curry mix. This is a box with tablets of curry concentrate. You’re from Singapore, so probably want the hot variety. I saute onion chunks, chicken breasts (you can use bone in chicken of whatever sort) carrots, potatoes, bell pepper, then add water. Add extra garlic and the blocks of concentrate. Cook till everything is soft. Thickens up nicely, and makes a rather yummy traditional Japanese curry. My favorite fast dinner. </p>
<p>Thai fast curry-Thai kitchen Red curry mix. Follow directions on the label, cooking tablespoons of the mix in coconut milk. BTW-coconut milk in my experience is cheap if bought at an Asian market-a dollar or so per can, cheaper than cream, even in Wisconsin. There are low fat varieties. I add garlic to this as well, and sliced squash or yams, onions, tofu and a little shrimp, as well as the very necessary nam pla-Thai shrimp sauce. Chicken and peppers might be a good variation, or any variety of ingredients you want. Mushrooms are great with this. Add fresh basil at the end if you have it.</p>
<p>Curry is one of my favorite foods and I love them all - Malaysian, Indian, Chinese, Polynesian … love them all! Time to do it right is tough, though - I have a large family and am currently expecting. I’ve found that there are some really, really good curry pastes in our huge local Asian supermarket. I’ve found some great red ones, yellow ones and green ones. The yellow tub we are currently working on is really yum - lots of lemongrass. I love to mix it with coconut milk or yogurt - we like it creamy.</p>