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Vietnamese Chicken Curry
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The category of complexly spiced dishes we know collectively as “curry” was brought to Vietnam by Indian immigrants who arrived in the country in the 19th century, while both Indochina and the port of Pondicherry, India, were under French rule. Lemon grass, fish sauce and star anise were incorporated as curry ingredients to adapt the flavors to local palates. As a result, Vietnamese curry has a uniquely bright, yet deeply savory taste and aroma. Though many versions of cà ri gà, or chicken curry, call for store-bought curry powder, we prefer to mix our own spices so we can control the seasoning. Serve with steamed jasmine rice.
4
Servings
Tip
Don’t underblend the spice mixture. Make sure it’s perfectly smooth, without any fibrousness or tough bits from the lemon grass and ginger. Also, don’t use chicken breasts in place of the chicken thighs. Breast meat is delicate and mild; it will wind up overcooked and the curry will lack flavor.
35 minutes
Plus marinating
¼ cup grapeseed or other neutral oil
4 medium garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
3 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
3 stalks lemon grass, trimmed to the lower 5 or 6 inches, dry outer layers discarded, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut crosswise into 1- to 1½-inch pieces
5 star anise pods
2 medium carrots, peeled, halved and sliced ¼ inch thick
2 tablespoons fish sauce
¼ cup lime juice
Chopped fresh cilantro, to serve
Ingredients
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¼
cup grapeseed or other neutral oil
-
4
medium garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
-
3
inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
-
1
medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
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3
stalks lemon grass, trimmed to the lower 5 or 6 inches, dry outer layers discarded, thinly sliced
-
2
tablespoons coriander seeds
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2
teaspoons ground turmeric
-
1
teaspoon ground cinnamon
-
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
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2
pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut crosswise into 1- to 1½-inch pieces
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5
star anise pods
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2
medium carrots, peeled, halved and sliced ¼ inch thick
-
2
tablespoons fish sauce
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¼
cup lime juice
-
Chopped fresh cilantro, to serve
Directions
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01In a blender, combine the oil, garlic, ginger, onion, lemon grass, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, ½ cup water and ½ teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Blend until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping the blender jar as needed. Transfer the puree to a medium bowl, add the chicken and stir until evenly coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 1 hour.
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02In a 12-inch skillet, combine the chicken and all of the marinade, the star anise and carrots. Bring to simmer over medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the marinade begins to brown, 6 to 7 minutes. Stir in ⅓ cup water and the fish sauce. Return to a simmer, then cover, reduce to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally and adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a simmer, until the carrots are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens enough to cling to the chicken, about another 5 minutes.
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03Remove from the heat and stir in the lime juice. Remove and discard the star anise, then taste and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with cilantro.
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Reviews
October 29, 2022
A disappointment
Sauce wouldn’t become smooth in my Costco Ninja. Couldn’t chew up the sauce. Yuck! Spent way too much time preparing for a disappointing result. Tried to make a special dish for company and it was yuck.
October 28, 2022
Too time consuming and blender would not make the sauce smooth. I have a profIessional Ninja Blender from Costco but it could not make the sauce smooth. I had company coming for dinner, spent hours on the recipe and the sauce was fibrous and couldn’t be chewed up.
Too time consuming and blender would not make the sauce smooth. I have a Costco Professional Ninja Blender and I blended and blended but still couldn’t make the sauce smooth.
As the previous commenters note, there is a lot going on here in terms of flavors! This is not a spicy hot dish at all, so would be fine for those who are heat-sensitive (I thought it could use a little heat actually, so next time may slice a serrano pepper into it). I also used 1/2 basil/1/2 mint in place of cilantro, since I cannot eat cilantro (although for once I have to admit that it is a traditional garnish, instead of modern cooks putting cilantro on every-damn-thing regardless of whether it should have it or not). However, I think this is one of those recipes I should see demonstrated--I'm not positive I had it come out the way it was intended to, but could be because my largest skillet w/a lid is 10". All the cook times seemed slightly off: initial stage sauced browned very quickly, then covered had trouble holding the simmer down, but especially the last stage where the sauce is supposed to thicken & cling to the chicken in 5 mins--more like 12-14, by which time the carrots were slightly softer than I think the recipe calls for (although still not really too bad). But overall the other posters are right: can't argue w/the wonderful medley of flavors.
This was a four-thumbs down in our household. Despite prepared in a Vitamix, the texture was too gritty for our taste. Flavor was just "meh". Admittedly, having lived in Vietnam, I knew that Vietnamese curries are not a highlight of the country's cuisine. With so many great curry recipes (e.g. MS's Cape Malay Curry), we'll not be making this one again.
Very unusual that I try something new from Milk Street and I don't like the dish. This was one of those rare times. Perhaps I was expecting a more traditional curry flavor or, most likely, I underestimated the power of star anise. I won't make this dish again and I'll never use star anise in any recipe! I re-read reader comments (above) so obviously personal taste is the key ingredient, but I would only recommend this dish to the most adventuresome.
This one was a fun one and I feel like a learned something here - I made this with the lemon grass paste that Milk Street sells in their store and it turned out pretty good! A few thoughts - Firstly, my sauce was definitely blended enough (having the lemon grass paste instead of lemon grass probably helped here) but even so, it seems to have a "broken" appearance at the end - which looking closely at the picture is what MS's looks like too (I think). I am wondering of anyone else's sauce looked like this. It didn't matter though because the mouth feel/texture was super smooth and it tasted quite good. Secondly, I didn't want to overcook the carrots but my sauce was really not thickening or coating the chicken at the end. Instead of letting it go longer than the 5 minutes, I added some cornstarch with the lime and that did the trick. It helped the sauce come together and look less broken as well. Lastly, definitely use the 12" skillet as recommended in the recipe - Even with my full size skillet, I was at max capacity!
What is a good substitute for the star anise? I'd rather eat an old shoe than put anything remotely licorice into my mouth. :)
Hi Alexandra -
Star anise is a pretty central ingredient and flavor in this dish (and Vietnamese cuisine), so eliminating it will definitely alter the authenticity of the dish. That being said, you could eliminate it altogether and/or add allspice berries or fennel seeds, which would obviously be much harder to fish out at the end.
Best,
The Milk Street Team
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This is a superb, exciting dish.