Southeast Asian Chicken Curry

My version of chicken curry, inspired by Malaysian and Indian curries. I decided to keep this here to save the ingredients for personal purposes, but there's no harm in sharing it to others, so feel free to use.

• Preparation Time: 20 mins
• Cooking Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 40 mins
• Calories: 726 Calories

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 2 cups water
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 cube chicken bouillon
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, or as needed
• 2 whole star anise pods
• 1 tablespoon white sugar, or to taste
• 1 clove garlic, minced, or to taste
• 2 cardamom pods
• 1 tablespoon minced onion, or to taste
• 3 tablespoons ground turmeric
• 10 chicken leg quarters
• ½ teaspoon grated ginger, or to taste
• 1 makrut lime leaf
• ⅛ red chile pepper, sliced
• 2 (8 ounce) containers plain yogurt (such as Nestle®), divided
• 4 ½ tablespoons fish sauce (patis), divided
• 1 (6.5 ounce) can Filipino-style tomato sauce

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Mix ground cinnamon, turmeric, garam masala, paprika, ginger, bay leaves, star anise, cardamom, cinnamon stick, lime leaf, and chile pepper together in a bowl.

Step 2

Mix 1/2 of 1 yogurt container with 2 tablespoons of spice mixture and 1 tablespoon fish sauce in a bowl. Make deep cuts into the chicken thighs to allow sauce to penetrate. Coat chicken with yogurt mixture and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours.

Step 3

Heat oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Stir-fry onion and garlic in the hot pot for 30 seconds; add remaining spice mixture and continue to stir-fry, 30 seconds more. Add chicken to the pan and fry until spices around chicken have darkened, 2 to 4 minutes. Add marinade and bring to a boil over high heat; continue to boil, covered, for 2 minutes.

Step 4

Dissolve bouillon in water and add to the pot. Add remaining yogurt, remaining fish sauce, and sugar. Boil chicken in sauce until nearly cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Step 5

Add tomato sauce; boil until chicken is no longer pink in the centers and sauce has completely thickened, 5 to 10 minutes. Melt butter into mixture and cover. Turn off heat and let dish rest to let chicken absorb sauce, about 30 minutes.