Chicken, Curry and Rice
Mary Jane Hall's recipe from Mama (Margie Perry)
When I was 5 years old, my family moved to the Philippines as missionaries. In fact, my dad helped start a Bible college over there. We learned to love Asian food while in the Philippines and when we came back to the states (when I was 9) my mama fixed this dish. Then after I grew up and had a family of my own, I started making it, and it's always been a favorite of ours too! What prompted me to post this recipe is that my youngest son called & asked me for the recipe, and I thought I might as well share it on my blog. I hope you enjoy it! By the way, I loved living in the Philippines. It's beautiful there, and we had coconut trees, Pineapple trees, Guava trees, Papaya trees & banana trees in our yard!
I will post a photo of this dish next time I make this!
Boiled Chicken Pieces (you
can either buy a small whole chicken & cook it on the bone, chicken
pieces already cut up or boneless chicken breasts/tenders) - I boil the
chicken, let it cool and then take it off the bones. (Boneless chicken
is easier!)
Steamed White Rice - plain (i don't even add salt to
it, but you can - for you & Ashley just make 3 cups steamed rice,
which is 1 cup of UNcooked rice. Unless you want to have left overs,
make more rice :-)
Curry Powder - the yellow kind
Condiments - Peanuts, coconut, chopped green onions, golden raisins, chopped green pepper
When
I was growing up we always just put peanuts on top, but sometimes now I
like adding a little coconut & golden raisins. This goes very well
with curry.
Curry Sauce - see below
For the curry sauce,
all you do is make a white sauce (from any basic cookbook) and add
curry. You can add the curry to taste and depending how much white sauce
I make, I may use 2-4 teaspoons of the yellow curry, but if you like a
strong curry taste, you can add more. Just add to taste.
Basic White Sauce (I usually make 2 - 3 cups of white sauce, depending on how many people are eating the meal)
For every 1 cup of white sauce, you will need: (this makes 1 cup, so you may want to double or triple it)
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons white all purpose flour
1 cup warm milk
For curry flavored sauce - add 1 - 2 teaspoons of curry powder to the flour & butter mixture, before you add the milk.
Melt butter in large flat frying pan on low
heat. Add the flour gradually, using a whisk to stir it & keep it
from getting too thick. (Note: If you have your heat too high, the flour
& butter mixture will get too thick way too fast, then it will have
lumps that are hard to smash up) I used to add my curry powder after I
add the milk, but I started adding the curry to the flour & butter
mixture BEFORE the milk. After the curry is blended with the flour &
butter, gradually add the milk & keep stirring on medium heat to
let it bubble up & thicken. Keep stirring it with the whisk so it
will be smooth) I warm my milk in the microwave first, because if you
don't the flour will lump up! Believe me, this is an important step to
warm the milk in the microwave. If you want more.
of the curry flavor add more curry powder to the sauce &
blend well with whisk. Cook the sauce till it's the desired thickness.
If it seems too thick for you, add more milk. If the sauce seems too
thin, you'll need to thicken it w/ a little flour in hot water or with a
little cornstarch in cold water.
Note: If you don't want to use dairy in this dish, you can substitute chicken broth for the milk, but we have always loved it with the basic white sauce + the curry.
Place rice on a plate, shred some chicken on top of rice, pour curry sauce over that & then add the peanuts, etc.Hope you enjoy this! Let me know if you have any questions.
