I made this tonight and it’s all kind of awesome! It’s pretty quick to prepare and the longer you cook it the better it gets. It’s rich, and the chicken melts in your mouth! I didn’t even need my knife, it went back in the drawer clean!
Equipment: medium size dutch oven or le creuset style pot, oven, knife, hands, eyes, the usual
Ingredients:
1.5 kg chicken pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp flour
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
.5 tsp chili powder (adjust to fit your tastes, I used hot)
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp palm sugar (can use regular)
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp chicken bullion powder
300ml water (or so)
oil (I used olive)
Preparation:
Preheat your oven to 130C, about 250F. Heat up your dutch oven and put a bit of oil on the bottom. Pull the skin off your chicken, and fry half in the hot oil for 4-5 minutes, discarding the rest. When brown remove the cooked chicken skin and discard. The reason for pulling the skin off is that I don’t like how the skins get soggy after a long slow cook, I like to fry them off like this to get a fried chicken flavor into the dish. You can leave them on if you like, if you do then fry the chicken skin down to brown and them remove them before the next step.
Next put your chopped onion into the casserole and saute on medium heat until they start to soften, then add the garlic and saute for another 2-3 minutes. Add the flour and stir for a minute to get the flour cooked, if you don’t cook it you can get an uncooked flour taste in the dish. Add the tomatoes and cook for a minute or two until they start to get mushy, then add the ground spices and brown them off for a minute. Add the chicken in and stir to coat. Add enough water to come almost to the top of the chicken, probably about 300ml. Don’t overdo the water or your sauce will be diluted. Add the fish sauce, palm sugar, vinegar, and bullion powder, stir in, then cover and put it in the oven.
How long to bake depends on how much time you have. This could be ready in 45 minutes on a high oven, but I cooked this low and slow because I had the time, over 2 and a half hours with 30 minutes resting at the end. Taste it halfway through and see if it needs anything. When done take the cover off and let it rest for a bit. Serve over rice.