Malaysian Chicken Curry with Buttermilk Beer Beignets

Preparation Combine curry powder, sugar, salt, and chicken bouillon in a mixing bowl and hand mix together until it’s all one love, one mix. Rinse chicken under water, pat dry with paper towels, then transfer to a mixing bowl. Next, pour the beautiful curry spice mix all over that chicken. Mix and rub the spices all over the chicken until no chicken remains uncovered with spice. Cover it all up, like it’s your only goal in life. Marinate overnight. Alternatively, if you’re in a hurry, marinate for 1 hour, though the curry mix won’t fully penetrate the chicken or touch the souls of others, which is what eating is all about. When ready to cook, you’ll need a pan to sauté with and a pot for stewing and braising. Combine coconut milk, whole milk, and sambal badjak in pot. Next, heat the sauté pan to medium-high heat. Add a little bit of cooking oil, add some onions and some lime leaves, and sear batches of chicken until chicken turns golden brown all around, while sweating onions and leaves. Do not cook the chicken through; just brown and sear. The lime leaves will fill your kitchen with their incredible citrus scent—a pretty amazing smell. After each batch is evenly seared, transfer into pot. To ensure the chicken cooks evenly, do not heat up the pot until all chicken is seared. Continue searing onions, lime leaves, and chicken. Once all chicken is seared, sauté any remaining lime leaves, and onions, and transfer to the pot before cooking. If there is any excess spice mix in the chicken marinade bowl, also transfer into the pot because the spice mix is measured specifically to give the best flavor for the curry sauce itself and not just the marinade. Bring pot to a boil over high heat, then simmer covered with a slight opening for 35–45 minutes, or until the chicken is tender but not falling apart. The curry consistency should be thin and almost milky. Once chicken is done, turn off heat. While waiting for the chicken to finish cooking, prepare an ice water bath in a bowl. Bring 2 inches of water to a rolling boil in a pot over high heat. Cook the sweet potatoes in the boiling water for 6–8 minutes. Check often to see when the potatoes are cooked through; they should be crunchy, still firm and not mushy. Once they’re done, remove the potatoes from pot (but do not dump the boiling water; save it for blanching the carrots) and shock them immediately in the ice water bath for 2 minutes, or until they are completely cool to the touch. Strain and set aside cooked potatoes in a fresh bowl. Next, blanch the carrots by repeating the steps as for the potatoes, checking for nonmushy doneness. If you use baby carrots, they take about 4–5 minutes to blanch. Adjust time accordingly for the type of carrots you’re using and how they’re cut. Cook, shock, strain, then set aside with the potatoes. Chicken can be served immediately, but it will be most flavorful if cooled down, stored, and covered overnight in the fridge, and then reheated and served the next day. Blanched potatoes and carrots can also be stored overnight. When ready to serve (not long before—just right when you are ready to serve), add carrots and potatoes to the hot chicken curry. Garnish with scallions. Serve with steamed rice, and if you want to soak up that curry deliciousness (my favorite part), sop it up with some Buttermilk Beer Beignets. And that’s the best experience with chicken curry that you can have—reaching the epitome of chicken curry enlightenment. Enjoy, kids! NoteHeads up, kids! The best version of this dish takes three days to make. If you have to have it now, the shortest amount of time it takes is probably 2 hours. From Adventures in Starry Kitchen: 88 Asian-Inspired Recipes from America's Most Famous Underground Restaurant © 2017 by Nguyen Tran. Reprinted by permission of Harper One, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Buy the full book from HarperCollins or from Amazon.