This Vietnamese curry with tender chicken, carrots, and potatoes packs a flavorful punch and has a nice little kick to it. Whether you serve it over rice noodles, steamed rice, or with a side of French baguette, you'll have everyone thanking you and craving seconds!
Ingredients
Annatto oil:
½cupavocado oil , or any neutral oil for frying
1Tbspannatto seeds
Marinade:
3lbs.chicken breast, chopped into large 2-3 inch pieces
4drumsticks
1Tbspkosher salt
1Tbspmushroom powder
¼cupfish sauce
1Tbspgarlic powder
2TbspVietnamese curry powder, or any type of yellow curry powder like Madras
1Tbspturmeric powder
2tspbrown sugar
1Tbspannatto oil
1Tbspshallots, chopped
1Tbspchopped garlic
Ingredients:
2cupscarrots, peeled, cut into 2-3 inch pieces
2cupspotatoes, peeled, cut into 2-3 inch pieces
1large shallot, chopped
1inchginger, peeled, smashed
2Tbspgarlic, chopped
3bay leaves
4lime leaves, optional
1Tbsptomato paste
2TbspVietnamese curry powder, or any type of yellow curry powder like Madras
1literlow sodium chicken broth, plus 2 cups
1tomato, quartered
1litercoconut water, plus 2 cups
214 oz cans coconut cream
1Tbspmushroom powder
3Tbspkosher salt
2Tbspcornstarch, mixed with ¼ cup water
3stalks lemongrass , smashed, cut into 5″ pieces
1largeonion, quartered lengthwise
Thickener:
¼cupcornstarch
½cupwater
Garnish:
bean sprouts
cilantro
green onions, chopped
basil, rau ram, culantro and/or mint leaves
lime
Optional:
steamed rice
vermicelli noodles
French baguette bread
Instructions
Make annatto oil by first heating up ½ cup oil. Once oil is hot, remove from heat and add 1 tablespoon of annatto seeds. Don’t let the oil get too hot, or it will burn the annatto seeds. Strain and put annatto oil aside for cooking later.
Add all marinade ingredients together and mix well. Then add chicken and massage the sauce into the chicken.
Marinate chicken for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
Take out of fridge and bring it to room temperature (approximately 1 hour) so the meat isn’t tough when cooked.
Add annatto oil to a pan and fry chicken on medium in two batches so they don’t overcrowd. This will allow the chicken to cook nicely brown. Around 2 mins to each side.
Remove chicken and set aside.
This next step is optional as you don’t need to fry the carrots and potatoes, and you can simply just add them in the pot when you add the chicken broth. In a deep fryer, do a quick fry of the carrots and potatoes so they don’t disintegrate in the curry later, or air fry them. If air frying, drizzle oil on carrots and potatoes and toss. Set air fryer to french fries mode and fry it for 20 minutes. Give the air fryer pan a good shake every 5 minutes. (I prefer the air fryer method.)
Add ¼ cup annatto oil to the same pot. Fry chopped shallots and ginger for a few minutes until shallots are soft.
Then add garlic, bay leaves, lime leaves and tomato paste and cook for another minute.
Take two tablespoons of the curry powder and fry with onion mix to bring out the curry flavor.
Pour a bit of the chicken broth to deglaze, then add chicken, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and pour in coconut water, remaining chicken broth and one can of coconut cream.
Add thickener, mushroom powder, salt, cornstarch and lemongrass stalks.
Bring to a boil and then lower to medium low heat and let simmer for 45 minutes.
Add quartered onions and the second can of coconut cream, stir to mix and then turn off heat.
Throughout the cooking process, make sure to occasionally scoop the foam off the top.
Serve with either rice or with vermicelli noodles and eat it like a soup or dip with french baguette bread.