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This is one of my baked chicken breast recipes that is probably one of the easiest to prepare because it involves only three easy steps. Now, in my previous post on Chicken Recipes: Chicken Curry Kapitan, I mentioned that I used some of the curry paste from that dish to make this dish. So, do refer to that post for the curry recipe. Otherwise, you can always use any type of curry paste you have on hand, either a home made one or pre-packaged ones or even bottled ones. It doesn’t really matter.

To get the curried baked chicken breast, I rubbed some chili powder onto the chicken breast meat first before I add the curry paste. So, for sure, this dish is as hot and spicy as I wanted it to be! So, you see, baked chicken need not be bland or plain. It can be crunchy and now it can be spicy with curry flavours!

I am sure, by now, you must be wondering why I have so many baked chicken breast recipes in recent times. Well, lets just say I needed to revamp the way we eat and add in more healthy, wholesome and non-oily food. Baked chicken breast is probably one of the healthiest dishes I could think of as it has minimal oil and thus, less calories compared to frying. Also, it is easy to prepare. Just season, pop into the oven and it is ready to eat!

Now, lets get on with it….

Chicken recipes: Curried Baked Chicken Breast Recipe

Ingredients

150g chicken breast meat, cut into strips

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp sea salt

4 tbsp curry paste

1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Clean the chicken, drain and pat dry. Cut into long, thin strips so that it cooks easily. Season the chicken with the salt and chili powder.

2. Rub the curry paste all over the chicken.

3. Place the chicken strips onto a tray covered by foil. Drizzle it with some olive oil and bake in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Then turn over and bake for another 10 minutes. It’s done when it looks like this:

To really test if it is done, just pick a larger piece and nudge the centre with a fork. If it is all white inside with clear juices, it is done. If there’s still a hint of pink, then pop it back into the oven and bake for a few more minutes. Just be careful you don’t over-cook it or else you’d get some really tough and hard chicken breast meat!

I’d say it goes great with some brown unpolished rice and green veg. However, how you like to eat it is entirely up to you as it can also be made into chicken salad or as a main dish with potatoes and salad as sides.

Chicken recipes series

Chicken Curry Kapitan is probably The Food Critic’s favourite curry since it always evoke such good memories of his granny’s wonderful nyonya food. When it comes to curry, though I have all the recipes, I’m just too lazy short of time to get all the ingredients and blend it into a paste. Heck, we have modern packaged curry pastes after all!

Anyway, we can never find a really good packaged chicken curry kapitan paste so I went to my most favourite convenient spice stall at the wet market and asked her to pack for me the blended curry paste. I don’t know about anywhere else but in Penang, at most big wet markets like the one in Jelutong, we have a stall selling blended spices which you can buy so you don’t have to blend it yourself. Pure convenience if you asked me.

So, I took the easy way out to cook my chicken curry kapitan and at the same time, used some of the paste for my curried baked chicken breast. Heheheh…that’s right. Two dishes using one same ingredient but two different methods of cooking.

Chicken Curry Kapitan

AND

Curried Baked Chicken Breast Meat

Let me start with the:

Chicken Curry Kapitan Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 chicken, chopped into small pieces

1 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

10 kaffir lime leaves

***kaffir lime leaves***

1 tbsp tamarind, (soak the tamarind in about 1/2 cup of warm water for the juice)

***tamarind***

dash of sugar

dash of salt

Curry paste containing the following blended ingredients:

10 red chilies (or more if you prefer it to be spicier)

2 stalks lemon grass

small piece, about thumb-size fresh turmeric

5 shallots

1 small piece, about thumb-size ginger

1 small piece, about thumb-size galangal

4 candlenuts (soaked to soften first)

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 tsp belacan (fermented shrimp paste)

Instructions

1. Season the chicken with the light and dark soy sauce.

2. Heat up the wok with some cooking oil and then stir fry the chicken till it is partially cooked (about 70% cooked).

3. Remove the chicken and you will notice there’s some leftover oil. DO NOT throw it away. Use it for the curry.

4. Now get your curry ingredients ready…

***tamarind juice***

5. Heat up the oil and sautée the curry paste until fragrant. Then pour the tamarind juice over a strainer into the paste.

6. Continue to sautée until the juice is almost dried. Add salt and sugar to your taste. Test, if it is not sour enough, add more tamarind juice. If it is not salty enough, add more salt. Add the sugar to balance it out so usually a dash of it is enough or up to 1 tsp.

7. When the paste is almost dried up, add the kaffir lime leaves. Remember to scoop up about 4 tbsp of the paste and set aside for the Curried Baked Chicken Breast.

8. Then, add the chicken and stir to make sure it is well coated in the curry paste. Stir fry the chicken in curry paste until the chicken is completely cooked, about 15 to 20 minutes. Always cook over medium to low heat to avoid burning the curry.

9. Once cooked, remove from heat and serve warm with rice.

Chicken Curry Kapitan

This chicken recipes post is just too long so I will post up the Curried Baked Chicken Breast Recipes separately.