Sri Lankan Chicken Curry

A different take on chicken curry

I made this one on the 2nd evening of my recent section hike, as the sun was setting over Farles’ Prairie in the Ocala National Forest. I had a fellow hiker with me in camp that night, and it was cruel to cook up something that smelled this good in front of a stranger…..so I shared. A little. John claimed it was tremendous. I certainly had no trouble scarfing all of my share down. It’s enough for one hungry hiker for sure, but you could stretch it to feed 2 with a little more rice.

There are a couple of unusual ingredients, but you can find them both on Amazon. Sri Lankan curry powder is one of them- it’s a slightly different blend, and it’s toasted, which accounts for the relativey dark color of the dish. You’ll also need dried curry leaves. And per usual, a couple of fresh ingredients for which you can substitute the dehydrated equivalent if you don’t mind sacrificing some flavor and becoming a fountain of flatulence.

Here’s what it all looked like before I got started (the Sangria was my choice to accompany the meal but isn’t an ingredient).

All of that minus the fresh stuff only weighed 9.9 oz!

INGREDIENTS:

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 slices of ginger root, minced

1 packet of ghee

1 packet of olive oil or coconut oil

4 curry leaves and 1″ of a cinnamon stick in a mini ziploc

1 1/2 TB Sri Lankan curry powder in mini ziploc

1 packet of sea salt

1/2 tsp cayenne and 1/2 TB paprika in a mini ziploc

1 cup of freeze-dried chunk chicken in snack-sized ziploc (splash with water a few minutes before using)

1/4 cup dehydrated tomato dices in snack-sized ziploc (splash with water a few minutes before using)

1 tsp brown sugar in mini ziploc

1 tsp of apple cider vinegar in a mini dropper bottle

1/2 package of Chao Thai coconut milk powder in snack-sized ziploc)

1/2 cup basmati rice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Make rice using 1 cup of water. Set aside in pot cozy or similar when done.
2. Saute onion in ghee and oil until translucent, than add garlic and ginger for 1 additional minute.
3. Mix in all spices for another minute.
4. Add chicken, tomato, salt, brown sugar along with 1/4 cup of water, mix over heat for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Add coconut milk powder and apple cider vinegar along with 2-4 oz. of water. Bring to a boil then simmer covered for about 10 minutes. Less water will yield a thicker sauce; more water means you can stretch it further using additional rice.
6. Serve over rice.