Coleen's Recipes: Yellow Chicken Curry

I've been cooking a lot lately.  Experimenting, feeding myself, rediscovering our kitchen.  Since I will be leaving tomorrow evening, I decided to cook something today and just pack it in the freezer for later consumption, in case anyone in the house gets hungry.  Let me present to you, my version of Yellow Chicken Curry.  I had help, care of McCormick Philippines but I still think this is my original recipe since there's a twist to it.  Read on to find out what. :)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
• chopped garlic, around four cloves
• chopped onions
• sliced ginger, small one will do
• 3 bell peppers, sliced
• 1/2 kg chicken breast fillet, no skin
• pepper
• 3 carrots, sliced into chunks
• 1 sachet McCormick Yellow Curry
• 1 250-mL pack of All-Purpose Cream
• half a bowl of water
• potatoes, sliced into chunks (Jollibee french fries was used instead)

Procedure:

• In a wok, heat the oil.  Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and sauté.  Once the garlic is a bit brown, add the onions and sauté until transparent.  Add the ginger and continue sautéing.

• Add the sliced carrots and a dash of pepper.  Sauté until the carrots are cooked.  This is the part where you also add the potatoes, if you are using potatoes.

• Add the chicken breast fillets and let it cook.  While waiting for the chicken to cook, dissolve the pack of McCormick Yellow Curry in the half bowl of water.

• Once the chicken is cooked, add the yellow curry mix and let it boil.  

• After it boils, add the all-purpose cream.  Mix well and add another half bowl of water and bring to a boil.

• Add the sliced bell peppers and let it boil for another five minutes.

I didn't use potatoes for this dish since we had a lot of left over french fries from Jollibee.  Instead of throwing them away, I got a ceramic pan, added some chopped onions and threw in the fries.  Do not add oil.  Let the oil in the fries come out and heat them.  Once the fries are hot enough, add them to the dish and mix one time.

Serve. :)

Two things:

1. I used all purpose cream because we did not have any coconut cream available.  I thought the yellow curry mix was to be used as is but the instructions at the back called for some coconut cream.  Since everything was ready, I decided to experiment by using all purpose cream instead of the coconut milk.  It turned out fine.  Great, actually.  The only downside is that the sauce thickens when cooled because of the cream.
2. You can always use leftover french fries, whether cooked or not, instead of potatoes when cooking dishes that call for, well, potatoes.  We already tried this before when we had Chicken Afritada and a ton of left over potato wedges.  It adds a certain twist to the dish without compromising the flavor of the dish.  And the best part is, you don't have to waste food.  You can use it as an extender. 

This is a healthier (and more budget-friendly) version of the usual chicken curry (except for the french fries part).  Less oil, no chicken skin, and can be made with different vegetables.  It's also a good recipe for using leftovers – hello budget. :)