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Hou Ayi’s Curry Chicken

45 min • 2 to 4 servings •
Kathy Chen

45 min •     2 to 4 servings•

Kathy Chen

Chicken curry leg with potatoes and peppers over white rice on a plate in a cozy kitchen setting with wooden utensils.

Olivia Moy was born in Beijing, China, and spent most of her life there, until we moved back to the U.S. last year. In China, we had a wonderful nanny — or, in Chinese, “ayi” pronounced “ah-yee” — who cooked us the most-delicious Chinese dishes. Hou Ayi also made great Western food, like macaroni and cheese. A favorite of Olivia’s and her siblings’ was Hou Ayi’s curry chicken, which reflects a mix of Chinese and Western cooking. It’s easy to make, and goes great over rice.

Ready

  • 1 chicken leg with thigh
  • ½ onion, cut into large dices
  • 1 potato, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1-½ tablespoon curry powder
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 1 tablespoon oil, plus 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1-½ beef buillon cubes
  • 3 tablespoons water, plus 2 cups water

    • Set

  • frying pan for making curry paste
  • large pot for stewing chicken
  • small bowl to make curry sauce
  • large knife
  • cutting board
  • wooden spoon for mixing

    • Go!

  • Make curry paste: Mix curry powder and one tablespoon of water in bowl. Meanwhile, add one tablespoon oil in frying pan over low heat. Add curry powder mixture to pan and cook over low heat. Add two tablespoons of water with beef buillon cubes to pan and stir constantly til buillon is dissolved and the paste thickens. Be careful not to burn. Put aside in bowl
  • Cut chicken into seven pieces with bone in (other options: debone if you like, but it’s tastier with the bone in; or sometimes I use chicken wing parts and intact single legs and thighs).
  • Heat large pot over high heat, then add remaining two tablespoons of oil. Put chicken in and fry until meat turns white, a few minutes.
  • Add onion, potatoe and tomato. Fry for five or six minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Add curry paste and remaining two cups of water.
  • Bring mixture to a boil over high heat. Then turn heat to medium-low. Put cover on and simmer for 20 minutes, until done. Serve hot over rice and with a green salad, if you like

    • Recommendations

    I find that at the end, there is a lot of sauce left. You can reduce the sauce by taking off cover, turning the heat to high and boiling off some of the liquid. Alternatively, I often double the amount of chicken and add a bit more potato, without having to double the sauce. (You may want to do that anyway, so the dish can serve more people.)
    If you opt to chop the leg and thigh into pieces with bone-in, do so in one, clean cut to avoid creating lots of bone fragments. If you don’t have a cleaver or just don’t like the idea of chopping through bone, you can either add whole chicken legs, thighs or wing sections, or de-bone the meat to add directly to the curry mixture.

    chicken Chinese curry

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