Burmese Golden Turmeric Chicken
Onions cooked down in turmeric oil until the fat itself turns orange, with thin-sliced chicken finished in the same slick.
Why it works
Burmese cooking builds its base by frying onion, garlic and turmeric in more oil than feels sensible, until the oil takes on colour and separates — that stained oil is the sauce. Slicing the thighs thin means the chicken cooks through in the four minutes the onions need to soften. A spoonful of gram flour whisked into the stock thickens it the Burmese way, and the rice steams under a lid throughout, ready as the pan comes off.
Method
- Boil the kettle. Put the rice, salt and boiling water in a small pan, bring back to the boil, clamp on a lid and cook on the lowest heat for 10 minutes, then leave it covered off the heat until you serve. Whisk the gram flour into the stock in a mug until smooth.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the onions with a pinch of salt and fry 4 minutes, stirring, until soft and browning at the tips.
- Add the garlic, ginger, turmeric and paprika and stir 1 minute. The oil should turn deep orange and the dusty, raw smell of the turmeric disappear.
- Turn the heat up, add the chicken and toss until every piece is coated in the golden oil. Spread it flat and leave it 2 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, green beans, fish sauce and the gram flour stock. Simmer 5 minutes, pressing the tomatoes down as they soften, until the sauce is thick enough to sit on the chicken and the oil pools orange at the sides. Check the thickest slice — white through, no pink at the centre, and the beans still with some bite.
- Fork the rice into four warm bowls and spoon the chicken and its orange oil over. Scatter with chilli and coriander and serve with lime wedges.
For the toddler
Turmeric and paprika are mild, so most of this suits them as it is. Lift a few pieces of chicken and some beans at the start of step 5, before the fish sauce goes in, and simmer them in a little tomato and plain water in a small pan. The chilli is only scattered at the end, so leave it off theirs. Chop the chicken finely and split the beans lengthways.
How the toddler notes workChef’s notes
Chicken breast works, sliced thinner, with the simmer dropped to 2 minutes. White fish chunks need only 3 minutes in total.
Grate the garlic and ginger into the pan on a microplane instead of chopping.
A plate of raw crunch to pick at between mouthfuls — cucumber batons, tomato wedges and shredded white cabbage with lime and salt — and a bowl of clear broth if you want the full Burmese table.
Three days chilled. The turmeric oil sets on top as a bright orange cap — stir it back through as it reheats.