Takeaway style Chinese curry recipes?

Mark A

Mark A

Mark A

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I have been making a Chinese takeaway style basic Chinese curry for a while and its lovely, but I want to try some variations to make it more interesting. Just wondered if any of you guys had a good recipe I could try for next time. Or any additions I could use to improve mine. Only restriction is no fish products.


Heres the one I use currently:


Chinese curry sauce

Chopped onion
1" piece of ginger root minced
2-3 cloves garlic minced
3-4tbs of decent quality mild Madras curry powder
1tsp Chinese 5 spice
3 tbs plain flour to thicken curry
red/green chillies chopped (add to taste)
light soy sauce
sesame seed oil
rapeseed oil
chicken stock cube + 300-400ml hot water
salt/pepper
MSG - if desired, but it does improve it a lot imo


Marinate large chunks of chicken breast in minced garlic and ginger, light soy sauce and sesame seed oil. While it marinates you can cook and chill the rice in the fridge. Let it marinate for at least 30 mins.

Fry onions and chillies, add marinated chicken and all the garlic/ginger bits etc and seal. Mix the flour and stock to make a paste then keep adding stock until the flour if fully mixed with the stock then add this to the chicken along with the spices. Let it cook on a low heat until the chicken is cooked. Add salt pepper and MSG to taste before serving. While this cooks you can fry the rice.


Egg fried rice

1 portion basmati rice cooked then chilled
2 tsp sesame seed oil
1 tbs soy sauce
2 spring onions finely chopped
2 large eggs
Pinch of chinese 5 spice
salt/pepper to taste

Wash, soak then cook the rice and allow it to cool. Then mix in the sesame oil, fluff it up and put it in the fridge to chill.

Add 2tbs of rapeseed oil (or whatever you like) to a wok and fry the chopped spring onions for a few mins. Then add 2 beaten eggs and cook gently until its starting to set. Add in the rice and fry on high heat for a minute or so then add the soy sauce, pinch of Chinese 5 spice and continue to fry while mixing/tossing the rice for a few mins until the egg is fully cooked and the mixture has dried out a bit. Season to taste before serving.
 
Thanks, I keep meaning to try some of that but they don't sell it at my local Tesco or online for some reason. Might grab some from ebay or something.

Looking at the ingredients it just replaces the curry powder and thickener from my recipe. But it would be nice to have to make a quick Chinese sauce for chips etc.
 
Definitely use the powder/paste you can buy. Getting similar results through other means is actually a huge pain in the arse with Chinese style curries. Additional fresh ginger, a little soy, some veg and a dash of fish sauce will improve it further.
 
I sound like a heathen asking this, but what exactly is the difference between your average (Japanese) katsu curry sauce and a generic Chinese curry sauce? In my mind they are one and the same? :confused:

I made this chicken katsu curry recipe from scratch ages ago and it was lovely, but I've been meaning to try the sauce packets as above...

EDIT: Ah it was the S&B Golden Curry sauce I had seen; which is Japanese.
 
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There's not much in it to be honest. Katsu tends to be a little thicker and has slightly less of an aniseed flavour iirc.

edit: I can't remember for sure off the top of my head but it may be that katsu curry was imported/regarded as a 'foreign' dish anyhow.
 
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Yeah I think so too. Ah well. I'll get some of the S&B stuff next time I lower my standards enough to shop in Tesco :p
 
with the S&B packet if you use it all 100g (5 servings recipe says), you add >90ml of additional oil into the recipe, whereas with your recipe would have just used 20ml for the initial browning,
OK maybe that is incidental with the deep fried chicken.
 
OK fast food might have been the wrong word,
but the S&B has added 500 calories to the dish , thats a couple of mars bars , versus the from scratch version.
I would rather have those calories in a nice desert after the main.
 
It really depends on whether or not the increased oil content improves the dish. If it doesn't then yeah, avoid.

However, it's unlikely that one person is going to eat all 500 kcal of oil that you've mentioned so the difference may be somewhat overblown. Additionally, if the quality of the dish is similar then the convenience has to be factored in.
 
interesting -
looked as though he practically burned the spices, how long did he cook it ... at least the residue looked blackened and the garlic would suffer.
nice knife skills, need a chinese chef knife.
banana, apple and orange - surprise
 
jpaul said:
interesting -
looked as though he practically burned the spices, how long did he cook it ... at least the residue looked blackened and the garlic would suffer.
nice knife skills, need a chinese chef knife.
banana, apple and orange - surprise
Click to expand...

Indeed, lots of fruit in Chinese curry.

I think it's pretty standard to "sacrifice" the spices and garlic (and spring onion) in an oil in such cooking. I've not managed to do more than glance through the video though so he may have gone massively OTT.
 
Well I just had a tub of the Goldfish curry paste delivered as i can't find it anywhere locally :(. It smells amazing!, exactly like my local Chinese chipshops curry sauce. Can't wait to try it out with some egg fried rice. I'm going to use my own recipe with the marinated chicken etc and just use this paste in place of the curry powder, stock cube and flour and see what its like.

But looking at the ingredients I can't see what it is that my recipe is lacking to get this smell and taste. I guess its just down to the curry powder used, but the one I was using (natco) contained all the same spices listed here. The only thing missing was the coconut cream and onion powder, but i don't think thats it.
 
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