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Weeknight Massaman Chicken
15 min
30 min
45 min
Serves: 4
This is the massaman I make when there's chicken thawing and no plan. One can of coconut milk, a good jar of paste, potatoes, a sweet onion, and the fresh-ground peanut butter from the store bin doing the work that a long-simmered spice paste would otherwise do. No tamarind in the house is no problem. A little extra lime and dark brown sugar cover the sweet and sour it would have brought. The one step that matters is cracking the coconut cream before anything else goes in. Do that and the rest is just tasting and adjusting until it makes you stop and go "oh."
Steps
- Start the rice first so it lands with the curry. Have everything else cut and within reach before the pan gets hot. Massaman moves quickly once it starts.
- Open the coconut milk without shaking it and spoon the thick cream off the top into a deep skillet or pot. Leave the thin liquid in the can for now. Set the heat to medium-high and let the cream bubble for 3 to 4 minutes until it looks glossy and slightly split. This is the step people skip and the one that builds the flavor, so do not rush it.
- Add the 3 Tbsp curry paste to the cracked cream and fry it, stirring, for 2 full minutes until it darkens and smells intense.
- Add the chicken and turn it to coat every piece in the paste. Let it sear for 2 to 3 minutes. It will not be cooked through yet, and that is fine.
- Pour in the rest of the can plus 3/4 can of water. Add the potatoes and onion wedges, then the 2 Tbsp fish sauce and 1 Tbsp dark brown sugar. Bring to a simmer.
- Simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring every few minutes so nothing catches on the bottom. It is ready when a potato pierces easily and the sauce has reduced and thickened. If it tightens up before the potatoes are soft, add a splash more water.
- While it simmers, toast the peanuts in a dry pan over medium heat, shaking often, for 3 to 4 minutes until nutty and lightly colored. Cool a minute, then roughly chop.
- Once the potatoes are tender, stir 1 Tbsp peanut butter into the sauce and let it melt in for 2 minutes. Taste and add a second spoon if you want it richer.
- Balance the sauce. It should read a little salty, a little sweet, a little sour. Add fish sauce for salt, dark brown sugar for sweetness, lime for brightness. Keep nudging until it makes you go "oh."
- Spoon over rice, scatter the toasted peanuts on top, and serve with lime wedges.
Notes
- Peanut butter is the shortcut that tastes like the long wayFresh-ground with no added sugar or oil melts into the sauce and gives you the deep peanut backbone massaman is known for, well beyond what a garnish of nuts alone can do. Toasted peanuts on top then handle the crunch.
- No tamarind, no problemA tablespoon of lime juice plus a teaspoon of dark brown sugar stands in for a spoon of tamarind. Go a touch heavier on dark brown than light, since its molasses note reads as the caramel-tamarind background the dish wants. A half teaspoon of Worcestershire, which contains tamarind, adds real depth if you have it.
- One can is on the small side for a braise,so the water is doing real work. Keep an eye on it and add a splash more anytime the sauce reduces faster than the potatoes soften.
