Slow Cooked Yellow Curry

Is there anything better than a hearty yellow curry? (Hint: No. No there is not.) We like the curry pastes you get at Asian markets, and we'll put the paste in a wide variety of dishes just to spice them up and add some unique flavor. Every now and then, I even use them to make actual curry!

The great thing about curries is it's one of those dishes that you can just throw in whatever veggies you have and call it a day. It doesn't have to be slow cooked, but I prefer it that way because the flavors really melt together. Like spaghetti or chili, it's a dish that's even better as leftovers.

First things first, for a truly superb next-level curry you need to marinate the chicken overnight. I like an Indian style marinade with yogurt. I highly recommend Greek yogurt for this, you want something that's nice and thick and not too watery.

Marinade:

• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 Tbs fresh ginger
• 1 Tbs minced garlic
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp garam masala 
• 1 Tbs butter
• Salt to taste - about 1 tsp

This is for 1-2 pounds chicken. The chicken meat I had on hand were some of those little tenders, but you can use anything - breast meat, dark meat, boneless, bone in - whatever. You can chop the chicken or leave it whole, depending on how you're cooking it. For today's project I did not chop it up because I'm going to shred it. Either way, cut some little slices in the chicken and stir up with the marinade.

Kinda hard to tell...but it's marinated chicken

PRO TIP: Water will drain from the chicken. If you're using a pound or less, it probably won't be enough to matter - but you want this marinade to stay thick and not get watered down, so if you're using more than that here's what you do: after stirring the chicken in with the marinade, put the chicken in a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth and leave it slightly elevated in the bowl. The marinade won't drip though because it's good and thick, but the water will drip through and not liquefy your marinade.

Leave this overnight, for reals.

Next morning: Chop and pile veggies into the slow cooker. What I had on hand were onions, garlic, carrots, fingerling potatoes, and a single bell pepper.

It turned into a lot - this is going to be more veggies than sauce, which honestly is how I like it! Place the marinated chicken (with any extra marinade) on top of the veggies.

Curry sauce:

• 2-3 Tbs yellow curry paste
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp fresh ginger
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbs tomato paste
• 1 cup yogurt
• 3/4 cup milk (traditionally use coconut milk. I'm sensitive to it, so I don't. Can be replaced with whatever milk suits your fancy)

Honestly, you shouldn't need to salt this. Curry paste already has a shit ton of salt in it and with all the other spices of the sauce and marinade combined, it's very flavorful. Additional salt can always be added at the end if needed. 

Pour the sauce over the chicken and veggies. Cook on low for 8 hours. Pull out the chicken and shred it up; stir back into the curry.

Serve over rice with a side of naan!