Chinese Takeout Yellow Chicken Curry

I was craving curry but didn't feel like going through the hassle of making curry paste in the food processor, so I thought I would try to replicate the yellow chicken curry you can find at many Chinese restaurants. Authentic? No, but it scratched my itch for south Asian with minimal fuss. I have always seen it made with chicken, onions, and peas, but I don't like peas and I wanted to add some extra color and veggies, so I cut the peas and added carrots and snow pea pods. And yes, I forgot to take a picture. edit: Hurray for leftovers. Picture added.

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts

3 small onions (or 2 medium-large)

3 carrots

8oz bag frozen snow peas

1t minced garlic (2 cloves)

1t minced ginger

1-2T good curry powder (get it from an Asian market and make sure it has no MSG)

3T vegetable oil

Steps:

1. Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat.

2. While it heats, cut onions in half end-to-end, then lay halves face down and cut end-to-end into 1/2" slices. Julienne the carrots into 1/4"x1/4"x2" pieces (if you are lazy, just go with 1/4" slices, but it really does affect how it tastes). Cut the chicken breasts into halves or thirds along their length, then into thin slices, so you end up with approximately 1"x1"x1/4" pieces.

3. When oil just starts to smoke, add the garlic and ginger. Let them saute about 30 seconds.

4. Add the chicken, onion, and carrots. Keep stirring constantly and turn up the heat if necessary to keep things sizzling a bit.

5. Once the chicken and veggies have released enough moisture that they are no longer sticking to the bottom,  sprinkle in the curry powder and stir in thoroughly. 1T will give a relative mild curry flavor, 1.5T will up the heat to medium, and 2T is for curry junkies. I did 1.5T and might do a little less next time.

6. Reduce heat to medium. Keep stirring until you are sure there is enough moisture to keep things from sticking (just a couple minutes) then cover the pot.

7. Stir every few minutes until the chicken is cooked through, about 5-10 minutes.

8. Remove from heat and stir in the snow peas until the are evenly incorporated and coated in curry. Cover the pot and let stand for 5-10 minutes. Give a final stir then serve over rice.

My rating: 6/10

Potential rating: 7/10

Notes:  I was really happy with how close this was to Hunan Manor's yellow chicken curry I was trying to replicate. There was just enough moisture from the veggies and chicken to combine with the curry powder to make a little sauce in the bottom of the pot and all the veggies came out cooked just right, still firm but not crispy or raw tasting (as opposed to the undercooked onions at most Chinese restaurants). My only complaint was that the curry powder tasted a bit caustic, but that might be fixed by using less or finding a different curry powder. The rating of 6 I gave this is not a slam, it is above average but it was obvious it was just curry powder instead of fresh curry paste.