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Malaysian chicken curry with flaky flatbreads

Mandy Yin's Malaysian chicken curry with Halal chicken: bone-in thighs simmered with onion, Malaysian meat curry powder, tomatoes, potatoes and coconut milk, served with hand-stretched flaky roti made from scratch.

Malaysian · Main · Advanced · 4 servings, with 6 flatbreads · 600 min

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

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Why Halal checks matter here

The curry is six bone-in chicken thighs, which are Halal only from Halal-slaughtered birds; the flatbreads are flour, oil, sugar, salt and baking powder.

Halal-critical ingredients

• Chicken thighs: Chicken is a Halal bird, but slaughter decides, and chicken without a Halal mark doesn't say how the bird was slaughtered. Buy the chicken from a Halal butcher or in a certified pack. See Chicken.

Ingredients

Flatbreads

• 2 tsp caster sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 125 ml just-boiled water
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 230 g plain flour (ideally 10–11 g protein per 100 g)
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• about 400 ml vegetable oil, for kneading, submersion and cooking

Curry

• 5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 200 g onion, roughly chopped
• 3 tbsp Malaysian meat curry powder (or the quick mix below)
• 6 Halal chicken thighs, bone in, skin removed
• 200 g tin of chopped tomatoes (or fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped)
• 300 g potatoes, in 4 cm chunks
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 100 ml coconut milk

Quick curry powder (optional)

• 1½ tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• ¾ tbsp finely ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground cumin

Method

1. Make the dough. Stir the sugar and salt into the just-boiled water until dissolved. Put the oil, flour and baking powder in a large bowl, trickle in the water while stirring with a tablespoon, then bring it together by hand into a soft, pliable dough, rubbing it round the bowl to take up all the flour. This should take no longer than a minute; don't overwork it.
2. Rest the dough. Cover with a damp muslin or clean tea towel and leave in the bowl for 1 hour. Knead with ½ tsp oil until smooth, again for no longer than a minute.
3. Divide and submerge. Roll the dough into a long sausage and pinch it apart into six portions. Roll each into a smooth ball, put them in a shallow container, squash them slightly and cover completely with oil. Leave to rest for at least 6 hours at room temperature.
4. Stretch and fold the roti. Grease a large, clean, dry surface with some of the submersion oil. Flatten a ball with your palm, roll it as square as you can until paper thin, then stretch it gently with your fingers, working round from the middle, into an almost see-through square of 40 to 50 cm. Sprinkle with a little more oil, fold the bottom third up and the top third down, then fold one side over the other, trapping air with every fold. Stretched roti can wait on a greased plate, with baking paper between them, for up to 30 minutes.
5. Cook the roti. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and grease it lightly with oiled kitchen paper (only needed for the first roti). Cook a roti for 1 minute, flip and cook for 1 minute, then flip again for 30 seconds and once more for a final 30 seconds. Leave it to cool slightly, then clap it between your hands to release the crispy layers. Repeat with the rest.
6. Start the curry. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and fry the onion for 5 minutes. Add the curry powder and cook for 3 minutes, turning the heat down a little to medium-low. Add the chicken and stir until it is all coated.
7. Simmer. Pour in 200 ml water and the tomatoes and bring to the boil, then add the potatoes, salt, sugar and coconut milk. Return to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes, turning the chicken now and then.
8. Serve. Serve the curry with the flatbreads.

Allergens

gluten (plain flour)

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Food's 'Malaysian chicken curry with flaky flatbreads' by Mandy Yin, from Saturday Kitchen Best Bites (serves 4; prepare over 2 hours, cook 30 minutes to 1 hour. Flatbreads: 2 tsp caster sugar and ½ tsp salt dissolved in 125 ml just-boiled water, trickled into 1 tbsp vegetable oil, 230 g plain flour and ¼ tsp baking powder and brought together in about a minute; rested covered for 1 hour; kneaded with ½ tsp oil; divided into six balls, submerged in oil and rested at least 6 hours at room temperature; each rolled and stretched paper-thin on an oiled surface into a 40 to 50 cm square, oiled, folded to trap air, and cooked in a lightly greased non-stick pan 1 minute, 1 minute, 30 seconds and 30 seconds, then clapped between the hands. Curry: 200 g chopped onion fried 5 minutes in 5 tbsp vegetable oil; 3 tbsp Malaysian meat curry powder cooked 3 minutes; 6 bone-in skinless chicken thighs coated; 200 ml water and a 200 g tin of chopped tomatoes, then 300 g potatoes in 4 cm chunks, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp caster sugar and 100 ml coconut milk, simmered 30 minutes. The recipe tip's quick curry powder: 1½ tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp ground coriander, ¾ tbsp finely ground black pepper, 1 tbsp ground turmeric and 1 tsp ground cumin). We specified Halal chicken; the flatbread steps are grouped at their natural breaks. Nothing else needed changing. BBC Food gives no skill level; we rate it advanced for the hand-stretched roti. Rest time counts the 1-hour dough rest and the 6-hour minimum submersion. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Photograph of chicken korma by Bev Sykes (CC BY 2.0), not the finished dish from this recipe.