serves
4-6
prep
15 minutes
cook
15 minutes
difficulty
Easy
serves
4-6
people
preparation
15
minutes
cooking
15
minutes
difficulty
Easy
level
Ingredients
6 chicken thighs (about 500 g / 1 lb 2 oz)
Marinade
- 4 garlic cloves
- ½ brown onion
- 1 tsp caster (superfine) sugar
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1½ tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp garam masala
- 1 tbsp lime juice (from about 1 lime)
- 1½ tsp salt, or to taste
- 100 ml (3½ fl oz) grapeseed oil
Pickled radish
- ½ cup white vinegar
- 1 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 4 baby radishes, sliced as thin as possible (use a mandolin to add that finesse)
Coriander and green chilli chutney
- 1 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro), leaves and stems roughly chopped
- 1–2 jalapeño chillies
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbsp lime juice (from about 1 lime)
- ½ tsp salt, or to taste
- ¾ cup (200 g) Greek-style yoghurt
To serve
- 12 10–15 cm (4–6 inch) flour tortillas
- ¼ white or purple cabbage, thinly sliced (a mandolin works a charm)
Marinating time: 2 hours or overnight.
Instructions
- Blitz all the marinade ingredients in a blender until smooth, then pour into a bowl. Pat dry the chicken with paper towel, then add to the bowl and massage the marinade into the chicken. Place in the fridge, covered, for 2 hours or overnight to marinate.
- Meanwhile, make the pickled radish. Place the vinegar, sugar, salt and ½ cup (125 ml) water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer while stirring constantly. Once the sugar and salt have dissolved, pour the liquid into a small heatproof bowl or jar. Add the radish, making sure it is completely submerged. Allow it to pickle for 30 minutes or overnight.
- To make the chutney, blend all the chutney ingredients, except the yoghurt, in a blender until smooth, then fold in the yoghurt and season with salt to taste.
- Heat a barbecue grill plate or a cast iron pan on medium–high. In batches, add the chicken and grill until nicely charred and cooked through, about 3–4 minutes each side. Allow it to rest for 5 minutes, then slice into 1 cm (½ inch) strips.
- Heat a frying pan over medium heat, then toast each tortilla until golden, lightly charred and puffed, roughly 30 seconds each side. Wrap the tortillas in a clean tea (dish) towel to keep warm.
- Top each tortilla with the cabbage, chicken, chutney and pickled radish and get stuck in.
Note
This recipe came out of the pressure of the MasterChef kitchen. The challenge was to make something creative out of instant noodles. I blitzed the noodles into flour and made tortillas. I took everything you’d find in a chicken curry and blended it with the packet seasoning and marinated the chicken in it. I cooked the chicken until it had a nice char and layered it on a noodle-flour taco with chutney. Chicken curry tacos! I won the challenge and thought, this is actually really good, I should keep this recipe and work on it. This recipe gave me a stepping stone. It wasn’t a bold or courageous move, but it was a step in the right direction. When people liked it, really liked it, I thought, why not just give them the authentic chicken curry and see what they think, because that’s who I really am. When I cooked it again, I took more inspiration from Mum’s chicken curry for the flavour but kept the grilled chicken from the MasterChef recipe. I love that charred, gnarly crust you get and adding the flavour of a curry to that is just a sick combination.
Image and recipe from by Justin Narayan, photography by Rob Palmer. (Murdoch Books, RRP $39.99)
Cook's Notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.
