Thai Massaman Curry

Ingredients

• 700 g chicken thigh fillets, cut into large chunks
• 400 g waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
• 1 large onion, cut into wedges
• 3 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 x 400ml tins full-fat coconut milk
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp massaman curry paste
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste
• steamed jasmine rice, to serve
• 50 g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
• Pickled cucumber, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Pat the chicken thigh chunks dry with kitchen paper and season generously with salt — water on the surface means steam, and steam means no colour. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pot over medium-high heat.
2. Brown the chicken in two batches, skin-side or fattest-side down first, for 2–3 minutes a side until deeply golden. Don't crowd the pot — all at once and the chicken steams in its own juice instead of building the brown bits that flavour the curry. Lift each batch out onto a plate.
3. Drop the heat to medium and spoon the massaman paste into the pot. Fry for 60–90 seconds, stirring through the rust-coloured oil and any chicken fond on the base, until the spices bloom and smell deeply fragrant — raw paste tastes flat, bloomed paste tastes of itself.
4. Pour in one tin of coconut milk and stir hard, scraping up every stuck bit from the base — that's where the flavour lives. Add the cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, fish sauce, tamarind paste, brown sugar, and rinsed red lentils. Bring to a gentle simmer.
5. Return the chicken with any resting juices and stir to coat. Add the potatoes, carrot, and onion wedges, then pour in the second tin of coconut milk. The liquid should just lap the ingredients — coconut milk is what breaks the paste down into a proper sauce rather than a clinging coating.
6. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes so the lentils don't catch on the base. Uncover and simmer another 10–12 minutes until the potatoes yield to a knife with no resistance and the sauce coats the back of a spoon glossily.
7. Fish out the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods. Taste, season, taste again — a touch more fish sauce for salt, tamarind for sour edge, sugar for roundness. Most of the salt comes from the fish sauce, but adjust now, not at the table. The balance you want is sweet, salty, sour, and warmly spiced all at once.
8. Spoon the curry into bowls over steamed jasmine rice, scatter the chopped roasted peanuts and toasted sesame seeds across the top, and tuck a lime wedge alongside for squeezing — the squeeze of lime cuts through the coconut richness and lifts everything.