Our best curry powder recipes are our favourite recipes with curry powder – and not necessarily Keen’s curry powder, although that’s arguably the best Australian curry powder. They include Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese and Japanese curry powder recipes made with both store-bought and home-made curry powders – along with our recipe for an iconic Australian curried egg sandwich.
A curry powder is simply a spice blend, albeit one that comes with certain expectations in terms of its colour, aroma and flavour. Yet curry powder gets a bad rap, typically labelled as ‘inauthentic’, particularly by our Indian friends.
Yet for Southeast Asians, East Asians, Australians, British, and others who have long used curry powder in their cooking, alone or with other spices and herbs, curry powder is as authentic to their cuisines as any other ingredient.
While Australian, British, Burmese, Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Hong Kong, Korean, and Japanese cooks have no qualms about using store-bought curry powders and will have their favourite commercial curry powders, some cooks will blend their own curry powders.
In my favourite Burmese cookbook, Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way, published in 1978, author Mi Mi Khaing writes that every Burmese woman makes their own blends of curry powder and she includes a recipe for her own homemade curry powder blend, which I’ve tweaked a little, but also published her original curry powder.
So there’s no need to push your Waughs curry powder to the back of the pantry when your Indian friends come to dinner. Be curry powder proud. And do have a go at blending your own homemade curry powder. It’s good fun and great weekend cooking project.
Now before I share my top 5 curry powder recipes for our best recipes with curry powder, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes or other content on the site, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could make a one-off donation to our epic original Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon or buy us a coffee and we’ll use that money to buy ingredients for recipe testing.
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Best Curry Powder Recipes – Our Favourite Recipes with Curry Powder
Our best curry powder recipes – favourite recipes using curry powder.
Creamy Curried Egg Sandwich Recipe with Soft Boiled Eggs on Sourdough Toast
This creamy curried egg sandwich recipe made with soft boiled eggs, curry powder, creamy whole egg mayonnaise, and served as an open sandwich on lightly toasted sourdough is Terence’s take on the traditional curried egg sandwich that we grew up eating as kids in Australia – only it’s so much more decadent and addictive, and it’s one of our best curry powder recipes.
Who would have thought you needed a recipe for a curried egg sandwich? I didn’t until Terence made this creamy curried egg sandwich for me, which I shared on Instagram, and people asked for the recipe. Whether you’re a lover of curried egg sandwiches, or you’re yet making curried egg sandwiches, you’re going to want this creamy curried egg sandwich recipe.
This recipe doesn’t make the hard-boiled egg sandwiches of my childhood, it’s made with creamy soft-boiled eggs, so you may need Terence’s guide to making perfect soft boiled eggs every time. The only thing I’d change is the Waugh’s – it really has to be Keen’s Curry Powder, only sadly we can’t get it here in Cambodia.
Creamy Curried Egg Sandwich Recipe with Soft Boiled Eggs on Sourdough Toast
Southern Thai Chicken and Rice Recipe for Khao Mok Gai, a Thai Style ‘Biryani’
This easy Southern Thai chicken and rice recipe for khao mok gai makes braised chicken cooked in a spicy curry-like gravy and served with turmeric rice and crispy fried shallots. A Thai Muslim dish, it’s often called a Thai biryani or Thai style biryani. Like a biryani the chicken can be cooked with the rice or separately. Either way, it’s wonderful.
This specialty from Southern Thailand consists of moist chicken pieces braised in a wonderfully aromatic and rich curry-like gravy that’s made from dried spices, including Thai curry powder, and served atop a yellow turmeric-tinted rice, sprinkled with crispy fried shallots. It’s another one of our best curry powder recipes.
Depending on where you eat this addictive Thai-Malay street food favourite in Thailand, this Thai Malay dish might come garnished with crunchy cucumber slices or spears, and fresh mint, coriander and chillies, or the dish might be served with a fragrant relish or sauce of pounded herbs and cucumber – and/or sweet chilli sauce.
Southern Thai Chicken and Rice Recipe for Khao Mok Gai, a Thai Style ‘Biryani’
Chicken Fried Rice Recipe Made with Spicy Southern Fried Chicken
This chicken fried rice recipe made with chef Morgan McGlone’s Belles Hot Chicken’s Southern fried chicken is the best ‘east meets west’ fried rice with chicken recipe that you’ll cook. Like the best fried rice dishes, it was the result of an experiment with leftovers.
Terence made tonkatsu fried rice with tonkatsu and onsen eggs and it turned out so well, we thought he should try making fried rice with spicy fried chicken. He tried to replicate the flavours of the spicy fried chicken in the fried rice – mainly the cayenne pepper and paprika – but it didn’t work as every mouthful was spicy.
But then, inspired by a Japanese curry fried rice recipe, he made it with a little curry powder and it was magic. He tried it with a little more and it was addictive. These days, Terence makes extra fried chicken and we steam more rice than we need just so we can make this spicy fried chicken fried rice. It’s another one of our best curry powder recipes.
Our Best Chicken Fried Rice Recipe Is Made With Spicy Southern Fried Chicken Leftovers
Burmese Indian Style Chicken Curry Recipe
This Burmese Indian style chicken curry recipe makes a rich curry fragrant with ginger, turmeric, garlic and chilli that has a homemade Burmese curry powder on its concise list of ingredients. It’s the perfect accompaniment to Burmese coconut rice and the refreshing salads of Myanmar that provide contrasting textures and flavours, such as the Burmese raw cabbage salad.
I adapted this chicken curry recipe from my favourite Burmese cookbook, Mi Mi Khaing’s Cook and Entertain the Burmese Way, dating to 1978. It’s a delightful little booklet that is as much a historical document as it is a practical cookbook.
Like most Burmese women, who make their own blends of curry power, Mi Mi Khaing’s recipe calls for her own homemade curry powder blend, which includes cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, coriander, peppercorns, bay leaf, and poppy seeds. I’ve shared her full curry powder recipe in the link, but you could use a store-bought curry powder. This is another one of the best curry powder recipes.
Burmese Indian Style Chicken Curry Recipe for a Rich Curry Fragrant with Ginger, Turmeric and Garlic
Vietnamese Chicken Curry Recipe for Cà Ri Gà
This easy Vietnamese chicken curry recipe makes cà ri gà, a gently spiced Vietnamese curry that’s made with Vietnamese curry powder, a dry spice blend, rather than the ‘wet’ spice pastes made of pounded fresh herbs, roots and spices of Cambodia’s kroeungs. This is easily another of our best curry powder recipes.
We’ve only started making Vietnamese chicken curries in recent years – despite having accumulated countless curry recipes since we first began cooking and eating Vietnamese food in the mid-80s.
When I first asked Terence to make this Vietnamese chicken curry after I became smitten with a gently spiced chicken curry that I bought from a mobile vendor outside a market in a Khmer neighbourhood in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), we expected it to be made, as the Cambodian chicken curry is, with a kroeung, a freshly pounded herb and spice paste.
While Terence was surprised to find Vietnamese curry powder on the ingredients lists of the various Vietnamese chicken curry recipes he tested out, there’s a fascinating history of curry powder in Vietnam.
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our top 5 curry powder recipes for our best recipes with curry powder. as we love to hear how our recipes turned out for you.
