Ingredients

(Serves 4 with 3 roti each)

Roti Canai Dough

3/4 cup warm water

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp caster sugar

3 cups flour

1/4 cup milk

1 Tbsp oil

1 egg

1/4 cup oil

about 6 Tbsp soft butter plus more to fry roti

Chicken Curry Paste

2 lemongrass sticks, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2 shallots, roughly chopped

1 Tbsp ginger, roughly chopped

1 red chilli, roughly chopped

2 Tbsp curry powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)

1 Tbsp oil

Chicken Curry

600g boneless chicken thighs

1/4 cup curry leaves

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

5 lime leaves

400ml coconut milk

1 cup chicken stock

1 Tbsp fish sauce

2 tsp brown sugar

4 small potatoes, diced 2cm

To Serve

Fried curry leaves

Coriander

Prep It

Make your roti. Combine warm water, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and swirl to dissolve. Add egg, first oil measure, milk and flour and using the dough hook attachment knead on medium speed for 8-10 minutes, until shiny and smooth. Rest for 20 minutes, before dividing into 12 evenly sized balls.

Place balls in a butter greased dish, so they aren’t touching and pour in second oil measure. Lightly grease the tops of each ball with softened butter. This is to stop them from drying. Cover with cling film and set aside at room temperature to rest for at least an hour. They can be put in the fridge at this stage and left over night if needed. I rested mine for about 3 hours.

While dough balls are resting, marinate chicken. Combine lemongrass, garlic, ginger, shallot and chilli in a mortar and pestle and grind up into a course paste. Alternatively, you could do like me and blend it in a nutri bullet with 1 Tbsp oil. If you don’t have either, get chopping! Once your paste is ready combine in a large bowl with curry and turmeric powder, chilli flakes and oil. Mix well, add chicken and toss to coat. Cover and place it in the fridge to marinate for at least an hour or over night. Again, mine was in the fridge about 3 hours.

Cook It

When your chicken has been marinating long enough, its time to get cooking. Its going to cook for about an hour and a half and while it cooks you will finish off your roti. To be honest this is where the work starts so more like start roti. Ha.

Heat a drizzle of oil in a high sided pan or casserole dish with a lid on medium-high heat. Add chicken and scrape in any marinade left behind. Cook for 2-3 minutes each side, until golden. Add curry leaves, star anise, cinnamon stick and lime leaves and cook for about 2 minutes, until fragrant. At this stage if the paste starts to burn you can add a splash of water and scrape the paste off the bottom of the pan. This is delicious flavour!

Add coconut milk, chicken stock, fish sauce and sugar and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer curry, stirring occasionally with the lid half on half off for an hour. Taste half way through and see if it needs a little salt, seasoning during cooking is very important. After an hour add potatoes and continue to cook for a further 20-25 minutes, until potatoes are just cooked. As always season to taste.

Stretch It

Once your chicken is underway its time to get your stretch on and I don’t mean a nice body stretch, your gonna be working here. I literally felt like I had butter coming out of my pores when I was finished this!

Get your little dough balls, pour all the excess oil from the dish out and onto your bench and spread it around. Grab your softened butter and have it close by. Starting with 1 ball at a time on your oiled surface, stretch it pushing it with your fingers out into a square as thin as you can get it. You should be able to almost see through it. Get a pea amount of butter, rub it into your hands and then rub it over the stretched dough. I should mention, if you get a few holes don’t worry you won’t notice them in the end.

Starting with the piece furthest from you lift the dough up and fold it over itself kind of like an envelope. While doing this try to capture a little bit of air underneath. Now repeat with the end closest to you and so on until you end up with roughly a 1cm thick long sausage.

Coil the dough around its self as if you were making a snail. When you get to the end tuck the loose bit through the middle. Set aside to rest on an oiled spot on the bench while you continue with the other 11. They need to rest at this stage for about 20 minutes, but its going to take you that long at least to get through them.

Fry It

Starting with the first coil you made place it in front of you on the oiled bench and press out into a thin round roti!. We’re almost there. few! Now if you have the bench space you can continue to do this, until they are all rolled out so then you can get onto frying. Or you could do them in batches. Anyway whatever you choose once they are stretched out its time to fry.

Heat a 1/2 tsp of butter (yup more butter) in a medium fry-pan on medium-high heat. Add your roti one at a time and cook for 1-2 minutes each side, until golden and puffed. You can add more butter when you flip it, I did but there’s a lot of butter going on so I wouldn’t blame you.

Once cooked you can give them the old roti clap (or just scrunch it in your hands) to achieve that flakey lush look.

Eat It

Serve your chicken curry with roti topped with coriander and fried curry leaves. Although, you’ve done enough here to just eat it straight form the pot!