• Capital: Phnom Penh
• Population: about 15 million
• Area:  181 035 km²
• Currency: Cambodian riel

For my Cambodian dish I made Khmer chicken samlá curry. Chicken samlá curry is a whole chicken (I used pieces of chicken) cooked in a delicious coconut milk sauce with a lot of spices. It’s a nice, creamy and spicy (but not too spicy) recipe served with rice.

Khmer chicken samlá curry

Ingredients:

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 2 chicken drumsticks
• 4 lemongrass stalks
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 3 tablespoon galangal (can be replaced with ginger)
• 6 large shallots
• 6 garlic cloves
• 6 thai red chilis
• 2 tablespoon fish sauce
• 2 cups thin coconut milk
• 1 cup thick coconut milk
• vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• A few cilantro leaves for garnish

Directions:

First prepare all the ingredients. Measure the turmeric, the sugar and the fish sauce. Chop the shallots, peel the garlic and the the galangal. Scrape the flesh out of the 1/2 lemon until you have about 1 tablespoon of lemon flesh. Cut the chicken breast in 2 inch pieces.

Remove the tough outer layer of the lemongrass, cut the roots and top end and chop. You should end up with about 1 1/4 cup of lemongrass one cleaned.

Place the lemongrass, the turmeric, the garlic, the galangal, the shallots, the lemon flesh, the fish sauce, the chilis in a blender and blend until you obtain a paste. You can add a little bit of water if it’s too dry to properly blend.

Heat some vegetable oil in a wok on low heat. Add the paste to the wok and cook on low heat for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.

After 10 minutes, add the chicken and cook on medium heat for 7 minutes stirring often to avoid burning the paste.

Then add the thin coconut milk , stir, add the sugar and salt to taste. Cook for 20 minutes on medium heat covered.

After 20 minutes, add the thick coconut milk and cook uncovered on medium heat for 5 minutes.

Serve with rice and decorate with cilantro leaves.

អញ្ជើញពិសាឲ្យបានឆ្ងាញ់