Malaysian roti canai with chicken curry and dal curry is surprisingly simple to make. Here is my roti canai and two curry recipes below.

This is a non-coconut milk version since good quality coconut milk is hard to find for us. Whole milk works as a great substitute to get the same creaminess that coconut milk brings to the dish.

While in quarantine I haven’t been able to buy fresh produce from the grocery store. I keep in stock generic frozen diced onions:

Pre-minced ginger (Ginger People Organic Minced Ginger) which tastes great by the way! I honestly can’t tell much difference between fresh ginger and the pre-minced one so I recommend this brand if you love ginger and want a speedy option to have it on the ready for recipes.

Given that the main flavor ingredients that make up the curry are already pre-cut makes the cooking process for this super fast. This is something you could easily put on rotation for dinner. I also made this dish in the instant pot on the saute setting using the low and medium heat settings which makes clean up easy, too.

Roti Canai Recipe:
3 cups All-Purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup hot water (use turned the tap water on the hottest setting for this)
2 TB of olive oil

• Add the flour and salt to a kitchen aid mixer and turn on setting 1. Slowly add in the hot water and the milk, turn the mixer setting to a 4.
• When the liquid has been absorbed in the dough (might take 5 minutes for this to happen) keep the setting at 4 and let it mix for 10 minutes.
• Once done, separate the dough into individual balls. Each ball will be its own roti canai. Pour a little oil on the plate so the dough balls won’t stick, then pour the rest of the oil on them so they are all well coated. Cover, and let it rest for 2 hours
• After two hours the dough should be soft enough that you can stretch it out with your hands like the images below. Use an oiled rolling pin if need and shapes them into little cinnamon rolls before flattening and pan-frying.

  Note: If you don’t have milk or have a lactose allergy this recipe for roti canai is another favorite I use when I’m in a hurry. It only uses flour, water, and salt. The only thing you might have to watch out for is adding more flour to the mix (about 1 cup extra) Click this link for the recipe

Malaysian Curry Chicken Recipe:
You don’t have to marinate your chicken but I love to since it adds so much extra flavor to the chicken. Since the marinade already has salt in it I don’t actually have to add salt to the curry in the end.

Chicken marinade:
2 chicken breasts cut into large cubes
3 TB of ginger
2 TB of salt
-Mix together in a ziplock and let it marinate for a minimum of 1 hour.

Chicken Curry Paste:
2 TB chili powder (I used cayenne pepper. You can use sweet paprika or a mix of the two if you like instead. Ground Korea chili flakes also works great)
1 TB coriander powder
1 TB turmeric powder

Garlic, ginger, onion, use equal parts according to how much flavor you like of each. You can’t add too much or too little, it’s very forgiving.  I used this much (generous measurements);
4 TB garlic
4 TB ginger
4 TB onion

1 cup of whole milk
1-2 tsp sugar
Hot water (eyeball desired amount, you can’t add too much or too little. I just use hot water from the faucet. Boiling water works great too.)
Oil (eyeball desired amount)

• Pan-fry the ginger, onion, garlic, first. Lower the heat a bit and add the dry spices and add extra oil so it’s “wet and shiny”. Once the oil starts to separate from the spices (2-5 minutes-ish) turn up the heat a little bit and add in the chicken (include the extra ginger marinade), mix so everything is well coated.
• Pour in enough hot water to cover all the chicken. Add in 1/2 cup of the milk, bring to a boil, cover, turn down the heat to a simmer for 20 min.
• Adjust taste with salt if needed, add in 1-2 tsp of sugar to balance out the flavors. Lastly, add in 1/2 cup of milk and serve.

  Note: You can add chunky peeled chopped potato to cook in the curry with the chicken which is delicious! Add it in right before the 20-minute simmer so it can all cook together.

Dal Curry Recipe: (very watery version, good for dipping)
1/2 cup of yellow split peas
3 cups of water
1/2 TB of turmeric
1 TB of ginger
1 TB of garlic
1 TB onion
salt

• Add to instant pot and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes.

Want more Asian inspired recipes? Check out my Hainanese Chicken Recipe!