Recipe: Nornie Bero’s Coconut Chicken Curry Has “Coastal Aussie Swagger” in Spades

From her very first stall at South Melbourne Market to her SBS Food series, Nornie Bero’s mission hasn’t changed. The chef and proud Meriam woman from the Torres Strait wants to make Indigenous produce, used by First Nations people for thousands of years, a staple in our kitchens.

In her new cookbook, Native Ingredients Every Day, Bero takes 10 key native ingredients including saltbush, pepperberry and yams and shows you just how easy it is to weave these into your weekly cooking rotation with 80 recipes. She also shares stories and knowledge from Country, a glossary and supplier guide to help make the most of native ingredients, every day.

Bero’s coconut chicken curry is the perfect place to start. She calls it an “old-school Aussie curry gone bush gourmet”.

“Keen’s Traditional Curry Powder brings the childhood comfort, pepperberry adds a native punch and saltbush gives it that coastal Aussie swagger,” she writes. “It’s like your nan’s curry took a tropical holiday and came back with a new attitude: creamy, peppery and full of flavour.”

The dish was a staple for Bero growing up, and its one-pot wonder status kept it in her midweek rotation. She recommends using a whole chook as bones bring even more flavour to the dish. The leftovers will keep for up to four days, to help see you through to the weekend.

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Keen's curry coconut chicken by Nornie Bero

Serves 6–8
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

Olive oil, for cooking
1 whole chicken, broken down into pieces
1 onion, diced
2 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp crushed garlic
3 tbsp Keen’s Traditional Curry Powder
3 large potatoes, washed and diced2 green capsicums (bell peppers), deseeded and diced
2 cups Chicken stock
400ml tinned coconut cream
1 tsp ground pepperberry
2 tbsp fresh saltbush, chopped
½ cup chopped garlic shoots
1 bunch gai lan (Chinese broccoli), roughly chopped
Sea salt, to taste

To serve
Steamed rice or roti

Method

Heat a good dash of olive oil in a large saucepan or deep frying pan over high heat. In batches, brown the chicken pieces until golden and smelling irresistible. Set aside on a plate. Don’t nibble yet, but you’ll want to.

In the same pan, add the onion, ginger and garlic. Cook until fragrant (the ‘my neighbours are jealous’ stage). Stir in the curry powder and bloom for 30 seconds, or until it smells like spicy nostalgia.

Toss in the potato and capsicum, coating them in the curry mixture.

Return the chicken to the pan, then pour in the stock. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potato softens and the sauce thickens slightly.

Add the coconut cream, pepperberry, saltbush and garlic shoots. Stir gently and simmer for another 10 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and the sauce is silky.

Stir in the gai lan just before serving so it stays bright and slightly crisp. Taste and season with sea salt. Serve with steamed rice or roti.

Notes

If you haven’t broken down a whole chicken before, don’t worry, it’s pretty simple. Essentially, you want to get twenty-six pieces from the chicken. Start with the legs, cutting each one into six pieces, then cut each wing in half, then break down the body into twelve pieces. You can find garlic shoots at most Asian grocers or greengrocers.

This is an edited extract from Native Ingredients Every Day by Nornie Bero. Published by Hardie Grant (RRP $45).