Indian Butter Chicken Fried Noodles

The universe is such a wondrous thing. I remember on such a May day when the whole of Jakarta was shrouded in heat and the entire of Jakarta conspired against me, I rushed through the empty lobby of my office building hunting down for a cup of coffee. As soon as I stepped into the coffee shop, warm familiar smiles of barista greeted me. Found out that this place not as empty as the lobby. There is my Far East Prince standing in line, waiting for his coffee. He drinks Americano without sugar, while I go for my usual hot caramel macchiato. He wore a sleek black shirt with khaki trouser…not royal robe, and no sword in his hands…only a cell phone. That’s how we met. 

Real life isn’t glamorous, my story doesn’t end up happily ever after like a Cinderella story. He comes, he goes and it seems natural. We are free human, we belong to this earth, to this temporal world. We do not belong to each other and we are too young to settle. I just need to settle my mind and back to my old rhythm. Make love affair with food instead man it is my nature.

Indian Butter Chicken Fried Noodles

The first time I made this Indian butter chicken fried noodles when I had a leftover butter chicken in my fridge. I whipped it up with egg noodles, vegetables and adding more spices and a little bit kecap manis for taste and colour. You can add any combination of vegetables that suit you best and use honey or white sugar if you can’t find kecap manis.

Ingredients

• 250 gr boneless and skinless chicken thighs or breast
• 1/3 cup greek yoghurt

Spices Powder

• 2 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon black and white pepper seeds
• 1 teaspoon Kashmiri or red chilli powder
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

Fried Noodles

• 400g fresh egg noodles
• 1 carrot, cut into thin strips
• 100 gr string beans
• 100 gr Chinese cabbage
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced 
• 1 garlic, minced
• 2-inch ginger, minced
• 2 red chillies, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1-2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tablespoon kecap manis
• salt

Direction

• Dry roast all the seeds in a pan until it releases the aroma. Grind the roasted seeds into a fine powder using mortar and pestle, mix the ground spices with the turmeric and chilli powder.
• Cut chicken into strips, marinate it with half of spices powder, lemon juice, yoghurt and salt for 20 minutes until 1 hour.
• Heat up a large size non-stick frying pan. Add the marinated chicken and cook it until lightly brown on both sides. Remove chicken from the pan, set aside.
• Heat up about 1 tablespoon oil in the same pan. Stir-fry onion for 1 min or until fragrant, add minced garlic, ginger, spices powder, and stir-fry until fragrant. Add tomato paste and stir to combine, add vegetables, and noodles. Cook noodles for another 1-2 minutes. 
• Transfer noodles to serving plate and serve with mint raita or pickles.