Street Kitchen - Coconut Chicken Chettinad product reviews

Normally in my household when we make curries we stick with the traditional red or green Thai curry pastes. I had never heard of Chettinad flavour before so was curious to try it after it being recommended. The packet comes with herbs and spices that you fry off in oil before adding in the chicken and coconut milk. It was super easy and smelt delicious whilst cooking. Felt very authentic and much more appealing than adding in a jar of sauce. And OMG the taste was AMAZING. It had subtle heat but very family and child-friendly. The taste was creamy and flavorsome.

I served it with jasmine rice cooked with a little sesame oil and some warmed roti. This turned out better than a takeaway curry and the husband even commented that it was restaurant quality. It is definitely worth the price and is now a regular in our weekly menu. I have yet to find this flavour again in the supermarket but have tried others from the same Street brand range. All of them are just as tasty and delicious. I would highly recommend these over any other curry sauce jar or packet and make a perfect fakeaway made at home.

Three new meals from Street Kitchen! Yay! Thai Red Curry, Thai Green Curry, and...Coconut Chicken Chettinad. Chettinad is a meal that neither the partner nor I happen to be aware of. Coming from Chettiar, it does marry up with how other Indian meals are named after the place of origin, so I guess the must be some legitimacy there. I suppose it really shows how closed-minded that I have been when it comes to eating at Indian restaurants. I know the Vindaloo, Korma, Rogan Josh, and Madras, but Chettinad was a word I don't think I've ever noticed before. And I'm quite disappointed that it took until now to give it a chance.

The product itself is well designed. The ingredients are split into three mixes; the initial spice mix, the ginger/garlic meat marinade, and the curry sauce. Effectively three ingredients to add to your chicken, and the meal is done. Couldn't be more simple right? Each of these three packs is in an easy tear plastic pouch, and while plastic sucks, it's great that the packet size has been designed to minimise empty space. Combine this with the tiny cardboard sleeve (did I mention that the cardboard label has more info on the inside? Super duper efficient!) that wraps around it, this is a surprisingly compact curry meal.

Fry up the spices, add the marinated meat, add the sauce, and serve on rice. It's an incredibly easy meal that took us maybe 20 minutes altogether to prepare from start to finish. In fact, the part of this meal that took the longest to do was the rice, which nearly delayed the meal. It's the one thing that I could really say to improve the direction of this product. Let us know when to prepare the rice. Everything else is very specific about how long it will take, with no directions around the rice. If I had known to start the rice straight away, I could have knocked a few more minutes off of my cooking time.

What's harder to describe, is the flavour of the Chettinad. It was definitely delicious, and my partner is chuffed that we have enough to cover our lunches tomorrow as well, but it isn't the style of flavour that I am used to. The ginger is definitely a very prominent part of the flavour, but the named coconut flavour is barely noticeable. Perhaps it would have a bigger part to play if the recommendation of coconut cream was followed, but I went by the strict instructions to see how the meal naturally tasted (even though I love my spice, I left the sriracha and birds eye chillis alone this time).

Aside from the ginger flavour, the chicken has a very earthy taste to it. I initially thought it was perhaps influenced by more Moroccan styles of cooking, but it comes from an intriguing mix of cumin, cloves, cinnamon, and star anise. A lot of flavours that you may need to be prepared to take back out of the curry after cooking (do not bite into the cinnamon stick or star anise, you will regret it!).

I did find that the sauce was a bit lacking for my taste. I like a thick sauce with my curries, but to get enough for my 600g of chicken, I would have had to add water and thin it down a fair amount. The sauce was nearly spot-on, quantity-wise, but the flavour was something that I hadn't experienced before, and I loved it. It isn't spicy, it's simply full of flavour, and incredibly easy to put together thanks to this Street Kitchen product. Can't really fault it, though next time I'll add some more chilli; I can't get enough of the heat!

Chettinad was a curry variety that I was completely unfamiliar with, so I did not know what to expect. We had three hungry boys to feed so decided, since this was meant to have just a hint of spice, that we would try it on them. The instructions suggested that we could add coconut milk to taste before serving. We did not have any in the house but we had a can of coconut cream so we made sure that we had some on the table in case it was needed.

When we first opened the packet, the aroma hinted that the contents might be spicier than expected, and I was concerned that the younger boys might find it too hot for their liking. However, the taste did not bear out that first impression, so all was well. We had chopped up a large avocado to serve as a side as this is something that all kids enjoy; besides, it goes well with almost all curries.

With five of us needing to be fed, I thought we might not have enough, but there was plenty to go round and we even had some leftovers. My partner and Mr 17 both said it was unmistakably Indian when they took the lid off the pot and sniffed it during the cooking process. However, when they gave it the taste test, they both said they could not taste any coconut at all. That was rectified once we stirred in some of the coconut cream. This really brought out the flavour, transforming the dish completely and making it much more interesting. Rather than having it on the packet as a recommendation, I think it should be listed as one of the required ingredients to add. It certainly worked for us.

The younger boys both enjoyed it, much to my relief since kids can often be fussy when presented with new foods. I was a bit taken aback when one of them said it would be nice in a pie with a crust on top, but then again, why not? It would be an easy pie filling to prepare although the liquid might need to be thickened first.

My partner thought this curry would be incredible with prawns or even shrimps instead of chicken. Once I thought about it, I agreed - seafood would certainly soak up the flavours. When I looked at the packaging again, I saw that seafood was actually suggested as an alternative to chicken. I had somehow missed that piece of information because I was too busy concentrating on the default preparation instructions. A good thing it was not a vital part of the process! Next time I will make sure I read all the instructions before starting.