Gulai roughly translates to sauce or curry; however the word "kari" which is a direct translation seems to be more regularly applied to the Malay Indian style of curry. Ayam translates to chicken therefore today's dish is chicken curry or chicken in gravy.

Very few foods found in Malaysia have not undergone some sort of cultural fusion, be that from the Chinese, Indians, British or Thai's from the north. This has  made for one of the most highly under-rated cuisines on the planet, and a plethora of fusion foods. (see Malay Cuisine) Outside the metropolitan regions of Malaysia and Indonesia a specific type of Kari Ayam is regularly served. This dish is always cooked with coconut milk, however not as creamy as the Thai curries, plenty of spice though not as intense as an Indian curry and almost always made from very very fresh chicken. By that I mean the cook is often seen wandering around with a parang (machette) in his hand shortly before preparation commences.  The dish is very similar in both Indonesia and Malaysia, however as most often is the case the Malay version is tastier as a result of the higher quality and more ready and wider range of available ingredients. I am sure there are tens of millions of Indonesians out there that would swear the kari ayam cooked in there province or region is far superior than anywhere else much the same as "my grandmother cooks the best chicken soup".

While searching for a Malay Chicken Curry I have come across many recipes and varieties of, what I have dubbed a Malay Chicken Curry, recipes that are very similar are Kari Ayam, Penang Chicken Curry, Kari Kapitan and of course Gulai Ayam. In fact looking at recipes for all of these you will find very similar ingredients and cooking methods. I would actively encourage you to experiment a little with the dish, it can be made spicy or mild by varying the quantity of chillies, it can be made more Nonya style by adding shrimp paste and lemon grass, more traditional Malay by replacing the shrimp paste and lemon grass with tamarind, you can thicken it up with diced onion or anglicise it by adding potatoes and of course you can vary the ratio of Coriander and Cumin to suit your own specific tastes. With all that being said what I present here is what you can call the base Malay Chicken Curry, which in itself is delicious, and from which you may do what you wish. 

For the Full Recipe see Gulai Ayam

As stated the ingredient may be substantially adjusted to suit your own purpose, here we have presented the base ingredients. The Dry Spices on the left plate are dry fried to bring out the flavors in the spices before being ground and blended with the wet ingredients (right plate) to create a thick Curry Paste shown right. This curry past can be stored up to a month in a sealed refrigerated container and therefore may be created in bulk for quick and easy meals.The Paste shown below is coarsely ground and may be blended longer for a smoother more presentable dish. If presentation is a high priority blend until smooth. I personally like the rustic coarsely ground spices through my food and the flavors that explode in your mouth when you bite down on half a coriander seed. Of course professionally made curry pastes are ground in large grinding machines so that the ingredients are indistinguishable, I have watched Thai women do the same thing with a mortar and pestle however you need pretty solid forearms.

Given your Malay chicken curry paste, add it to a large wok with a small amount of oil, fry gently to release the shrimp paste aroma before adding the chicken pieces. Brown the chicken pieces before adding coconut milk and stock. Simmer gently keeping replacing the liquid that evaporates off. Alternatively transfer to a covered cooking pot, this also helps prevent the coconut milk from curdling.