Basic Thai Chicken Curry

Georgeanne

Easy Thai Chicken Curry
(can be substituted with tofu or shrimp, or beef with red curry)
Serves 2 with a little bit of leftovers for tomorrow's lunch

For a little over a euro, I bought a substantial pot of yellow curry paste. I can easily get five or six meals out of that!



Ingredients:

• 1 cup of rice
• 1tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 bell pepper (I usually pick the color to contrast with the curry I'm making, green curry = red, yellow or orange pepper, red curry = yellow or green, etc.)
• 1 1/2 tbsp  red, green or yellow curry
• 1 can coconut milk
• A few fresh kaffir lime leaves, sliced (found in Asian markets)
• Fresh basil for garnish

On the back of the curry paste you'll find instructions that usually suggest other seasoning sauces like fish sauce and sweeter things like palm sugar. I don't usually add extra sauces and my curries turn out well, though it is fun to play around with extra seasoning like that.

Curry Prep

The nice thing about this recipe is that you can really throw in any kind of veggie that you want, the last time I made it I added a little potato. I think it is best with peppers and onions, but if you have some extra stuff hiding out in your fridge just throw it in.

Boil two cups of water, add the rice and immediately lower the heat. Leave to cook on the burner, remove from heat after about 10 minutes, or prepare rice according to the package.

Add the oil to a pot or deep frying pan over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the curry paste, breaking it up in the pan. Once the curry is aromatic, after about 30 seconds, add the garlic. Once the garlic becomes aromatic add the onion and fry until it's translucent. Add the pepper and stir for another minute or two. Add the chicken, stir until very lightly browned.
Pour in the can of coconut milk and stir. Add the sliced kaffir lime leaves. I usually throw in a few fresh basil leaves with it.
Let the curry simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring periodically.  Serve over rice, garnish with fresh basil leaves.

enjoy while concentrating really hard on something else, as demonstrated above

yellow curry with red pepper