Chicken Green Curry

A spicy Thai green curry with chicken, veggies, and rice.

Green curry is one of my husband's favorite foods. It is the spiciest of the 3 Thai curries (red, yellow, and green) which is a big reason why he favors it. Green curry paste is mostly mashed Thai green chilies giving it a powerful heat.  This dish is not for those who can't tolerate spicy chilies. If you are able to get past the chili burn this curry has many delicious, complex, flavors common in Thai cuisine. It is sour, sweet, and savory with lime, shrimp paste, cilantro, and coconut milk. I've made green curry paste from scratch, which is pretty simple and an easy way to control the heat level (see my Tofu Thai Green Curry), but for a quicker dinner sometimes I use store bought paste. Another perk of Chinatown (but you may find it in the Asian section of many grocery stores...it's pretty popular)

Chicken Green Curry

Ingredients:

1-2 Tbsp oil

2 chicken breasts, cubed
2-4 cups vegetables (I like to keep a green theme: sugar snap peas, zucchini, green bell pepper,  broccoli...you get the idea)
2 Tbsp green curry paste (use less for less heat)

1 can coconut milk
Jalapeno, sliced
Thai basil
Lime wedges
Rice

In a large saute pan, cook the chicken pieces (medium heat) in some oil until cooked.  Remove and set aside.

Add more oil to the pan if necessary and then add the curry paste.  Stir it around the pan for a minute or two to slightly cook the curry paste then add the veggies.

Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a boil then lower heat to a simmer. Allow to simmer until vegetables are tender to your liking then stir in the chicken.  Taste for seasoning and add more lime juice or fish sauce to adjust the saltiness or lack there of and serve.

Makes 4-6 servings.  Serve with rice, jalapeno, lime, and basil.

Enjoy.

Linked to:  Whimsy Wednesday, Eat Create Party,  Freedom Fridays,. Best of the Weekend, Show Stopper Saturday, Shine a Spotlight Saturday, Saturday Night Fever, Random Recipe Roundup, Much Ado About Monday

Read more ...

Tofu Thai Green Curry

The sweetness of coconut milk, the sourness of lime, and the saltiness of fish sauce. A Thai green curry made with tofu and vegetables.  Delicious.

Green curry is the spiciest of the Thai curries and my husband's favorite.  He doesn't even mind that I use tofu in it sometimes (and he actually enjoys it).  I like to try to make things from scratch as much as possible.  Since I live so close to Chinatown, I can find most of the ingredients to make my own green curry paste and it is awesome.  Another good thing about making it yourself is that you can adjust the spiciness to your own taste.  The curry paste I make is probably not authentic, I found the recipe on thaifood.about.com, but it is simple and tastes wonderfully fresh and is better than many restaurant versions.  I love this recipe and make it frequently.

Green Curry Paste

Ingredients:

Modified slightly from about.com Thai Green Curry
**Makes 1 serving, enough for 4 servings of Green Curry**

 
4-5 cloves garlic
2 jalapenos (or Thai green chillies)
2 shallots (about 1/4 cup)
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, chopped
1/2 cup cilantro (use the roots too if you can find them)
1/2 cup Thai basil
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
3 Tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp shrimp paste
2 Tbsp lime juice (2 limes)
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk

Puree all of the above ingredients together in a blender until smooth.  Pour into a container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Tofu Thai Green Curry

Ingredients:

the rest of the can of coconut milk
1-2 Tbsp lemon grass, minced
1 block tofu (12 oz), chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 hand full long green beans, 1 inch pieces

Heat a large skillet or wok over medium low heat.  Add a little oil, then all of the curry paste (it's not really paste like, there is enough liquid in it that it pours easily), lemon grass and the rest of the coconut milk.

Cover and allow mixture to come to a gentle boil then add the the tofu (I used deep fried tofu because I like the texture the best) and cover.

Reduce the temperature and let the tofu simmer in the sauce for a few minutes and then add the veggies.  Cover again and let simmer for 20-30 minutes until the vegetables are cooked.

Remove from heat and serve over rice with more cilantro, basil, lime, and jalapeno.  Makes 4 servings.

This meal is delicious.  The ingredient list is long, but it doesn't really take very long since most of the ingredients are being blended you could even make the sauce a day or two before you plan to make the curry.  This time did not turn out very spicy at all, I kept the seeds in one jalapeno and removed them from the other, next time I may use more jalapenos and keep the seeds in them all.  My husband (who likes a lot of spice) just loaded his with sliced, raw jalapenos as the garnish and he was happy.  Enjoy.

I made cocktails to  accompany the meal too.  I will post about this cocktail next time.

Linked to:  Retro Repin

Read more ...