Sunday Supper: Thai Chicken Curry

Background

When we lived in Philadelphia there was an amazing Thai restaurant down the street from our house in Roxborough / Manayunk called Chabaa. In our pre-kid days, we would walk from our house to Chabaa, sit outside, and enjoy the most amazing curry dishes. With the temperatures this January dropping into the single digits, we’ve been craving the warm and hearty flavor of curry. So, we searched for a curry recipe and decided to try this Thai chicken curry dish.

Equipment & Materials

1. 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (we used sunflower oil)
2. 1 4-oz can yellow curry paste. This was hard to find, with multiple grocery stores not stocking curry paste at all or only having red or green curry paste. We ended up finding some at United Provisions, which has a significant stock of international ingredients because of the huge population of international students who live nearby.
3. 3/4 pound carrots — peeled and cut into 1/2″ rounds
4. 1 white onion, chopped
5. 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1″ pieces
6. 4 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2″ pieces
7. 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 1″ pieces
8. 1 13.5 oz can of unsweetened coconut milk
9. Chopped basil and cilantro
10. Long grain white rice

Procedure

1. Bring oil to medium heat in a large pot. We used our dutch oven for this, which is fairly large. The dish filled it 3/4 of the way up.
2. Stir in the curry paste and cook for about a minute or so.
3. Add carrots, onion, and pepper and cook until the onion is translucent (about 10 minutes).
4. Stir in the potatoes, chicken, coconut milk, and 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Make sure the chicken, potatoes, and carrots are cooked.
6. NOTE: We also cooked some long grain white rice to pair with the curry.

Results

This was a tasty dish. We made it with some long grain white rice, spooning the curry over the rice and topping with the chopped cilantro and basil. The chicken was cooked well and it wasn’t so spicy that the kids resisted eating it. In fact, they actually ate it and said they liked it. Because the carrots and potatoes were not cut uniformly, they weren’t uniformly cooked. So, some were a little underdone. Overall, though, the taste of the dish was good and it’s something that I think we’ll make again.

Thoughts for Next Time

There isn’t much that we’d tweak with this one next time. Here are a few thoughts, though:

• I’d like to up the spiciness. It was a little too mild for my taste. However, I’m not sure that the kids would eat it if it was much spicier. They were already downing their water while eating this one.
• I’d like to make my own curry paste next time. It would be fun to tweak and adjust the curry.
• One definite change is to make sure that the carrots and potatoes are cut uniformly. This wasn’t a huge issue, but I did occasionally hit some of the veggies that were undercooked.