TONIGHT WE COOKED: COCONUT CHICKEN CURRY
This recipe was so easy, I could barely stand it.
First off, get 2 lbs of chicken breasts or thighs ready. Season them with pepper and salt. For me, though, I actually seasoned mine with lemon pepper. (SCORE ONE FOR BLAIR. That was a delicious decision.) Cook that chicken in a wok. Now, I absolutely love cooking in a wok. When I started dating David and he had this epic wok, I remember thinking "What the heck does someone need with a wok?" Well, take note peeps. I was totally wrong. Cooking in a wok is great for high altitude too because it heats up so quickly, despite the altitude. Unlike normal pots and pans which take FORVER.
As the chicken is browning, you do LOTS of chopping. I would say that was the only downside for this recipe. Now, normally when David and I make a stir-fry-like dinner, we usually just use a frozen stir fry mix. It's easier. I'm a busy person who doesn't have time to chop a thousand veggies. However, for this recipe, it was a great idea to use fresh ingredients. The only frozen thing we used was peas. We had some leftovers. :)
Then, you take the chicken out (once browned), put it on a plate, and put in the veggies. In case you can't see in this incredible picture taken by my Samsung Epic (I'll be expecting my check any day now, Samsung...) there are carrots, onion, peas, scallions (I actually used green onions because I like them better), green chile (recipe called for one jalapeño pepper, but I'm in New Mexico dangit!), chopped ginger and three cloves of garlic. After you've cooked these ingredients for about five minutes, it's time to make the curry sauce.
Let it be known I have a soft-spot for curry. If it were up to me, I would use curry in everything. It's my lemon pepper and jasmine, Brandan. So, when I saw this recipe in the JoC (Joy of Cooking), I was pumped to make it. So, to make the sauce, you just add some coconut milk (I used the Lite Coconut Milk so I wouldn't gain 40 pounds from one meal) and about a tablespoon of curry powder. It also called for golden raisins and salt, but I've been trying to cut down on my salt intake and golden raisins cost too much. So I skipped those two. After stirring it a bit, I added the chicken. I let it simmer for about 20 minutes while I waited for the rice to finish up that I had David make last-minute.
After the simmering, it filled the kitchen with the aroma of curry, garlic and ginger. I was practically watering at the mouth. I was pretty excited to serve it up in our gorgeous pasta bowls (sponsored by Brandan and Ian). I give it a 4.5 out of 5. I only gave it that low of marks because, as David put it, "If the idiot who made the rice could learn how to make rice, it would be perfect." Sadly he was right. In all fairness, I told him last-minute to make it, we're in high altitude and still trying to figure out how to make it properly AND I was rushing the crap out of him because of the scents I mentioned earlier. So, he's excused.
3 comments:
I can't make rice in altitude either...it takes like an hour to get the pot to boil then you don't have enough water in it to make it fluffy. An article I read said to add time and water to make it better, but figuring out how much is the trick...
http://www.ochef.com/82.htm
That looks amazing. Did you cut the chicken into strips before woking?
I actually bought chicken tenders instead of breasts because they were on sale. Yay for being poor and wanting to cook!
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