June 6, 2014

Hello everybody!

Today’s recipe comes to you courtesy of my boyfriend Sean.

Actually, it was one of the first things he cooked for me right after we started dating, and to this day whenever we make it together I like to think of that. We’d been going out for just about a month when he invited me over to his house for dinner. My birthday was coming up the following weekend, and in honor of it he was going to cook for me (believe me, I know how lucky I am to have a man who can cook. It’s even better that we enjoying doing it together). I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew he had been following the paleo diet for a while before he met me (my love of baking and sugar served to end that diet in pretty short order), and he made me one of his favorite go-to, hearty recipes. Red chicken curry. And I’ll tell you right now, if the man didn’t already have my heart, he would have had it after that dish. It was delicious, paleo or not!

Want the recipe? Read on then!

Red Curry Chicken

Makes 6 – 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 – 3 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts sliced into bite-sized chunks (you can also substitute in pork tenderloin if you want)
• 1 can full fat coconut milk
• 1 can lite coconut milk (I prefer Thai Kitchen‘s coconut milk for both the full and lite varieties)
• 1 large red bell pepper
• 1 large green bell pepper
• 5 oz carrots (baby carrots or carrots cut to a uniform thickness so they all cook through at the same time)
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 can sliced water chestnuts
• 1 can sliced bamboo shoots
• 1 jar of red curry paste (again I like Thai Kitchen’s red curry paste)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil (or olive oil)
• 1 tbsp chili powder (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1.5 cups white or brown rice (optional)

Directions:

1. Slice chicken into bite sized pieces, place in a bowl and add chili powder, pepper and cayenne pepper to pieces. Toss to coat.
2. Heat coconut oil in large wok over medium heat. Once the oil is hot add the seasoned chicken and stir until all pieces are cooked through.
3. Slice up all the peppers, onion and carrots.
4. Add sliced veggies, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and both cans of coconut milk to the chicken in the wok.
5. Once everything has been mixed together, add the jar of red curry paste to the wok and gently stir to dissolve it in the coconut milk. At this point the liquid should have a bright orange hue.
6. Reduce the wok’s heat to low and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
7. (Optional): If you’re serving the curry over rice, prepare the rice according to directions and divide evenly between bowls.
8. Spoon curry over the rice and you’re ready to eat.

It’s easy, it’s delicious, it’s gluten free and paleo if you omit the rice and very filling. Best of all, this curry reheats like a dream – in fact, it might even be better the next day, if I do say so myself.

Do you have any go-to recipes like this? I’m always looking for new ideas, so please share with me.

P.S. Sorry I don’t have more pics of the curry to share, I kept forgetting to take them when we actually scooped it into bowls with rice beneath! My bad.