From Greg Atkinson

With the turn of the twenty-first century, West Coast cooks, like cooks all over North America, started trying to re-create the dishes they enjoyed in Thai restaurants at home. Thai-style curies once baffled me. Then I spent a day preparing curry pastes and cooking Thai food with my friend Sri Owen, who hails from Indonesia and spent several years traveling throughout Southeast Asia studying the food there. Ever since, I have felt increasingly confident with the genre. Once I had made my own red curry paste, I felt entitled to use the packaged stuff from Thailand with some understanding of what’s in it. Serve this aromatic chicken with basmati rice and Typhoon-Style Beans.

Makes 4 servings

1 pound boneless, skinless organic chicken thighs or breast halves
2 tablespoons coconut or canola oil
2 tablespoons red curry paste
One 14-ounce can coconut cream or coconut milk (not “cream of coconut”)
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar or light brown sugar
1 bunch organic green onions, cut on the diagonal into ¼-inch slices
1 small bunch (about 30 leaves) fresh basil leaves, cut into ribbons
¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 lime, cut into wedges, as an accompaniment

1. Cut the chicken against the grain into strips about ¼-inch thick, then cut the strips into 1-inch lengths.

2. Heat a 14-inch wok or large (12-inch) cast-iron skillet over high heat until a drop of water dances immediately and evaporates in 1 or 2 seconds. Add the chicken, distributing it evenly over the surface of the wok or skillet, and let it cook, undisturbed, for a minute to brown. Add the curry paste and coconut cream and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a metal spatula or tongs.

3. Stir in the fish sauce and palm sugar and cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 4 minutes. Stir in the green onions, basil, and cilantro and serve the curry hot, with wedges of fresh lime passed separately.
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See also Jeff’s If I Come Back As A Chicken
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Greg Atkinson is author of West Coast Cooking, and The Northwest Essentials Cookbook, and lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Greg is Culinary Director of OrganicToGo.
Image Credit: © Aida Ricciardiello | Dreamstime.com
OrganicToBe.org | OrganicToGo.com
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