January 12: Curried Chicken Day

When I saw that today was Curried Chicken Day, I immediately thought, "Whoo!  I'll make Curry Rice and use chicken in my curry!"  Then I thought about it some more.  Curried Chicken Day.  Not Curry Rice with Chicken Day.  What the heck was Curried Chicken Day?  Was it just making curry with chicken and no veggies?  Could I rub curry spice on chicken, grill it and call it curried chicken?  What about quickly stir-frying some chicken and sprinkling some curry spice on it?

So I turned to the cookbooks.  I had picked up a recipe card from Penzey's Spices for "Curried Chicken and Vegetables" - nah, I'd have to buy a lot more spices.  Thumbed through Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson to "Chicken and Cashew Nut Curry" - again, don't have all the spices.  The American Heart Association cookbook has a Curried Pork recipe...nah, not interested. 

So I turned to friends.  Turns out, one friend swears by using Thai Kitchen's Curry Paste and the recipe that comes on the green curry paste.  So, I picked up some of the Thai Kitchen's Green Curry Paste and looked at the recipe. 

I didn't follow it. 

Oh, it was inspiration, but I didn't want to use my coconut milk (that's for when I make mochi!) and it still seemed more like a curry recipe than a curried chicken recipe.  So I did what I usually do - I improvised.  I threw a bunch of stuff together in a baking dish and tossed it in the oven...

and this is what came out!

Okay, so it looks a little bland, color-wise.  Next time I do something like this, I think I'm going to toss in some green peas to kick up the vegetable and color components.  Lack of color aside, it came out pretty darn tasty!  I ate half of it and saved the rest for tomorrow's lunch. 

Feeling like duplicating what I did?  Probably no, but in case you are, here's how my Curried Chicken with Onions came to be.

• Cut one chicken thigh into bite sized pieces.  Toss into a baking dish.
• On another cutting board (always use separate cutting boards) slice up one small brown onion.  Toss slices into baking dish.
• Scoop out some curry paste into dish.
• Splash some fish sauce into the dish.  Pause.  Look at stuff in baking dish.  Shrug and splash in some more fish sauce.
• Look at stuff in baking dish again and decide to sprinkle curry powder on chicken.
• Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for 20 minutes, covered with lid for baking dish.  Remove from oven, stir everything together, replace the cover, and cook for another 20 minutes. 

I ate it with some rice (a brown and white mixture), kimchee, mixed vegetables, and a glass of almond milk.  Dessert was a small bowl of cranberry sauce. As I stated before, I think next time I'll add some peas.