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.
