Quick and Easy Coconut Chicken Curry

This is so not an authentic curry recipe. In fact, I’m a little embarrassed to be calling it curry so freely. It has nothing to do whatsoever with what real curry is like. I do not use tomato sauce, garam masala, or curry paste from an Indian store. However, it does have curry powder in it (and not the real thing- just regular ol’ supermarket generic curry powder) which is why I will give myself the liberty of adding “curry” to the title.

Ok, now that I’ve made it quite clear that I am not in any way claiming that this is an authentic, Indian, Thai, Asian or otherwise ethnic dish, I can tell you that this chicken is a pretty quick, easy and tasty take on the coconut chicken curry they sometimes serve at  restaurants.

I’ve made chicken curry enough times in the past two years to make us sick of it, but after not making it for a couple of months I discovered that I just didn’t have enough quick-chicken-stir-fry-for-busy-days recipes to keep me going if I totally abandoned it. I needed to bring the chicken curry back with an un-boring new twist.

Then I came across something called Light Coconut Milk, and you know how I am about anything with the word “light” on it. It turned out to be unsweetened coconut milk, which when I used it, tasted so bland I had to add sugar to the dish (which then counteracted the whole idea of getting the light version of it, so just ignore the picture of the can I used and get regular).

Anyway, we really enjoyed this dish especially the new (to us) combination of curry and basil flavours.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
1 medium sized onion, chopped or sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
2 Tablespoons curry powder
3 fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon sunflower oil
1 cup coconut milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
Water

Directions:

Cut chicken breasts into strips.

Chiffonade the basil (I’ve wanted to use this expression ever since I decided to blog about food:)) It just means cut it into very thin “ribbon-like” strips by rolling basil leaves tightly into a roll and then cutting it).

Slice onions and crush garlic with ginger.

Sauté onions in oil until translucent, then add garlic and ginger. Saute for a couple of seconds so garlic doesn’t burn.

Add chicken strips and stir fry until no longer pink.

Add curry powder.

Give a quick stir.

Add coconut milk. Let simmer for 5 minutes then add spices to taste. If needed add a dash of sugar.

Add the basil last. I added it too early and it made the dish a little bitter so I added some water and a bit of sugar.

Garnish with some more basil (I can’t seem to get enough of the stuff since I got my basil plant. I put it on everything basically). Basmati rice goes great with this.

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Easy Coconut Chicken Curry

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 medium sized onion chopped or sliced
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger minced
• 2 Tablespoons curry powder
• 3 fresh basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon sunflower oil
• 1 cup coconut milk
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Water

Instructions

1. Cut chicken breasts into strips.
2. Chiffonade the basil (I’ve wanted to use this expression ever since I decided to blog about food:)) It just means cut it into very thin “ribbon-like” strips by rolling basil leaves tightly into a roll and then cutting it).
3. Slice onions and crush garlic with ginger.
4. Sauté onions in oil until translucent, then add garlic and ginger. Saute for a couple of seconds so garlic doesn't burn.
5. Add chicken strips and stir fry until no longer pink.
6. Add curry powder.
7. Give a quick stir.
8. Add coconut milk. Let simmer for 5 minutes then add spices to taste. If needed add a dash of sugar.
9. Add the basil last. I added it too early and it made the dish a little bitter so I added some water and a bit of sugar.
10. Garnish with some more basil (I can’t seem to get enough of the stuff since I got my basil plant. I put it on everything basically). Basmati rice goes great with this.