Red Thai Chicken Curry

    If I had to pick the type of food I enjoyed most, it would come down to Thai food or breakfast food. I'm still undecided. Nevertheless, I do love Thai cuisine and my favorite thai dish of all is red curry. It goes wonderfully with duck...but duck is pretty expensive...soooo I used chicken instead! The dish came out very well. It tasted just like the red curry at my favorite Thai restaurant, and now I'm pretty darn proud of myself! The best part was that it was surprisingly easy to make, with just a few simple steps and no complicated cooking processes. While there are specialty ingredients listed here, most of them can be found at normal grocery stores in the Asian foods isle. There's a brand of food products called Thai Kitchen and they make red curry paste, fish sauce, and canned coconut milk, and they're carried at most large supermarket chains, (I get it at Albertson's). If you have any trouble with the ingredients just let me know and I'll do my best to help :)

Ingredients:

1 Chicken Breast, cut into 3 x 1 inch strips, about 1/2 inch in thickness

1 Can of Coconut Milk

2 Cloves of Garlic, minced

2 Cups Jasmine Rice, cooked

1/2 Cup Chopped Red Bell Pepper

1/2 Cup Bamboo Shoots, (can often be purchased canned)

1/4 Cup Water

2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon Thai Fish Sauce

2 and 1/4 Teaspoons Red Curry Paste

In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the coconut milk, curry paste and minced garlic to a boil over medium heat for about 5 to 10 minutes, stirring constantly to help break up the curry paste. In a different medium-sized pot, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add the chicken pieces to the boiling water and allow them to boil for five minutes, then remove the pieces with a slotted spoon and set them aside. 

Add the chicken, brown sugar, fish sauce, red bell pepper, bamboo shoots, and water to the curry mixture and simmer at a low boil for another 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes to keep the bottom from burning. Remove the pot from heat and ladle the curry over a scoop of fresh jasmine rice.