We are all stuck at home for a while with this COVID-19 “Shelter in Place” order and many of you are cooking up a storm. Here’s a tried and true Thai Red Curry Chicken recipe we have been using for a long time. I published this many, many years ago when I had my New Mexico blog. It was so popular at the time that it made it to one of the top 5 Thai Red Curry recipes on Google. Here it is again, and now you can medicate it too! (Please forgive the old photos, I had a bad camera back then.) – Cannagramma

I have seen many Thai Red Curry Chicken recipes online and I have to tell you all… anyone who offers you a “quick and easy” way to make this traditional Thai dish is NOT giving you a real recipe. While the Red Curry Chicken recipe I have is easy, it is NOT quick because making red curry paste, fish sauce and coconut milk into a proper curry takes time and patience, not ten minutes. My husband and I have run this recipe by a Thai chef and he said it was exactly right except for the fact that we used too much chicken. We laughed and told him we like chicken and were not running a restaurant.

Thai Red Curry Chicken (serves 6-8)

Ingredients
• 1 1/2 lb chicken breast boned, skinned and cut into 1″ pieces
• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 2 1/2 cups coconut milk or 2- 14 oz (400ml) cans (NOT Coco Lopez cream of coconut as used in piña colada)
• 2 cups sweet or Thai basil, leaves and some buds and flowers too (Sweet Basil is fine)
• 1 or 2 medium size red bell pepper (capsicum) cut into 1″ cubes (use any color, we like red because they’re sweeter)
• 2 medium to large size jalapeños peppers, sliced very thin
• 1 – 8 or 10 oz can bamboo shoots
• 2 to 3 tbsp prepared Thai red curry paste – more is hotter
• 2 1/2 tsp fish sauce
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 lime tree leaves, torn or cut with a serrated knife into 1/4″ strips (Kaffir lime leaves are preferred, but we don’t always have them so we sometimes use lime zest…don’t go overboard. A teaspoon or less is enough)
• Concentrated Cannabis oil – add as much as wanted.

Have all the ingredients prepared and ready to go…
Par boil the cut chicken in the stock (add some water if you need to) for just a minute or two and remove from water and set aside, reserving the liquid.

Combine curry paste, fish sauce, sugar and one cup of the coconut milk in a wok. (If you are lucky…the coconut milk has been on the shelf long enough to condense thick at one end of the can, and if so use that for this step!) Add the concentrated cannabis oil at this point – it will bind with the fat in the coconut milk.

Bring to a boil and reduce over a medium-high heat. Scrape sides and mush the curry so it mixed well into the rest of the ingredients. Don’t let it stick to the bottom of the pan. It should become a thick, darkened pasty consistency, almost dry. Pockets of reddish oil will begin to form, (see picture), but if this doesn’t happen after 15 minutes add a few tbsp of the reserved chicken stock and reduce some more. Repeat if necessary.

Cook for 10 or so minutes at medium-high stirring so not to stick to the wok, and then add the remaining coconut milk and a 1/2 cup of the reserved stock.

Just before it boils again add the chicken cook for a few minutes so chicken is cooked through and stir in the bell peppers, jalapeño and bamboo shoots, cooking for a few minutes longer so the peppers are no longer raw but a little al dente.

Remove from heat and add lime leaves and basil, stir in and serve immediately over Thai basmati rice. I cook about four cups (cooked) for this much curry.

ENJOY! Cannagramma