Thai Chicken Stew
Last week on Instagram, Laurent. Tourondel posted pictures of a scrumptious looking Thai Chicken Stew he was making. While he didn’t post his recipe, he did take a beautiful still life of all of the ingredients. So I basically grabbed the very same ingredients (I had everything in the house except eggplant) and guessed my way through the steps. I’m sure I could improve upon this with Laurent’s recipe, but it was a very yummy first stab.
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 lbs. skinless chicken (I use thighs or breasts, but it appears Laurent cut up an entire chicken), cut into 1” pieces
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 Thai chili, finely chopped
1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
2 tablespoons red curry paste
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 small kaffir lime leaves
2 (14-oz.) cans unsweetened coconut milk
2 lemongrass stalks, cut into 3-inch pieces and bruised with the flat side of a knife
2 cups chicken stock (optional)
2 ears of corn on the cob, steamed
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Scallions, cut on the diagonal
Lime wedges
Preparation
Pat the chicken dry and season with salt.
In a heavy-bottom pot set over moderately high heat, warm the oil until hot. Add the chicken and cook, turning often, until no longer pink. Transfer chicken to a plate.
Add onion to pot and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add garlic, ginger and chili and cook for 1 minute.
Add mushrooms and salt to taste, cooking for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Return chicken to the pan, add the curry paste and cook mixture, turning and stirring, for 1 minute.
Add the coconut milk, lemongrass, fish sauce and kaffir leaves. Bring mixture to a boil, and simmer stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. If stew is too thick for your liking, add chicken stock (a 1/2 cup at a time) to thin it out.
Strip corn from the cob and add to pot. Mix well and cook for 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Season to taste with salt.
Discard kaffir leaves and serve stew in bowls topped with cilantro, scallions and lime juice.
