Chicken Breasts with Cilantro and Red Thai Curry Peanut Sauce

Today was our first Experimental Saturday!  I made dinner and dessert, but I will put dessert in a separate blog so they are easier for people to find later!

I found this recipe browsing around on Pinterest, and we selected it as our first experiment because we had chicken in the freezer.  I though it would be relatively inexpensive to prepare. The only things I didnt have handy were ginger, cilantro, peanut oil, rice vinegar, red Thai curry paste, and coconut milk. Hahaha. Most of the ingredients.  The chili sauce and coconut milk were about $5 each, and the peanut oil was about $7. None of these items were sold at Walmart either, so it did require and additional trip to Thrifty's.


The final product not only looks nice, but it is quite tasty! Even Avery ate the chicken and peanut sauce.  I will definately recommend this recipe and make it again.  Although I will be including more of the Chilli paste, and maybe adding a little cayenne pepper to pep it up a little. We tend to like thinks a little spicier.


Here is my photo of our dinner tonight: (the pad thai is from a seasoning packet, I will be attempting it from scratch very soon).

This is the recipe I used, my comments are in red:

Chicken Breasts with Cilantro and Red Thai Curry Peanut Sauce
(4 servings, with lots of extra sauce for another use, from Fine Cooking Annual with slight adaptations by Kalyn - then readdapted a little by JoJo's Madhouse)

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thick
2 T peeled and minced fresh ginger - I probably used 3, I didnt measure
1 T chopped fresh garlic - Again i probably used 3 here too
1/2 cup smooth natural peanut butter (without added sugar) at room temperature -
1/4 cup rice vinegar (not "seasoned" vinegar which has sugar)
2 T soy sauce
2 T Splenda or sugar (use Splenda for South Beach Diet)
1 tsp. red Thai Curry Paste (I like Thai Kitchen brand) - I used 2 heaping teaspoons, but next time I would probably use 3.  Also use Thai Kitchen brand
3 T homemade chicken stock or canned chicken broth - i forgot to buy chicken stock so I just added a little water
fresh ground black pepper to taste
about 2 T peanut oil (depends on your pan)
1 cup unsweetened lite coconut milk (I use Thai Kitchen Lite Coconut Milk)
4 T finely chopped cilantro (or more), plus more for garnish if desired

Instructions:

Trim chicken breasts so they are about the same size and remove any visible fat or ragged edges.  Put each chicken breast inside plastic bag or between plastic wrap and use a meat mallet to pound to even 1/2 inch thickness. 

Meh - i dont care if my chicken peices are the same size, and i dot have a meat mallet.  I did smack them around a bit to flatten them out to speed the cooking time.

Finely mince the ginger and garlic.  In food processor or immersion blender canister combine ginger, garlic, peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, Splenda or sugar, curry paste, and chicken stock. Taste to see if you want to add more red curry paste. (I didn't.)

I used my magic bullet and it worked just fine.

Heat the oil in heavy, large frying pan. Season chicken with black pepper, then add chicken to pan and saute over medium heat about until chicken breasts are nicely browned and cooked through, about 4 minutes on first side, and 2-3 minutes more on second side.  (It's important not to overcook the chicken; it should feel barely firm to the touch when you take it out of the pan.)

Remove chicken to plate and cover with foil. Reduce heat to low and add 1 cup coconut milk. (You can freeze the other 3/4 cup coconut milk for another time.) Scrape off browned bits from the bottom of the pan, then stir in peanut/curry/ginger paste mixture and heat through, about 2-3 minutes.

Add any juices that have accumulated on the pate and cook another minute or two.  Turn off heat and mix in chopped cilantro. Serve the sauce immediately over chicken breasts, with additional chopped cilantro for garnish if desired.

Website I found the recipe on:
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2007/01/sauteed-chicken-with-peanut-and-red.html 

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!! (and I hope it tastes as good tomorrow .. LOL)