Basil Coconut Curry

My dad is originally from British Guyana in South America; he immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 11 and was sponsored by my maternal great grandparents (which is, incidentally, how my parents ended up meeting 19 years later). The Indian population of Guyana is huge, so despite the fact that my dad's family origins are Portuguese and Chinese, he grew up eating a lot of curry and as a result, so did I. So naturally, when I found this recipe for Basil Coconut Curry on Pinterest I was super excited to try it out.

Unfortunately, Josh doesn't really like coconut flavored anything. I've had coconut curry before and it really doesn't taste like coconut but rather seems to just makes the curry a little sweeter, so I assured Josh it would probably be good and he consented to trying it.

2-3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon salt, divided
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon chili powder
1 medium red onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

3 cups cooked white rice

This recipe is divided into two, arguably three, parts. 

Part one: Cut up your chicken breast halves into 1" or bite-sized pieces, place them in a medium bowl, and coat them in a mixture of curry powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper, and chili powder. Cover chicken with saran wrap and chill it in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Part one and a half: Start cooking your rice. Three cups of cooked rice is about one cup of dry rice. Personally, I think--depending on how saucy you like your curry--four, maybe even five cups of rice is whats needed to keep the sauce-to-rice ratios good. We had a lot of sauce and not so much rice left over, so I'll have to make more rice tomorrow. 

Part two: In a large nonstick frying pan or skillet, stir onion, basil, garlic and peppers in hot oil over medium-high heat until onion is translucent. Add chicken and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until no longer pink. Combine coconut milk and cornstarch in a small bowl and whisk briskly (I learned the hard way a few years ago that if your whisk is less than brisk, you will find yourself with a gross lump of cornstarch!). Pour coconut milk/cornstarch mixture into your frying pan with the chicken and stir briskly until your sauce is slightly thickened and bubbly. Add your ginger, and stir for a couple more minutes. Serve over rice. 

I thought this turned out really good; it had a very soft, almost delicate flavor. I kind of wish it packed a little more punch in terms of its flavor (not heat), or that it was a little sweeter, or both, but Josh really liked it just as it was. I thought it was definitely a make-again meal. You could add carrots and potatoes to it too, like they do at Thai Basil. The person who posted this recipe originally used McCormick brand yellow curry, but I used a curry that was a little darker, hence the slight difference in color. One thing I should say about making curry is don't wear white when you are cooking or eating it, or at least don't spill: in my experience, curry sauce does NOT come out clothes easily, if at all.

In other news, apart from cooking I've been sadly unproductive today. I found out that Burn Notice season 5 is now available for instant streaming on Netflix, so I will probably spend the rest of my day finding out what's new with my favorite burned spy while Josh conquers evil in Tamriel (we are really taking this summer break seriously--it is likely the last one we will ever have so I figure we might as well). But first, my least favorite part of cooking: cleaning :/