Chicken and Yam Thai Curry

Recipe by Dianne Dillman, Shuttle contributor, food writer, professional chef, and Weavers Way working member

Ingredients

  • 2 cooked chicken breasts
  • 1 large roasted Japanese yam or steamed sweet potato
  • ½ cup chicken stock
  • 1 cup canned coconut milk
  • 1 Tbs. freshly squeezed lime juice
  • 2 tsps. fish sauce
  • 2 tsps. coconut aminos
  • 1 Tbs. grated fresh turmeric or 1 teaspoon dried turmeric powder
  • 1 Tbs. grated fresh ginger root or 1 teaspoon dried ginger powder
  • Pinch white pepper
  • Iodized sea salt, to taste
  • Fresh herbs, such as cilantro, Vietnamese coriander, Thai basil, or sweet basil, for serving.
  • 2 oz. rice noodles, if desired

Serves: 2

This is a delicious, restaurant-quality dish that can be thrown together quickly and infinitely varied. You can substitute leftover pork or thin-sliced beef, raw chicken, shrimp, fish fillets, tofu cubes, or turkey meatballs, and add cooked broccoli, green beans, kabocha squash chunks, greens, and/or zucchini. Basically, you can use all the odds and ends in your fridge.

For seasoning, dill, chives, anise hyssop, and/or parsley will work. You can also add heat with sriracha, hot pepper flakes, or cayenne.

Directions

  1. If using noodles, place them in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Let soak for 15 minutes, checking the texture from time to time. Once they become al dente, drain the water.
  2. In a large saucepan with a lid, add the stock, coconut milk, lime juice, aminos, turmeric, white pepper, fish sauce, ginger and salt; heat and stir until combined.
  3. Cut the yam or sweet potato into one-inch chunks and slice the chicken on the diagonal. Add the yam and chicken to the saucepan.
  4. Put the lid on and heat gently for 8-10 minutes.
  5. To serve, place the noodles in a bowl, top with yam and chicken stew and add a sprinkling of herbs on top. Serve with a wedge of lime.