Day Seventy-One - Thai Green Curry with Chicken & Green Beans (4.14.14)

Ingredients:

• 4 oz. dried bean thread noodles
• 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup thai green curry paste
• 2 cans (14 oz. each) unsweetened coconut milk, shaken
• 1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 3/4 lb. green beans, halved crosswise on an angle
• 1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breast, thinly sliced crosswise
• 1 large sprig basil (preferably thai), plus a 1/4 cup thinly sliced basil leaves

Instructions:

1. Place the noodles in a large bowl; cover with 1 inch of water. Let soak for 15 minutes, drain well.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium pot, heat the oil over medium head until shimmering. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly darkened, about 2 minutes.
3. Stir in 3 cups water and the coconut milk, brown sugar, fish sauce and crushed red pepper. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the noodles and green beans and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the green beans are just tender, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the chicken and the basil sprig. Simmer until the chicken is just cooked through, about 2 minutes; season with salt. Discard the basil sprig. Divide the curry among bowls and sprinkle with sliced basil.

Opinions:

Potter: Katie made this one and it turned out delicious. It could have used more noodles than the recipe calls for but it tasted amazing. The dish was a bit more like a soup than I expected, a delicious thai curry soup. This one was also pretty mild so if you're worried about spicy curry give this one a try.

Katie: For some reason, it was quite the production making this dish. I had issues with starting in too small of a pot, then heated up the larger pot too much and when I transferred pots it boiled up a lot right away and made a big mess. I still didn't lose too much of the sauce though. I agree with Potter that I would have made more noodles for the amount of beans and chicken in the dish.