Week 6 Saturday - Craig’s Coconut Chicken & Red Pepper Curry
Craig Lynch started his career in 2005 at 16 years old. He is currently Sous chef overseeing two of the hotel restaurants at Ballygarry House Hotel in Co Kerry.
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Prep: Cook: |
15 minutes 30 minutes |
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| Difficulty: | Medium | |
| Serves: | Serves 2 (each serving contains approximately 530 kcal) |
| Ingredients |
|---|
| 1 small onion |
| 2 red peppers |
| 1 carrot |
| 1 courgette |
| 1 garlic clove |
| 10g fresh root ginger |
| 1 mild red chilli (optional) |
| 1 lemon grass stick |
| 10g fresh coriander |
| 220g boneless and skinless chicken fillets |
| 100g wholegrain brown rice |
| 1 teaspoon ground turmeric |
| 4 teaspoons rapeseed oil (20g) |
| 1 teaspoon paprika |
| 300g light coconut milk |
| 150ml water |
directions
Cut the onion in half and finely chop. Remove the cores from the red peppers and roughly the flesh of one and finely slice the other. Peel the carrot and courgette and finely slice. Set aside the finely sliced red pepper, carrot and courgette to add to the curry sauce later.
Trim and peel the garlic and ginger and finely grate. Cut the chilli in half, if using and remove the seeds, then finely chop. Trim the lemon grass and peel off the outer layer, then roughly bash with the back of a knife to help release the aromas. Strip the leaves from the coriander and roughly chop.
On a clean chopping board, cut the chicken into dice.
Rinse the rice in a sieve and put in a pan with 300ml of water and the turmeric. Bring to the boil, then give it a good stir. Reduce the heat and cover with a lid. Simmer for 25 minutes and then leave to sit for another 10 minutes for perfectly cooked rice.
Heat one teaspoon of the rapeseed oil in a large pan and sauté the onion for a few minutes until softened. Stir in the garlic, ginger, paprika and chilli, if using and cook for another minute. Add the lemon grass and then pour in the coconut milk with the water and then stir in the roughly chopped red pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer very gently for 20 minutes to allow the flavours to combine.
Remove the lemongrass from the pan and discard, then blend the coconut mixture to a puree with a hand-held blender (if you don’t have one just dice the red pepper and it will still taste delicious!). Pass through a fine sieve into jug if you like a really smooth finish – you’ll end up with about 400ml in total.
Heat a wok or large frying pan over a high heat. Add the remaining rapeseed swirling it up the sides. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes until sealed and lightly golden.
Add the reserved red pepper, carrot and courgette and stir-fry for another 2 minutes, then pour in the red pepper coconut sauce and simmer very gently for another 5 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender and the coconut sauce has reduced slightly. Stir in the coriander.
Fluff up the rice and divide between bowls and then spoon the coconut chicken and red pepper curry into separate bowls, then scatter over the coriander to serve.
