Sasha's Kitchen: Coconut Curry Chicken

This is a simple, heathy chicken recipe that is delicious and easy to make. I cam across this on Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, and thought it was worth giving a try. I made some minor modifications and it worked out just beautifully. This is another great dinner dish to make for a nice family dinner, or dinner for two with leftovers. The original recipe can be found here, and is called a spicy coconut chicken. Mine wasn't spicy (which was fine with me) because I used a different type of curry (powder and chile paste combo rather than curry paste), while I used a whole cut up Empire chicken rather than just the legs. Also, I added a yellow zucchini to the mix. It worked out just perfectly! This is definitely a thai inspired fusion dish, which is a favorite ethnic cuisine for me to experiment with.

Coconut Curry Chicken
1 T olive oil
whole chicken, cut up (about 3-4 pounds)
salt and pepper to taste
1 can (14.5 oz) light coconut milk
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup water
1 tsp curry
1 tsp chile paste
1 cup jasmine rice
2 red bell peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces
8 oz green beans
1 yellow zucchini, cut up

Using a five quart Dutch Oven, heat the oil over medium high heat. Season the chicken to taste with salt and pepper, and cook the chicken until browned (about 6-8 minutes). Transfer the chicken to a plate.

Add the coconut milk, 1/2 cup water, curry and chile paste to the pot and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the curry and chile paste. Stir in the jasmine rice and add the chicken back in. Cover the Dutch Oven and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook until the rice is almost tender, about 15 minutes.

Put in the green beans, zucchini and bell peppers in the pot on top of the chicken and cover the pot again. Cook until the veggies are crisp-tender, which took me about 15 minutes.