Winner, winner, chicken dinner—perhaps an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. Chicken curries are often made with boneless, skinless chicken. Here, bone-in, skin-on thighs (and in our case, breasts) are cooked until the skin is nice and crisp; the contrast of that rich crackle with the bright, aromatic sauce was just magical! Certainly impressionable enough to serve to guests.
I often tweak a recipe to align with our own culinary predilections. In this case, I cooked closer to 3 1/2 pounds of chicken and included two bone-in breasts (I prefer white meat) along with five thighs. And usually two cloves of garlic never cuts it, so I minced up four. And the most perplexing ingredient quantity was only 2 ounces of baby spinach, really?? I nearly quadrupled the amount, and as you can see by the photos, it didn’t overwhelm the dish.
For some reason the chicken pieces took between 10-12 minutes (the recipe suggests 6-8 minutes) to crisp and brown to my expectations; but the remainder of the directions were spot on. When everything was ready, we spooned the contents over cooked Thai rice noodles which not only made for a fabulous full-on meal, it also provided a striking presentation.
Skillet-Braised Green Curry Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 Tbs. vegetable oil
- 2 to 2-1/4 lb. bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 3 Tbs. Thai green-curry paste; more to taste
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 13- to 15-oz. can coconut milk
- 1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 Tbs. fish sauce
- 1 packed tsp. light brown sugar
- 2 oz. baby spinach (or much more like 7 oz. as we did)
- 1 medium lime, cut into wedges
- 1 Tbs. coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
- Hot cooked rice or rice noodles
Directions
- Position a rack in the center of the oven, and heat the oven to 400°F.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large cast-iron or other oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, and season with 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper.
- Add the chicken to the skillet skin side down, and cook until the fat is rendered and the skin is crisp and golden, 6 to 8 minutes (do not flip; the chicken will cook more later).
- Transfer the chicken to a large plate. Remove all but 1 Tbs. of fat from the pan.
- Add the onion to the skillet, and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the curry paste and garlic, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add the coconut milk, bell pepper, fish sauce, sugar, and 1/4 tsp. salt. Scrape up any brown bits at the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, and bring to a simmer. Season to taste with additional curry paste.
- Return the chicken to the pan skin side up, along with any accumulated juices from the plate.
- Transfer to the oven uncovered, and braise until a thermometer inserted in the thighs registers 165°F, 20 to 30 minutes.
- Transfer the thighs to a plate, leaving the sauce in the skillet. Add the spinach to the skillet, and stir until wilted. Season to taste with juice from a couple of the lime wedges, salt, and pepper.
The 7 ounces of baby spinach wilted down a lot more than shown here. - Pour the sauce onto a serving platter or divide among plates, then nestle the chicken into the sauce and sprinkle with the cilantro. Serve with rice or noodles and the remaining lime wedges.
Adapted from a recipe by
Accounting for Taste 