Basil Chicken in Coconut-Curry Sauce

This recipe comes from The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook: Bridal Edition. My mom gave me this cookbook when we got married over 3 years ago. John was looking through this book to find something to make last week, and this is what he chose and I was excited to give it try.

Basil Chicken in Coconut-Curry Sauce

Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 black pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup chopped red onion
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 13.5 oz can unsweetened coconut milk
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
3 Tablespoons roughly chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
3 cups hot cooked rice


Directions
Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces. In a small bowl stir together the curry powder, salt, black pepper and chili powder. Place chicken into a medium bowl and sprinkle with spice mixture; toss to coat evenly. Cover and chill for 1-2 hours.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic and jalapeno peppers and cook for 2 minutes. Remove onion mixture from the pan. Add half of the chicken to the pan and cook, turning occasionally, until chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken from pan and cook remaining chicken in the same way and remove from pan.

Combine coconut milk and cornstarch. Slowly add to pan. Let simmer, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened and bubbly. Return chicken and onion mixture to pan. Stir in basil and ginger. Cook and stir about 2 minutes more, or until heated through. Serve over hot rice.


Amanda's Analysis:
This dish was very tasty and a nice change of pace. Like the Beef Bourguignon it was a lot of meat, so I would have liked to find a way to add some more veggies. I would have liked for the spice of the curry to come through a little more and for it to be a little less creamy, maybe next time we'll try doubling the spices. Overall I enjoyed this dish and would definitely try it again, with a few modifications. I give this curry 5 spoons.

John's Jibba-Jabba:
I am glad I picked this recipe. It was fairly easy and tasted great. I agree that it needed a bigger kick but enjoyed the creaminess of the dish. I think that this recipe would be great with shrimp, I will have to try that sometime. This chicken gets 6 spoons.