Well, I think I have found that "missing ingredient" in this recipe! I read all of the reviews saying it was missing something, so I went on a quest to find it.
First of all, I saute'd the chicken in hot sesame oil, but regular sesame oil would probably be nice also. This added a nice kick and flavor.
I added lots of carrots, cubed potatoes (a must), onions. Then I threw in a can of bean sprouts and a generous handfull of unsalted peanuts (yum!), but you could easily use cashews.
I used a regular can of coconut milk, cilantro, 1 T fish sauce, about 1/3 t of corriander, 1-2 t sugar, and some s and p to taste.
Here is the secret ingredient: a couple of dollops of creamy peanut butter! It gives it a beautiful satay flavor, and somehow balances out the spicy with a more smooth, peanuty taste.
I would love to hear feedback on some of you who try this added ingredient.
Made this way, I will certainly make again, over and over. My husband adored this!
I served over asian coconut rice from this site (something else that balances out the spicyness).
Delicious.
The recipe is okay as is, but I made a few adjustments for more flavor. As recommended by others, I doubled the curry paste. I also added the juice of 1 lime, 1/2 teaspoon of coriander, 2 tablespoons fish sauce (many groceries have this in Asian section), fresh minced garlic clove, and 2 teaspoons sugar.
Definitely restaurant quality! But don't be fooled by earlier posts: 1 Tbsp is plenty of curry paste, if you're using the kind of paste I use! You might want to start less if you are sensitve to spicy foods. I recommend that you stir curry paste and 2 Tablespoons corn starch with a little bit of the coconut milk in separate dish, add to cooking vegetables and chicken, then combine the rest of the can of coconut milk at the end to make it easier to stir in a wok. I followed the suggestions in other reviews and added juice of 1 lime, fresh garlic, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, plus added minced/grated ginger, and plenty of black pepper and salt. I cooked the minced garlic in the oil for 1 minute before adding the chicken. Extra cilantro helps the flavor, too. It was fabulous with rice! A++
This recipe is a great BASE, but to make it taste restaurant quality quite a few changes/additions are needed. Here is a summary of what I've done: (1) Use sesame oil instead of olive oil. Saute grated ginger and fresh pressed garlic in it before adding the chicken. (2) To make it easier to mix with the chicken/veggies, combine in a small bowl the cornstarch, some regular coconut milk, curry paste, 1/3 t coriander, 2 t peanut butter, 2 T fish sauce, fresh ground pepper, and 3 t sugar. (3) You might need to add more sugar...initially we did 2 t and realized that it was missing SOMETHING. Turns out an extra touch of sugar is exactly what was needed. (4) Adding water chestnuts and chopped cashews give a nice crunch. (5) Use basil instead of cilantro.
This was SO good! I read the reviews before I prepared it and added more red curry paste as was suggested. I also added some fresh garlic lime juice salt and pepper while cooking. It was out of this world...just like going out for Thai food. I would start easy on the curry and continually taste and add taste and add. I went a little overboard but I love it spicy! If you like Thai you should love this.
Too bland there is definitely something missing from this recipe! If you want hot you can always add more curry paste but this does not make up for the lack flavor.
Really really good - it tasted like what you would order in a Thai restaurant. I definitely doubled the red curry paste because I enjoy spicy food. I also couldn't find 'light' coconut milk so I used regular - I will try try to find 'lite'going forward because it made it richer than normal. Yummy and I will make again!!!
This is a simple and tasty dish. It did lack a bit in the flavor department. I'm not sure what to add--perhaps some ginger or garlic. We added extra curry paste but it just made it spicier not more flavorful. Next time I'll add some fresh garlic and ginger to the vegetable stir-fry.
This tasted much better than it looked. I added some snow peas for color. Although I added double curry paste we still didn't have enough heat for our taste. Before we added 4 thai peppers to it for extra heat the flavor was excellent. After the thai peppers it had some kick. What was good though even though it wasn't all that spicy someone who does not like it all spicy and burning will enjoy it. Wife says this one is a keeper and I agree with her. Good job on the recipe.
