Can I just start out by saying…I am SO excited about this dish!!!
When we were living in Colorado Springs, we had this chinese/thai restaurant we LOVED and it was just down the road from us so we ordered take out fairly often. We would get beef and broccoli or something like that for the kids and we would this curry for us.
We were mildly obsessed with it.
Oh it was SO good.
We had planned to eat there on our final evening living there, the house was all packed up. Ready to load onto the moving truck the next day and Jeremiah went to get our take out and it was closed! Gahh!! We were rather depressed over it.
Well, since we moved to Montana we haven’t eaten out much, other than costco hot dogs and chicken bakes (I know, real healthy right?) and I have been trying, for the last year, to come up with a copy cat recipe for this curry with mild success. Everything seemed really close, but not quite right.
Well, I had been eye-balling this recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Nordstrom Entertaining at Home Cookbook and wasn’t thinking at all about the curry. I just knew I liked thai basil and so I thought this one sounded yummy.
Thai basil tastes very different from Italian basil, it has more of an almost anise flavor that is delish. So I made this the other night and as I was cooking it and smelling it, I thought, “OH! This smells like the curry!” Then I tasted it and it was the curry. Oh my goodness, I inadvertently found my curry recipe! How fun for me 
The only thing it was missing, and I will be adding next time was a couple veggies. The restaurant we ate at always put in thinly sliced zucchini and little matchstick sliced carrots – easy enough to throw in.
So needless to say, we LOVED this recipe and I can’t wait to eat the leftovers in the fridge!!
- 1½ cups jasmine rice
- 1 15oz can coconut milk (reserve 2 tablespoons)
- 1 cup packed fresh thai basil leaves
- 2 tablespoons thai fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons chinese chili garlic sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large sweet onion, chopped
- 1½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
- 2 red bell peppers, chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Cook the rice according to package directions. When soft and cooked, stir in the reserved 2 tablespoons of coconut milk.
- While the rice is cooking, combine the fish sauce, thai basil and chili garlic sauce in a food processor and pulse until about the consistency of a pesto. Add the remaining coconut milk and set aside.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the sesame oil and then the garlic. Once the garlic is fragrant, add the onion, cook until starting to brown a little. Add the chicken and cook just until there is no pink.
- Next add the bell peppers (if I was adding the zucchini and carrots I mentioned above I would add them here) and cook until just tender.
- Add the coconut milk mixture and bring to a gentle simmer for a couple minute to blend all those delicious flavors.
- Serve the chicken mixture over the rice.
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