Green Curry Thai Crockpot Chicken

One of my favorite dishes is Thai Green Curry. While this dish is not like the Thai Green Curry soup that you will find in a Thai restaurant, it has a similar flavor and is DELICIOUS! Oh... and extremely easy to make.

Ingredients:

4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 head of broccoli, chopped
1 can bamboo shoots
Thai Green Curry Paste (I used WorldFoods Thai Green Curry Paste, which isn't very spicy but is packed with flavor. I used about a half a jar of it. Some green curry pastes can be very spicy so be careful if you use a different variety... a couple of spoonfuls can do the trick.)
1 can coconut milk
Chinese Five Spice
Salt and pepper
Thai basil (Optional)

Directions:

1. Place raw chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker. Sprinkle with Chinese Five Spice, salt, and pepper. Pour coconut milk and green curry paste on top. (I also added a little bit of Thai Basil that I had frozen.) Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, high for about 4 hours.

2. Remove chicken, shred it (it should fall apart), then return it to slow cooker.

3. Add broccoli and bamboo shoots, stir, cover, and heat on low for a about another 30 minutes. (You could also add fresh Thai basil at this point for a little extra flavor.)

4. Serve over brown rice and enjoy!

Notes: You could also substitute the broccoli with something more traditionally Thai like red peppers and/or eggplant. (I had broccoli on hand, so that's what I used.)

Warning: This dish smells amazing... it may drive you crazy if you are home while it's cooking. I could hardly wait to eat dinner!

J'adore le blog!

I recently discovered this blog, The Novice Chef, thanks to a link on pinterest. I am in love with it. Last night I made her Spicy Avocado Chicken Enchiladas and they were amazing! They will definitely be a repeat dinner in our home. Her Cake Batter Martini looks fabulous and would be perfect for a birthday celebration. Someone I know needs to have a birthday party so I can try it out!

On a side note... last semester I started taking French classes. This semester I am continuing with french 102. I'm loving the language so when you see postings or phrases in French please just bare with me. I'm a bit of French language geek at this point :)

Easy Chicken N' Dumplings

I can't take full credit for this recipe. I got the basic idea from a comment on a crock pot website. However, the original used cream of chicken soup, which I can't have, so this is what I came up with. It was really easy and really good!

Easy Chicken N' Dumplings

2 large chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
1 large (32 oz) natural chicken stock
½ large white onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbs dried parsley
About a tablespoon fresh Thyme*
About half a teaspoon fresh Rosemary*
Salt & pepper to taste
Garlic salt to taste
4 Grands Biscuits

Stick everything, except for the biscuits, in a crock pot. Cook on high for 4-6 hours.

After cooking time has elapsed, take a fork and break up the chicken into pieces. It should fall apart. Now, cut the raw biscuits into 9 pieces (thirds one way, then the other). Stir into hot chicken and continue to cook for 30 minutes on high. Serve hot!

*Fresh herbs are optional. I used them because I had them in my garden boxes. You could substitute dried or just use the parsley. 

Notes: 

My crock pot runs very hot. The chicken was done in about 4.5 hours. I shredded it, then turned the crock pot on serve until about an hour before we were ready to eat. I was afraid that if I left it on high the chicken would get rubbery. An hour before dinner I turned it back to high, then added the biscuits once it had heated up. It worked great - the chicken stayed nice and tender. 

I'm Hungry

Tom was gone tonight and I had a lot of studying to do so I decided to whip up a quick meal for myself. This is what I call a pantry meal. It arrives without any sort of recipe and is derived from items I have on hand. After rummaging through the fridge I decided on pasta with homemade pesto. Pesto is one of the easiest things to make! I promise.

Basil & Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Ingredients: Basil (from my patio garden!), sun dried tomatoes

(from Trader Joe's garden), toasted pine nuts, parmesan cheese, olive oil, and a little salt.

Directions: Place ingredients in a small food processor

(LOVE this thing... you can get one for around $15 at Target.) and process...

Add a little olive oil until you get the texture you want.

I used about a 1/4 cup. (I would use less if your

sun dried tomatoes came packaged in oil. Mine where dried.)

... and presto - it's pesto!

It really couldn't be easier. I made it in less time than it took to boil the water for the pasta. Once the pasta was done I tossed it with some spinach, the pesto, and a little goat cheese... yummy!

This is a great vegetarian meal or side dish. However, you could easily throw some chicken on the grill and pile it on top for a more carnivorous main course. In fact, I might just do that with the left overs for tomorrow night's dinner.