Red Curry Chicken

This is a two-step recipe, but poaching the chicken before joining it with the other ingredients is so worth the effort, because it is extraordinarily tender! I buy a large container of red curry paste and freeze it in a ziploc. It's easy to break off a chunk the size you need for a recipe, and lasts forever! Kaffir lime leaves look sort of like fresh bay leaves with a delightful lime scent. I freeze the whole, fresh leaves in a ziploc, and just take out however many I need for a recipe - they last for years in the freezer. I have seen lime zest (finely grated lime peel, green part only) called for in cookbooks as a substitution, for those who can't find kaffir lime leaves. Ghee is clarified butter, sold in a jar. It has a distinctive, pleasantly nutty flavor, and you can use it to cook at a much higher heat than butter. But butter would work for this recipe.

4 large skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts
1 onion, cut into chunks
1 celery stalk, cut into a few pieces
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 bay leaf

1 Tablespoon ghee or butter
5 green onions, both white and green part, sliced
3 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced on the diagonal
2 red bell peppers, cut into large chunks
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste

1 can coconut milk
5 or 6 kaffir lime leaves, sliced crosswise into very thin slivers

kosher salt to taste

Put chicken, onion, celery, peppercorns, and bay leaf into a stockpot and cover generously with water. Bring to a gentle simmer, then immediately turn the heat down to low. You do not want it bubbling, or the chicken will get tough and dry. After awhile, take out a piece of the chicken and cut down into it to see if it's cooked through. If not, return it to the pot. As soon as the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the pot (you can strain the stock and save it to make soup).

When the chicken is cool, remove the skin and bones and cut it into chunks.

Melt ghee/butter in a pan. Add green onions, carrots, and red bell pepper chunks. Saute at medium heat for a couple of minutes, then add the red curry paste, breaking it up with your spatula and mixing it together with the vegetables. Saute for a couple more minutes, then add the coconut milk and kaffir lime leaves. Bring to a simmer. Add chicken chunks, stirring over the heat just long enough to heat the chicken through. Add kosher salt to taste, give it a good stir, and serve. I personally like this all by itself, served in a shallow bowl with a fork and spoon, but it would be superb with jasmine rice too if you eat grains.