Red Curry Coconut Noodles = Yum

I actually made this a couple of weeks ago, but time gets away from me! This recipe from Pioneer Woman and her Tasty Kitchen blog is quite yummy, and I love the idea of using the coconut "fat" from the top of the can for cooking the chicken.

First, some of the ingredients. Aren't they scrumptious looking?

Ingredients (I've slightly adjusted from the link for personal preference):

4 chicken breasts
2 cans coconut milk (full fat is a must here)
2 tablespoons red curry paste (note: this is way more than the 2 tsp suggested, and I still didn't think it was enough)
2 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
500 ml chicken or veggie broth
1 package rice noodles (we used the vermicelli kind)
1 onion
2 bell peppers (we had orange ones but red ones would be pretty too)- or any other veggies you want to improvise with
Salt and cayenne to taste

Start with a large pot over medium-high heat. Cook the onion until browned.

The brown stuff on the bottom of the pan is the good stuff!

Scoop the cream off the top of the coconut milk, and put into the pot. The cream will be used as the “fat” instead of oil or butter. Along with the cream, add the curry paste and ginger. Let this simmer for 1 minute. Then add the chicken. Cook the chicken through.
Then add the rest of what is in the coconut milk cans, sweet Thai chili sauce, cilantro, and chicken broth. Bring this to a simmer.

Then add your julienned veggies and rice noodles. Simmer this. You will see the broth slowly thicken as the rice noodles absorb it. It should only take about 5 minutes for the rice noodles to be cooked through.

Pull the pot off the heat, and let sit for about 5 minutes. It will thicken during this time. Test for desired spiciness and saltiness levels, and add more salt or ground cayenne pepper if necessary (I found I needed quite a bit more heat to meet my satisfaction. I also added some peanut butter, because really, peanut butter taste good in everything!).

Then, it’s done. Slurp these noodles out of big noodle bowls! Garnish it with a bit more cilantro.