Hello Lovelies!

I am so excited to share with you one of my most favorite Thai dishes “ Chicken Panang”. I absolutely love this dish, and when I think Thia food, I think this! My mom made Panang from scratch growing up and got me hooked! So, I took her recipe, along with some inspiration from a couple of my favorite Thai restaurants in Vegas (“Pin kow” & “Krung Siom” - you should check them out!) and came up with my own version of this delicious dish. One thing to be aware of in making any sort of Asian dish is you do need specific ingredients that you might not normally have in your house, like fish sauce and, for this dish, curry paste! The great thing is once you purchase these ingredients you won’t need to buy them again for a while, depending how much Asian food you cook up, of course!

I am very pleased with this dish and I think it comes very close to the restaurants I mentioned before; my boyfriend even asked me if I ordered take out, that’s how good it is! I used a red curry paste because I like the taste of red curry, but they also have panang paste - either will taste great, it's just your preference. I have a basil plant at home and for me it works just as well in this recipe rather than using a specific Thai basil. It’s all in what you prefer, but to me, the basil isn’t that much of an influence to this dish. I paired this dish with brown rice and pad Thai. I bought the pad Thai from Trader Joe's in the frozen section, it is tofu based and is easily heated up in a frying pan alongside the panang. I haven’t made pad Thai from scratch yet - something I will have to start experimenting with in the future! For now, Trader Joe's comes in the clutch with my other Thai dishes I love.

Side note - one of my favorite appetizers that I like nibbling on while making this dish is edamame. This is also super simple to make and you can find them fresh or frozen at Trader Joe's as well! I hope you get all your Thai craving satisfied with this dish and I look forward to sharing more Thai and Asian dishes with you in the future!

Have a lovely Day!

Xoxo Shaunté

Panang ingredients :

2 chicken breast chopped or sliced
1 can of coconut milk organic
3 tablespoons red curry paste or panang curry paste
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
4-6 Thai or just basil leaves
1 teaspoon palm sugar
1 tablespoon sambal chili sauce
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon fish sauce
4 tablespoons coconut oil

Cooking:

In a large pan add 2 teaspoons of coconut oil and sliced chicken, season chicken with salt and pepper. Cook for 15 minutes or until chicken is almost all the way cooked through, drain chicken and set aside.

In another large pan add 2 teaspoons of coconut oil and add garlic, sauté until brown then had curry paste and sugar. Stir continuously for 30 seconds to a minute to prevent curry paste from burning.

Add in 1.2 cup coconut milk and save the rest for later. Stir until curry paste and coconut milk are mixed together. Once curry starts to bubble add chicken breast and fully coat all the pieces, then add bell peppers. Finish off the coconut milk into the pan and stir until all fully combined. Add in fish sauce, sambal and basil leaves. Cook for another 8-10 minutes until peppers are softened. Add or reduce sambal for spice level of choice. I love spicy so I add in 3 tablespoons if it's just me eating it. (Holler to all the level eights and up in the Thai spice world!)

Pour on top of rice and enjoy!