Red Curry Chicken and Biscuits

I was going to say that this isn't your mama's Chicken and Biscuits but it really is with just little tweak in the flavors.  Back when I made the highly pinterested Tom Ka Soup, I was thinking how close something like Tom Ka Gai is was to American chicken soup but with just a few different ingredients, it has an entirely different flavor profile.

So when a friend of mine dropped off a bag of parsley and chive biscuits from Flour Bakery, I thought I'd make Chicken and Biscuits -- a perfect winter comfort food in my mind -- only I'd put my own little twist on the old standard by adding red curry and coconut milk and a few other ingredients.

If you don't have the luxury of a Flour Bakery in the neighborhood, you should buy Joanne Chang's cookbook on Amazon (it's filled with awesome recipes!) but you can also find the recipe here.  (Please note the recipe is for parsley and sage biscuits, but swap out the sage for chives.)  Joanne Chang is best known nationally for her sticky bun Throwdown with Bobby Flay.  (Joanne, won!)  But locally, flour is a place we rush every Saturday morning, usually parking illegally, to stand in line hoping the almond croissants don't run out before we get to the head of the line.  Sometimes we talk loudly about how good the Morning Glory Muffins look just to throw off the eavedroppers.  But I digress. 

The way I made this would serve about three:

1 whole chicken breast, roasted and cubed

1 carrot, sliced

1 medium onion, chopped

2 Tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons flour

2 cups of chicken stock

1/2 cup-ish frozen peas

6-8 mushrooms, sliced

2 Tablespoons red curry paste

1/3 cup of coconut milk

1/3 cup of chopped cilantro

Juice of half a lime 

salt and pepper

Obviously you have to start out having your biscuits made and your chicken breast roasted.  This would be a perfect dish if you have leftover chicken (maybe three cups?) or you could be lazy and buy a rotisserie chicken.  I had a split breast so I removed the skin, seasoned with salt and pepper and roasted it a 375 for about 35-40 minutes.

Saute the onions and carrots in the olive oil, season with salt and pepper until soft.  (I left out the celery because it didn't seem to fit the flavor profile but I think it would have been fine to add it.)

Add the flour and saute a few minutes just so it's not raw.  Add the chicken broth and heat until it starts to thicken.

Add the red curry paste and coconut milk and stir until incorporated.

Add the mushrooms and peas and cook for a few more minutes.

Finally, add the chicken, cilantro and lime juice just to heat a few minutes before serving.

Cut the biscuit in half and ladle some of the stew over the bottom half of the biscuit.  Top with the other half of the biscuit, garnish with a few more cilantro leaves and serve.

It was amazingly good!

As an alternative to biscuits, you could make a simple dumpling and add just a little coriander and/or ginger and chopped cilantro so they're a little different and boil on the top of the hot stew.  You may want to make your own tweaks to the recipe.  More curry, less curry, more coconut milk, no mushrooms, add pototoes...I think it's a very flexible recipe.

I can't wait to make it again. 

** Clarification on the gin-drinking paperwhites **

I just wanted to make sure everyone had the correct details on applying gin to the paperwhites.  Here's an important clarification from the Yankee Magazine article.

"When they're up about three inches, add about half a shot glass of gin to a cup of water and give it to them. Next time you water, repeat, and you'll find that they won't get so leggy. The gin stunts their growth, and they'll bloom more in scale with their stalks."

It also refers to vodka, whiskey, tequila and rubbing alcohol also working but the writer thought gin was the best.  I'd almost like to do two new pots of paperwhites side by side to test out the theory.

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Finally, I was goofing around with an animation software I found on line called Picasion.  I made up this little animation on how to make crostini so I'm uploading it to see if it runs.  These things always make my mind race with ideas on fun ways to use them.