Vietnamese Chicken Curry

Last night we had arranged for brother Dave and his Darling Wife to come over for dinner, followed by some long-overdue guitar playing. I wanted something fun to make and a little off the beaten path, but not too difficult or requiring too much prep or cooking. The Labor Day holiday cookout at the neighbors will be a red meat fest, so I thought a chicken dish would be good (which is also in deference to Darling Wife's sensibilities). After some thought, I remembered a Madhur Jaffrey dish I had made once before that was very good, and not too involved.

The dish is Vietnamese Chicken Curry from page 94 of Jaffrey's From Curries to Kebabs; Recipes From the Indian Spice Trail (Clarkson Potter, 2003). I took the easy route and used boneless skinless thighs and breasts instead of bone-in pieces. First the chicken is rubbed with curry powder. Then a "blender paste" of shallot, ginger, garlic, crushed red pepper and lemongrass is made (with some water). Oil, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, lots of chopped onion and the paste make a base for this dish, to which is added diced tomato and then the chicken. After cooking for 7 or 8 minutes, potato, carrot, fish sauce, sugar and water are added, and then the dish is simmered for close to a half hour to cook everything through. In the last few minutes, coconut milk is added to make the richness of the sauce (salting to taste). We had it with simple green beans and of course lots of rice.

Work - Pretty easy. Chunk up some chicken, chop some veggies, throw some stuff in a blender, and then add stuff to a pot in batches. Nothing difficult here, and not overly fiddly.
Time - About an hour, start to finish, but only the first half of that requires active work, the last half hour is periodic stirring only.
Cleanup - Not bad at all. I used a blender, two cutting boards, a dutch oven and a few utensils and measuring stuff.
Cost - Fairly inexpensive. Needed to shop for chicken (about 3 lbs when doubling the recipe), some veggies and the coconut milk. All of the spices, fish sauce and other minor ingredients were pantry items for me.
Rating - 6.5 or 7 out of 10. A good solid coconut chicken curry. The flavor is good, with some heat (we moderated this for the kids). It's not a knock-your-socks-off recipe, but the good taste coupled with the relatively low cost and effort involved make this a keeper.