Tastey Tuesday - Thai Chicken & Rice

Today I attempted a recipe found in "Slow Cooker Menus" magazine that I was given last Christmas. It was easy to pick because it's one of my favourite cuisines...Thai! I picked this recipe mainly because I've wanted to do it for a long time and chicken FINALLY came on sale this week! Being a slow cooker recipe it was pretty simple to prepare, the most time consuming part was chopping up the ingredients to make the curry paste... but it was so worth it to enjoy the fresh flavors. I wish you could capture smells somehow because our house was and still is smelling SO scrumptious!

Shopping List:
2 stalks fresh lemon grass
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup fresh ginger
1/4 fish sauce
1-3 jalapenos, seeded and chopped (fyi - I used two small ones and it wasn't spicy at all)
4 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp ground coriander
2 Tsp sugar
1 Tsp lime zest
1 Can coconut milk
12 bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed (2.5-3lb total)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Red bell people, cut into strips
chopped fresh basil
Dry-roasted peanuts

For the curry past

• Trim the root and ends from the lemons grass and then slice it about 4 inches. 
• Puree the lemon grass, onion, cilantro, ginger, fish sauce, jalapeno, garlic, coriander, sugar, and zest in a food processor (From my experience I would make it more on the chunky side). 
• Transfer the puree to a 4-6 quart slow cooker and stir in the coconut milk.

For the Chicken

• Brown chicken in a frying pan with a the oil (wait till it has a nice brown color, but it doesn't have to be completely cooked)
• Add chicken to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 1.5 - 2 hours or on low for 3 hours. 
• Stir in the bell pepper at the end and cook on high for 15 more minutes. 

Once its all said and done you can sprinkle the basil and peanuts over each serving or serve separately if you have some picky eaters. 

The end result is super flavorful and it makes enough for a larger family or in our case a small family with enough for leftovers and to freeze!