How to cook… Spicy Stir-fried Chicken and Beans

This is one of my favourite Thai dishes. It is often served with pork though I only had chicken available today. The pork version in Thai is called “pat prik king moo”. It is a spicy dish that goes well with rice. The ingredients shown in the picture below are: yard-long beans, finely shredded kaffir lime leaves, palm sugar, sliced red spur chili, chicken and red chili paste in the middle. We also used fish sauce which isn’t shown.

The process to cook this dish is quite simple. As usual, I am not giving you weights and measurements. Thai cooks don’t work that way. You adjust the amount just by smell and taste. Fry the curry paste in a pan until fragrant and then add the chicken. Season with the fish sauce and sugar. We used palm sugar. Some people blanch the beans in hot boiling water first before adding them to the stir fry. Or you can just add them raw if you like them a bit crunchy. Which is the way I like it. Give it a good stir until the beans are just about done. Then serve. Very simple.