Thai Green Curry with Jasmine Rice

Ingredients

• 600 g chicken breast, cut into 3cm chunks
• 200 ml chicken stock
• 200 g green beans, trimmed and halved
• 1 courgette, halved lengthways, sliced
• 2 x 400ml tins full-fat coconut milk
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp Thai green curry paste
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 200 g jasmine rice
• 15g fresh Thai basil
• 1 lime, cut into wedges, to serve
• Pickled cucumber, to serve

Method

1. Rinse the jasmine rice in a sieve until the water runs clear, then tip into a medium saucepan with the 300ml water and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, clamp the lid on, drop to the lowest heat, and cook for 12 minutes. Pull off the heat and leave it sealed for another 5 minutes — that final steam is what gives you separate, fluffy grains.
2. Season the chicken chunks generously with salt and pepper while the rice gets going. Pat them dry on kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means the chicken poaches instead of taking on any colour.
3. Heat the oil in a large wide pan or wok over medium-high. Add the green curry paste and fry for 60 seconds, stirring constantly, until it darkens a shade and smells properly fragrant — you're blooming the spices and aromatics in the paste so they taste of themselves rather than raw and dusty.
4. Pour in the first tin of coconut milk and let it come to a gentle simmer, stirring to dissolve the paste. Drop in the kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, and caster sugar. Slide in the chicken in a single layer — don't crowd the pan, work in two batches if it looks tight, or the chicken will boil in its own liquid instead of firming up. Simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Pour in the second tin of coconut milk and the chicken stock — the extra liquid loosens the sauce so it carries the flavour rather than sitting heavy on the chicken. Add the green beans and courgette and simmer for 6 minutes, then drop in the sugar snap peas for a final 3–4 minutes. The chicken should be cooked through and the greens just tender with a clear bite — overcooked sugar snaps go grey and sad.
6. Stir the spinach through and let it collapse for 30 seconds. Fish out the kaffir lime leaves. Taste the sauce — most of the salt comes from the fish sauce, but adjust now with another splash of fish sauce, a pinch more sugar, or a squeeze of lime juice if it needs lifting. Taste again. Adjust at the pan, not at the table.
7. Fluff the rice with a fork. Spoon it into warm bowls, ladle the curry over, scatter generously with torn Thai basil leaves, and tuck a lime wedge alongside each bowl to squeeze in at the table.