Thick Thai chicken curry with peanut sauce

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 600 ml coconut milk
• 3 tbsp curry paste (Thai curry paste), red
• 3 tbsp fish sauce (Thai fish sauce)
• 2 tbsp palm sugar (alternatively white sugar)
• 2 stalk(s) lemongrass
• 500 g chicken breast fillet(s), cut into wafer-thin slices
• 75 g peanuts
• 2 red chili peppers, diagonally sliced
• 5 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 cup basil (Thai basil, Horapha)

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 30 minutes

Heat a large pan and cook half of the coconut milk, stirring constantly, until it curdles slightly and the mixture reduces. Add the curry paste, stir, and bring to a boil. Flatten the lemongrass slightly with a hammer and add it to the coconut milk curry sauce along with the fish sauce and palm sugar. Add the remaining coconut milk and bring back to a boil. Roll up the kaffir lime leaves and cut into hair-thin strips. Remove the salt from the peanuts (if salted) in a sieve under running water, then roughly crush them in a mortar and pestle. Add the meat, peanuts, and kaffir lime leaves to the sauce and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chilies and Thai basil, stir, and serve hot. Serve with steamed rice.