This is one of my all time favorite dishes. It's simple and only needs a little prep time for chopping chicken and veggies. It's beautiful color and fragrance will seduce you.

Note: this is my own recipe. Everything in my cooking world is approximate. Things may change, depending on the contents of my refrigerator or what's in my pantry. My Momma always said a recipe is just a guide. Most of the time I cook with my nose, thinking of what I'm cooking while sniffing my herbs and spices to sense if they will satisfy my palate in this particular dish on this particular day.

However, for this recipe, each one of these ingredients are unchangeable essentiaIs. I wouldn't change a thing!
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Here goes:

Curry Chicken Vegetable Stew

1.5 - 2 lbs. chicken thighs - I prefer boneless, it's easier.

Variety of Vegetables - my favorites are little potatoes, onions, mushrooms, celery, carrots. You choose your favorites. Quantity? totaled together, shoot for filling the cooking pot to about half full.

One bottle (2 oz.) curry - yes, it seems like a lot - and I've been known to add even more!

One quart chicken broth, unsalted - such as Pacific brand, or homemade.

2 cans coconut milk - full fat, I like Thai Kitchen.

4 - tablespoons butter.

4 - tablespoons coconut oil.

Prepare by chopping all the vegetables and chicken into bite-sized pieces. Heat large stew pot, melt butter and coconut oil. Add chicken pieces and sprinkle about half of the curry powder over the chicken. If you know you'll like it, add the entire amount of curry. Let the chicken brown a bit, stirring the curry in well, and let it saute with the chicken a bit. Add the chopped vegetables and stir to coat with the curry. Pour in the chicken broth until mostly covering the chicken and vegetables. Stir well and simmer for a few minutes. Add both cans of coconut milk, stir well. Add any remaining curry powder. Let simmer, stirring regularly to keep from sticking, until the vegetables are tender and the liquid is rich, smooth and creamy - maybe about 45 - 60 minutes, depending upon how much liquid is added.

Season with sea salt to taste. Pepper would also be good. Serve over rice if desired, or with some pita or naan bread. We just eat it straight up.

If you don't think you'll like such a strong curry flavor, decrease the amount. You can always add more later. But do a taste test before the cooking is complete to decide if you want to add more so the additional curry can mellow and meld with the overall dish.

If you don't use the entire quart of chicken broth, that's fine. If you do and find it's too much, just let the entire stew simmer longer until it's the consistency you prefer. I like the stew to be a little thicker, not so soupy.

No, this is not a low-fat recipe. All the fats in this dish are healthy fats - paleo style - and is very filling and sooo delicious! And to keep it paleo, there are numerous websites with recipes for paleo pita or paleo naan. Just a few to try:  myheartbeets.com; paleohacks.com; healinggourmet.com .

I hope you enjoy!

Last night I sliced up and sauteed an onion for dinner.  Well, I had more than just an onion... it topped our hamburger patties along with some cheese...  Anyway, when I went to bed I could smell it, the onion not the patties (no, not the panties, either), in our bedroom. The smell seemed to be at one with our bedding.  Certainly a most unwelcome bed partner.  Then this morning I put on my jacket to run an errand in town.  It reeked of those sauteed onions with the added depth and texture of "stale".  So, upon arriving home, I searched the internet for instructions on "how to remove odors from the house".  The one I found, and chose, suggested simmering water and vinegar together with a slice of citrus peel for the pleasant fragrance.  Right now, two hours later, the onion smell is gone but the sharp vinegary, poke-in-the-nose stench has spread throughout the whole house and the citrus fragrance is nowhere to be smelled.

I should have known after all the times I rubbed vinegar on my teenage sunburns.  Each time they convinced me the smell would go away but it always hung around like a  stinking sulfur cloud.

Then there was the time a friend gave us a pound of fresh ground venison with the instruction to soak the meat in vinegar, squeezing out the excess, before cooking, to remove the game-y taste.  We were wild-game babes then, inexperienced.  The awful smell permeated the house. We could have run the venison through multiple extract cycles in the washing machine and not gotten all the vinegar out. Sad to say, even the dog wouldn't eat it.

So, I've had enough of this unruly odor and have replaced the pan full of that odious vinegar mixture with a nice roast in a fresh, clean pot with seasonings and garlic and bay leaves, my current rediscovered favorite, along with a generous splash, or two... okay three generous splashes, of Sherry. Not the cooking stuff, the real stuff, it adds such richness to a good piece of meat.  Now, delicious and tempting aromas waft through the house.  And, thankfully, when Ron gets home from work tonight, he won't have to ask the obvious question.