recipe: red curry chicken

love red curry... we tried Robert Irvine's Spicy Red Curry Chicken recipe from foodnetwork.com tonight for din dins. since i had just had red curry from the new Thai place down the street just 2 week ago i knew exactly what i was hoping it would taste like... and it was pretty damn close. i followed his recipe verbatim, except used bone-in chicken that i baked for the first portion:

ingredients list: 
- 2/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk
- 2-3 tsp Thai red curry paste (note: we used 3, but i still wanted it spicier. i like curry to reach runny-nose heat, this was just a small zing)
- 1 tbsp Asian fish sauce
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
- 4 bone-in chicken thighs, skins removed (or boneless breasts... whatever works)
- salt & fresh ground black pepper
- 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
- 8 oz mushrooms, sliced (his recipe calls from shiitake, i used baby bellas)
- 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup water
- green onion, cilantro, or toasted peanuts for garnish

to make: preheat oven to 350 degrees. heat a large pan over medium-high heat, adding in 2 tbsp vegetable oil. season chicken with salt & pepper, then saute until golden, about 3-4 minutes per side. remove chicken from pan, and place in a baking dish to cook at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes.

while chicken is cooking, in a small bowl whisk the coconut milk with the curry paste and fish sauce until combined. add the remaining 1 tbsp vegetable oil to the skillet, then sautee the mushrooms and red pepper until golden, about 5 minutes. stir in the ginger and garlic, and cook for 1 minute. add the cooked chicken, red curry mixture, and water and bring to a boil. reduce heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes, ensuring chicken is fully cooked through.

garnish with green onion (or whatever you like), and serve with rice or rice noodles.
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we both really liked this. it did not have as much heat as i would have liked, so next time i will add additional curry (it may have been taken down a spice notch b/c i added a bit of cornstarch - i like a slightly thicker sauce). other than that, the flavor was on-point and tasted exactly like red curry should: yummy. it was hard to cook a robert irvine recipe without picturing him yelling at my kitchen skills, but i think just watching/reading/or thinking about him is supposed to be stressful ("i milked a whole coconut with my BAHHH hands and have FRESH milk in the amount of time it took you to open that caaaahhnnn of gaaahbadge!!! raaawwwwwrrr"). 7 *******.