Thai stir fried chicken with peanuts

The other day i was so jobless and going through my blog posts to realize that I completed one year of blogging this month..well 29th to be precise.  I mean I honestly didn't think id make it into a year. I thought, like everything else, I would lose interest within a couple of months..well good for me, and lucky for you... i didn't and here I am completing one year of food blogging...yaaaaay!

Took this as a good enough reason for me to start cleaning up the mess...tags, pictures etc etc. and boy was it a task. A few friends did mention about the labels, which I realized was pretty tedious since i had been very careless in tagging my posts from the beginning. I have now somehow managed to sort it out and have put it up on the side bar under 'select a recipe,' so navigation is easier. I do want to create a separate page for the recipe index (which will do me good, more than anything else) but its not priority at the moment. I have also de-cluttered my home page and have added a separate 'about me' section where I have rambled on and on. So its not in your face and you are not obliged to read. Have taken off Food Buzz and the weird Petit Chef cos they weren't really doing me any good.  I am working on my header and have changed my font colours, yet again. I think variety is the spice of life and get easily bored with repetition. The other day I even told Ro I was getting bored of how predictable he has become...to which he replied, ' I'm getting a bit worried about how fat you've become.' That was totally unnecessary right? 

Now coming to the recipe. I finally managed to get to the Thai store over the long weekend and it was a treasure trove..two levels of Asian food, live sea food and a plethora of options. Picked up quite a bit of junk and was full enthu to finally make some food at home on Monday night after the entire weekend was spent eating out, binge drinking and ordering junk food, most of it to do with the Hampton Court Foodies Festival in Surrey (update coming soon). 

This is a very authentic Thai dish I must say, and we loved it to the last bit. 

Boneless, skinless chicken thigh fillets- 450 gms, cleaned and cut into bite size pieces

To marinate:

Pepper powder- 1/2 tsp

Garlic paste- 1 tbsp (fresh would be ideal)

Green chillies- 3 to 4 depending on your taste, crushed

Lime juice- 1 tsp

Salt- to taste

For the sauce:

Fish sauce- 1 tbsp

Dark soy sauce- 1 tbsp

Oyster sauce- 1 tbsp

Sugar- 1/2 tsp

Chicken stock- 1/2 cup

Salt- only add if necessary

Dry red chillies- 3, de-seeded

Unsalted peanuts- 1/2 cup

Red pepper- 1, roughly chopped

Onion- 1 sliced lengthwise

Garlic- 4 cloves, crushed and roughly chopped

Spring onions- 4 to 5 stalks, green and white part chopped into long strips + some for garnishing 

Oil- 1 tbsp

Mix the chicken with all the ingredients in the 'to marinate' section and keep aside for a minimum of 1 hr.

Prepare the sauce by mixing all the ingredients listed.

Heat the oil in a wok and fry the peanuts till light brown in colour. Make sure you don't burn it. Keep stirring continuously. Remove and drain on kitchen towels.

In the same oil fry the dry red chillies till they slightly change colour. Drain and keep aside.

Cover and cook the marinated chicken pieces in oil till they turn a light golden colour and all the water has drained off. Add more oil if there isn't enough. Remove from pan and keep aside

In the left over gravy and oil, sauté the garlic till fragrant.

Add the onions and red pepper and sauté till the onions become transparent and the red pepper begins to loose its crunchiness...say about 6 to 8 minutes on medium heat.

Add the fried peanuts, dry red chillies and chicken and toss everything together for about a minute or so. 

Increase the heat and add the sauce. Stir fry for a few minutes, making sure the ingredients are all coated evenly.

Add the spring onions and give a final toss..stir fry for one more minute

Take it off the fire, garnish with spring onions (if any) and serve hot with rice or noodles or anything you please.

We had it with some instant noodles...and it was heavenly.

Notes: I picked up a sachet of the garlic and chilli sauce for meat and poultry at the Thai store and used that as the marinade along with pepper and lime juice. I have given you the ingredients mentioned on the cover, with approximate measurements. Do adjust according to your taste.

Please be careful while adding salt since the sauces and stock will have enough and sometimes more. If it happens, you can mellow it down with corn flour...i guess.

The chicken thigh fillets can be replaced with chicken breasts and the peanuts with cashew nuts if you please.
You can easily do a veggie prep using potatoes, egg plant, beans etc. A seafood version might also be interesting.