Thai Chicken Curry

The food media company came to the brewery. The video crew — two people with cameras and lights and a boom mic — spent a full day following me around. Filming me measuring grain. Filming me mashing. Filming me checking gravity readings. Filming me tasting samples. Filming me making pierogi in the employee kitchen because apparently that's the content people want: a twenty-two-year-old in a brewery apron making Polish dumplings while explaining the Maillard reaction. I was nervous for about twenty minutes, and then I forgot about the cameras. That's the trick — the same one the magazine photographer figured out. Just do the work. Just make the food. The camera captures what's real when you stop performing. The interviewer asked me on camera: "Why Polish food?" And I said, without thinking: "Because my grandmother fed me with love before I knew what love was, and now I'm trying to give that to everyone else." I immediately felt embarrassed. But they kept the camera rolling, and the interviewer's eyes were wet, and I think maybe embarrassing honesty is the whole point. The video will be edited and posted in a few weeks. Short form — five minutes, maybe. Enough to tell a story. Danny's birthday is coming up. August 14th. He'd be twenty-three. I'm already thinking about what to cook, what to bring to the grave, what to say. It doesn't get easier, exactly. It gets more familiar. Like a song you've heard a thousand times — the melody doesn't surprise you anymore, but it still moves you. Made a Thai-inspired noodle bowl this week — a complete departure from my usual. Rice noodles, shrimp, peanuts, cilantro, lime, a sweet-spicy chili sauce. I followed a recipe from a food blog and adjusted it with my gut: more lime, more heat, a touch of fish sauce. The result was bright and explosive and nothing like anything Babcia ever made, and I loved it. My kitchen is expanding. My world is expanding. The Polish food is the foundation. Everything else is the house I'm building on it.

That Thai-inspired bowl I made this week unlocked something — the realization that my kitchen doesn’t have to stay inside the borders of what Babcia taught me, even though she’s always the reason I’m cooking at all. This Thai Chicken Curry captures the same spirit: coconut milk that’s rich and grounding, a hit of curry paste that surprises you, fish sauce and lime doing the work that love does in my grandmother’s kitchen — making everything taste intentional. After a week of camera lights and honest answers I didn’t plan to give, I needed something vibrant and a little unfamiliar, something that reminded me the house I’m building has room for more than one kind of warmth.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 can (14 oz) full-fat coconut milk
2–3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste (adjust to heat preference)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium zucchini, halved and sliced
Juice of 1 lime, plus wedges for serving
1/4 cup fresh cilantro or Thai basil, roughly chopped
Cooked jasmine rice or rice noodles, for serving
Crushed roasted peanuts, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Build the base. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute until fragrant but not browned.
Bloom the curry paste. Add the red curry paste to the pan. Stir and cook for 1 minute, pressing it into the oil, until it deepens in color and smells aromatic.
Brown the chicken. Add the chicken pieces in a single layer. Cook undisturbed for 3 minutes, then stir and cook another 2–3 minutes until lightly golden on the outside. The chicken does not need to be cooked through yet.
Add the liquid. Pour in the coconut milk, fish sauce, and brown sugar. Stir well to combine, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a gentle simmer.
Simmer with vegetables. Add the sliced bell pepper and zucchini. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 10–12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are just tender and the chicken is cooked through.
Finish and taste. Squeeze in the lime juice. Taste the curry and adjust — more fish sauce for depth, more lime for brightness, more sugar to balance heat. Trust your gut here.
Serve. Ladle over jasmine rice or rice noodles. Top with fresh cilantro or basil and crushed peanuts if using. Serve with lime wedges on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Thai Chicken Curry — Building a House on Polish Foundations