Peanut Coconut Milk Curry with Chicken & Ramen

I am a massive fan of peanut flavor anything, and my husband is a massive fan of ramen anything, so this dinner is a big hit in our house. It's essentially a Thai-inspired coconut milk curry with creamy peanut butter, soy sauce (or Tamari to keep it gluten free), fish sauce, red curry paste and chicken stock for the base. You add a bunch of chicken thighs and mushrooms to cook in the curry, then finish it by adding some spinach to wilt and a few squares of ramen noodles. It's a magical one pot dinner that comes together in 30 minutes, even though the list of ingredients might seem a little long.

I like to top it all off with some chopped roasted peanuts (any kind of roast peanuts from the grocery store will do), some fresh cilantro, and a drizzle of sesame oil (which is totally optional, but so flavorful). You an also slice a few green onions to serve on top for a hit of brightness and fresh crunch with the peanuts and cilantro.

This dish is gluten free if you use Tamari instead of soy sauce, and it can be made vegetarian if you skip chicken and use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. If you want to keep it vegetarian, you could absolutely add in some tofu towards the end of cooking.

You can use any brand or flavor of ramen noodles that you like, but you'll just be adding the noodles from the package - not the little packet of flavoring. If you're making a big batch of the curry and want to use it later in the week to make more ramen, I'd suggest only cooking as much ramen noodles as you want to eat in that sitting. If you have extra curry and want to make more noodles later, bring the curry back up to a boil and add a fresh square or two of ramen when you're ready to eat, otherwise the noddles will get soggy if you try to keep and reheat them.

Serves 4 for dinner.