Keto CARBED-UP Thai Chicken Curry

So, I'm assuming that I'm not the only keto life-styler that misses rice.  Like, really misses rice.  Rice is such an amazing vehicle for so many smooth, rich, creamy sauces - the kind we eat on keto!  But, those awesome sauces are a bit sad without any rice to soak into.

As a follower of Leanne Vogel, I was so happy to learn more about carb-ups, and how they can help your hormones to stay balanced, refill your energy tank, prevent hair-loss, and break through plateaus.  And happy to get some rice back into my tummy!

Carbing-up isn't complicated, and just has a couple of basic rules:

• Should always be done at night
• Otherwise you crave carbs all day
• Carbs are actually burned better while sleeping
• Replace your normal keto-amount of fats with carbs
• This means you're having a low fat meal (less than 1T fat, or around 15g in the whole meal)
• Most people should shoot for 70-100g of carbs
• You still want to avoid glutenous carbs, and go with sweet potatoes, fruit, rice, etc.  Don't waste your carb up on white bread!

Click any of the links above to get more details.

There are various levels of carb ups, based on what you/your body needs.  If you are pretty well balanced internally, just 1 carb up a week will help keep you that way, and you pretty much eat all the carbs you want in 1 meal.  If you're working on healing and need carbs more often, you won't eat as many at a time, or you'll run the risk of not being fat adapted.  The Keto Diet includes 5 keto pathways that can help you decide which method is right for you, and how to implement it.  I highly recommend picking it up if you're interested in playing with various levels of carbs in your keto diet!

This recipe is for the carbs-once-a-week type, and you get alllll the carbs!!  So many things that I miss while eating keto - carrots, sweet potatoes, red bell peppers and rice... glorious rice!  It is lower fat than a standard keto meal, but tastes amazing.  I was trying to recreate some of my favorite curry and I hit pretty close to the mark!

Enjoy this tasty recipe as a part of your well-rounded, non restrictive, keto lifestyle!

Thai Chicken Curry - Carbed-Up Keto

With instructions for Instant Pot, Crock Pot, and Make-Ahead for both!

NOTE: This carbed-up keto recipe should be selected for a carb-up meal, and should not be used as a daily keto menu item.  For my family of 4, it makes plenty for us to eat about half of it, then I freeze the other half in a 1-gal ziplock for another carb-up night!

This recipe makes 12 servings, 1C each.  Nutritional Info at the bottom.

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs. chicken breast (no need to for average people to worry about too much protein)

3 large red bell peppers

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic, crushed/minced

1 large sweet potato

2C diced carrots

1/4-1/3C (114g) Massaman Curry Paste (see note about brands below recipe)

1 can (14oz) chicken broth

Stir In:

2 cans (28 oz total) lite coconut milk (Taste of Thai has the fewest added ingredients)

1 teaspoon xanthan gum or glucomannan powder

1C+ roughly chopped basil (thai basil is wonderful, if you can find it)

Instructions for both IP & Crock Pot:

1. Chop all veggies into bite-sized pieces.  I like my onions, carrots & sweet potatoes diced, but my bell peppers in strips.  Cut however you like.  I use my food processor to chop everything fast!
2. Cut chicken breast into strips, then cut to about 2" long, if you want your curry to be like a restaurant.  Think of fajita strips.  Or, just chop into cubes.
3. Place all veggies and chicken into your IP or crock pot.  Mix the veggies into the chicken pieces, otherwise the meat will stick to itself and cook together into a fairly solid mass.
4. Add your 1/4 C of massaman curry, and just spread it around a bit - no need to be super thorough, then pour on the can of chicken broth.  
5. Set your IP to high pressure for 10 minutes, or your crock pot to low for 6 hours.
6. Blend both cans of coconut milk with the xanthan or glucomannan, to thicken the curry when it's done.
7. When it's done, release pressure and stir in the thickened coconut milk and roughly chopped basil.  You almost can't have too much basil here, so cut up a whole bunch if that's what you have!  Stir vigorously to blend in the xanthan, and also to break up the sweet potato pieces.
8. Serve 1C curry over 1/2C rice.  Then have seconds :-D

NOTE:  Even for a higher carb meal, this doesn't have that many carbs, it's mostly nicely low-fat.  You could have 2C of this curry and still be around 16g and within carb-up limits on fats.  This dish is mostly depending on the rice to get your carbs.  You could easily double the sweet potato for a really thick and creamy curry, or add more carrots or bell peppers for more chunks in the sauce.  

For curries, I have tried 3 brands:  

• My favorites are Maesri (small 114g tin, use the whole thing in this recipe) and Mae-Ploy (comes in a 14oz bulk tub, use 1/4-1/3C).  Both of these are mild enough for kids and have a nice, sweet flavor.  
• I have also tried Aroy-D (bulk tub) be we found it too spicy for our tastes, and also a bit flat - not as sweet and flavorful, in my opinion.  Your best bet is to purchase all of these at an asian market.
• You might be able to find all of these brands in small packets to try and see which your family prefers!

Nutritional Info was input to Crono-Meter:

For Make Ahead:

Mix in a gallon bag everything except the chicken broth, coconut milk and basil.  Freeze.  Thaw 24 hours before using, then proceed with the recipe!