Growing up, my mom was great at cooking us healthy, balanced meals, complete with a protein, veggie and starch. Most days I try to emulate that in my cooking, though instead of putting together three separate components, I like trying to combine two or all of them into a single step. This super easy chicken curry does that deliciously, with help from one pre-made ingredient.

This particular dish was a Green Curry with Chicken, Carrots, Onions and Bell Peppers. However, you could use any protein and any veggies you’d like! You can also get creative with the starch component—cauliflower rice would work, as would basmati  or regular white or brown rice. In this case, I used Trader Joe’s Brown Rice Medley, so I had to get that going first, since it takes about 45 minutes to cook.

The curry portion takes roughly 25 minutes total, so just get your rice going so the cooking times match up. For the curry, I cut about 1 lb. of chicken into bite-size pieces, put it in a large pan with some olive oil, and saute over medium-high until cooked through, about 10 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, I cut my veggies into bite-size pieces as well. It is important at this point to pay attention to what vegetables you are using and how long they take to cook. If you want to put them all in together, which is what makes this recipe so quick and easy, cut the veggies that take longer to cook into smaller pieces than the others. In this case, that’s what I did with the carrots.

This rule will work most of the time, the exception probably being mushrooms—those I would just hold out and add to the pan a few minutes after the other veggies, since they cook so quickly. So once the chicken is cooked, it comes out of the pan and the veggies go in with a bit more oil to cook until soft. I used two large carrots, half a large onion and about three quarters of a red bell pepper.

Once the veggies are soft, I turn the heat to low and add the chicken and the curry sauce. In this case, I used Trader Joe’s Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce, which is really delicious. If you aren’t a Trader Joe’s devotee like I am, most grocery stores carry Sharwood’s sauces,  which are also really tasty and easy to use.

This is one of the beauties of this recipe: if you get to this stage and the rice isn’t done yet, simply leave the curry simmering until it is. But if your rice is done when you get to this step, it only needs to simmer for a few minutes to warm through and come together. Then all that’s left is to plate!

This curry isn’t spicy. It’s made with creamy coconut milk and warming ingredients like garlic, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric and coriander (and no preservatives or artificial ingredients), so it’s nice and cozy going down your throat. The brown rice medley is hearty and a little chewy, so it holds the sauce well without turning to mush. This made enough for Jeff and I to have for dinner and then for lunch the next day.

Yum!