Panang Curry Soup with Chicken and Butternut Squash

I was looking through my virtual recipe box on stumbleupon.com and came across this recipe from my favorite food blog, closetcooking.com.  Ever recipe of his that I've made has been delicious.  I always told myself I'd get around to making this soup and today was the day!  I love thai food, because it's typically relatively easy and tastes incredible.  The original recipe called for shrimp or prawns, but I'm not a huge fan of them, so I substituted chicken.  I also put my soup over rice, which the original recipe didn't call for, but I felt it needed some.  Hopefully you'll love this recipe as much as I did.  I only made half of the recipe, because I live alone and left overs usually go to waste.  I'm now kicking myself, because I could eat this every day this week!  I can't take credit for the picture, I borrowed it from closetcooking, but I figured a picture would entice you to try making this soup!

Ingredients:
1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
2 tablespoons panang curry paste (I used red curry paste, because I didn't want to make panang from scratch)
6 cups chicken stock
2 kaffir lime leaves (thinly sliced)
2 cups butternut squash (cut into bite sized cubes)
1 red pepper (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 teaspoon palm sugar (grated, or sugar)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 pound shrimp (shelled and deviened) (I used chicken sliced very thin)
1/2 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)
2 green onions (sliced)
1 birds eye chili (thinly sliced)
1/4 cup peanuts (roasted and chopped)

Directions:
1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the thicker coconut milk that floats at the top in a pan.
2. Add the curry paste and saute until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the chicken stock, coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, butternut squash, red pepper, sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and peanut butter and simmer until the butternut squash is just tender, about 10 minutes.
4. Add the peas and shrimp and simmer until the shrimp is cooked, about 2-4 minutes.  (If you use chicken, add the chicken to the pot after about 7 minutes instead of 10 so the chicken can cook through)
5. Serve garnished with cilantro, green onions, birds eye chili and peanuts.  (I put rice in the bottom of my bowl and I'm glad I did, it made the soup perfect!)