A filling fall curry

As we transition to late fall, we typically find ourselves looking for ways to use up the last of those garden vegetables that can't easily be preserved. We ended up with a number of butternut squash this year and were looking to try something other than soup. We ended up making a rather tasty curry and thought we would share the recipe here with you.
I've elaborated a bit about curry and squash in past posts, so I won't belabor these two topics in greater detail. I will, however, sing the praises of a rather delightful ingredient in this particular curry.

Red curry uses dried chilis in its base and is purported to be hotter than green curry. We decided to proceed with caution as we added the red curry paste to our curry. To make a long story short, we used the entire bottle and didn't feel that the curry was too hot. Granted, we do like a little kick of heat in our curries. At the same time, we still want to be able to taste our food and enjoy the flavor. 
My advice to those who may wish to try this recipe, follow our lead and stir in a spoonful or two to start. Add more to achieve your desired flavor.
We also went rather generous on our butternut squash because we didn't see any point of not using the entire squash. We picked one of our bigger ones. The picture below illustrates my approach to cutting up a butternut squash. We cut the squash into lengthwise wedges, peel them with a vegetable peeler and then cut them up into whatever size seems appropriate to the given recipe. Here is what ours looked like. This is about an 8-cup pitcher full of squash. I will explain a little more with how we managed our leftovers when we reheated them. On a side note, curries are a type of dish that always reheats well and even tastes better the second day as the flavors continue to blend together.

Here is how to go about preparing this delightful curry.
1-2 tbsp cooking oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, sliced 
1-1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into pieces
4 tsp minced garlic
Thai red curry paste - see above note regarding how to use it
Medium butternut squash - peeled and cut up
1/2 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut up
14 ounce can coconut milk
1 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute the onions in cooking oil. As the onions start to soften, stir in the carrots and saute until the onions become translucent.
2. Add in the chicken and cook until the chicken is beginning to brown. Stir in the garlic and a "starter" amount of the curry paste. (You can add in more later.) By now, your kitchen is smelling very good.
3. Add in the butternut squash and green beans. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring as you go.
4. Stir in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Add in the sugar and about 1 tsp of salt. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Adjust seasonings as desired. 
5. Serve over steamed rice.
Tips for reheating. Given that we had used a generous amount of butternut squash, our curry was quite thick when we went to reheat it the next day. We stirred in another can (maybe 2) of coconut milk and another entire jar of red curry paste - yes really. Remember, the desired thickness and heat from the curry is really up to you. 
Enjoy this yummy fall dinner!