This curry is inspired by the classic northern Thai curry featuring bone-in chunks of chicken and winter melon, redolent of prickly ash berries, makhwaen or makhaen (Zanthoxylum limonella Alston).
Sichuan peppercorns, which are much easier to find in the US,1 stand in for prickly ash berries here. The two aren’t the same, but belonging to the same genus,…