Bold Thai flavors, stunningly fragrant, a creamy red curry coconut sauce infused with citrusy undertones and packed with fresh vegetables.
Thai Red Curry
This Thai Red Curry recipe is a healthy combination of a variety of fresh vegetables, fresh spices, and a non-dairy sauce that’s not too heavy and not too sweet. The big, bold Thai flavor boasts combinations of salty and sweet, citrus yet spicy. The ingredients are easy to find and takes only 30 minutes to prepare. Serve Thai Red Curry over steamed rice for a complete dinner meal.
Ingredients for Thai Red Curry:
The Red Curry Sauce:
- Maesri brand red curry paste: I learned the hard way that not all red curry pastes are the same. Just after I had completed my recipe testing and perfected my recipe for Thai Red Curry, I had friends over for dinner. While making this recipe, I didn’t have enough of my preferred red curry paste, so grabbed a different brand from my pantry to complete the recipe. The curry was good, but just didn’t have the “wow” factor I was expecting. The only difference—the red curry paste. So, recipe testing started again—this time to find the best red curry paste that can be purchased at the grocery store or Amazon. Maesri brand red curry paste came highly recommended. It did not disappoint! And it can be ordered on Amazon. It is now my preferred red curry paste and my pantry will only contain Maesri red curry paste from now on.
- Coconut milk and Chicken broth: Any brand works. The creamy coconut milk adds to the texture and flavor of this Thai-based curry. It’s a necessary ingredient, plus it’s dairy-free!
More Red Curry Sauce Ingredients:
- Fresh flavors: garlic cloves and freshly grated ginger add so much more flavor to this red curry than dried spices would. It’s worth adding the fresh flavors!
- Lemongrass: Fresh lemongrass stalk or lemongrass paste can be found in the fresh produce section of your grocery store. The freshest lemongrass stalk is found at the Asian market. Visit this post for Tom Kha Gai (Coconut Chicken Soup) to see what lemongrass stalk and kaffir lime leaves look like.
- Kaffir lime leaves: Fresh is so much better than dried. Dried is better than not at all. Fresh Kaffir lime leaves can be found in the fresh produce section of an Asian market. I have tested this recipe with fresh and with dried. Fresh Kaffir leaves are significantly more fragrant and add that delicious lime flavor to this red curry.
- Ground turmeric
- Coconut sugar: I prefer coconut sugar because of the coconut undertones, but granulated sugar would also work for this recipe. Granulated sugar would be sweeter, so I would start with 1 teaspoon of sugar and add more to taste.
- Fish sauce: A good quality fish sauce can be found at an Asian Market, but fish sauce at any grocery store works just as well.
- Limes: zest and juice from fresh limes really does add to the flavor. Try to resist buying bottled lime juice from the grocery store.
Chicken and Steamed Rice:
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs: This is up to your preference. Any cut of chicken will work. In the end you want thinly sliced chicken pieces in your curry. Everyone does raw chicken their own way, so don’t feel constrained by my preference of boneless and skinless chicken breasts.
- Rice: This Thai Red Curry is best served with steamed rice. I prefer Jasmine rice or sushi rice best. Start steaming the rice when you first start cooking the curry sauce.
Fresh Vegetables:
- Bell peppers: (red, yellow or orange)—a variety of color is great.
- Red shallots or red onion
- Fresh tomatoes and cucumber: I don’t normally see tomatoes and cucumber in curry, but one of my favorite Thai restaurants filled their menu items with fresh vegetables. I LOVED it and have used this technique in my own kitchen for many years. I think it not only adds a healthy factor, but fresh color and taste.
- Baby spinach: Adding this ingredient to the simmering sauce just long enough to wilt the spinach keeps the bold green color that spinach provides. It’s the perfect addition to this sauce.
Garnish:
- Siracha Sauce: For any who want a little more spice to their curry, this is the perfect ingredient.
- Green onions: Just a little touch of beauty and taste.
- Thai basil: an authentic flavor addition. Thai basil is different than the basil you find at the grocery store. This basil has pointy leaves and a touch of purple to the stems. You can smell the difference if you put the two types of basil side-by-side.
- Cilantro: This garnish can be optional if you have Thai basil, since the basil will be stronger in flavor.
How to Make Thai Red Curry:
Curry Sauce:
- Start steaming your rice before you start making the curry sauce.
- In a large skillet, add red curry paste. If you don’t like spicy food—start with 1-2 Tablespoons of red curry paste. Add the coconut milk and stir to combine. Do a taste test at this point. Then add more red curry paste to taste.
- Add the rest of the Red Curry Sauce ingredients and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Simmer for 3 minutes.
- Add chicken slices to sauce, spread evenly in skillet. Bring to simmer, then turn heat down to medium. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked and sauce has reduced and thickened enough. The sauce needs to be thick enough to stick to the rice, but still feel saucy when you add the vegetables later.
- Do a taste test at this point. Add more fish sauce if you feel it needs a little more salt. Add more sugar if it tastes too salty.
Vegetables:
- While sauce and chicken are simmering, prepare the vegetables.
- Remove Kaffir lime leaves from the simmered sauce. Kaffir lime leaves are similar to bay leaves—used for flavor, but too crunchy to eat. The flavor has already been infused into the sauce, so it’s good to remove them at this point.
- Add all vegetables to the simmering sauce. Stir to distribute evenly. Simmer just until spinach begins to wilt, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Serve with cooked rice.
- Garnish as desired with green onions, Thai basil or cilantro, and Siracha Sauce.
This meal pairs perfectly with Tom Kha Gai (Coconut Chicken Soup) and Sweet Mango Rice for dessert.
I hope you have fun turning your kitchen into a Thai kitchen!
–Kim
Thai Red Curry
Bold Thai flavors, stunningly fragrant, a creamy red curry coconut sauce infused with citrusy undertones and packed with fresh vegetables.
Servings: 8
Ingredients
Red Curry Sauce:
- 1 can (4 ounces) Maesri brand red curry paste or less according to spiciness
- 2 cans (15 ounces) coconut milk
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 4 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 Tablespoon lemongrass stalk, minced, or lemongrass paste
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 Tablespoon coconut sugar (or granulated sugar) or more if too salty
- 1 Tablespoon fish sauce plus more to add authenticity and a salty taste
- 6-8 Kaffir lime leaves (from fresh produce section of an Asian market)—scrunch in fingers to release the essence
- Grated zest and juice from 2 limes
Chicken and Vegetable Ingredients:
- 1-2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs cut into ⅓” strips
- 2 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange variety) chopped
- 4-6 small red shallots or ½ red onion chopped
- 3 small fresh tomatoes coarsely diced
- ½-1 English cucumber quartered and ¼” sliced
- 2 cups baby spinach coarsely chopped
Garnish:
- 1-2 green onions sliced thin (white and green parts)
- 1-2 sprigs Thai basil leaves chopped
- ½ bunch cilantro chopped
- Siracha Sauce to taste
Serve with:
- Steamed Jasmine or Sushi Rice
Instructions
Curry Sauce:
- In a large skillet, add red curry paste and coconut milk. Stir to combine.
- Add the rest of the Red Curry Sauce ingredients and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Simmer for 3 minutes.
- Add chicken slices to sauce, spread evenly in skillet. Bring to simmer, then turn heat down to medium. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked and sauce has reduced and thickened enough. The sauce needs to be thick enough to stick to the rice, but still feel saucy when you add the vegetables later.
- Do a taste test at this point. Add more fish sauce for more saltiness or sugar to cut down on the saltiness.
Vegetables:
- While sauce and chicken are simmering, prepare vegetables.
- Remove Kaffir lime leaves as they remain crunchy (much like bay leaves). The flavor has already been infused into the sauce.
- Add all vegetables to simmering sauce and chicken. Stir to distribute evenly. Simmer just until spinach begins to wilt, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Serve with cooked rice.
- Garnish as desired with green onions, Thai basil and cilantro.
