Thai Red Curry – everything we know and love about Thai food! Big, bold Thai flavours, beautifully fragrant, the creamy red curry sauce is so good you can put anything in it and it will be amazing!
Make the easy 30 minute red curry recipe using my trick to pimp up store bought curry paste. Or go all out and make a Thai Red Curry Paste from scratch! Complete your Thai banquet with Thai Satay Skewers or Thai Fish Cakes to start.
Thai Red Curry recipe
We’d all love to be able to have a Thai Red Curry any night of the week made with homemade red curry paste. Freshly made, like the best Thai restaurants do every day. But it’s simply not viable.
So today, I’m sharing a recipe for how to make Thai Red Curry two ways:
30 Minute quick version using curry paste in a jar – sharing my secret for how to make an AMAZING curry using curry paste in a jar!
From scratch, using a homemade red curry paste
The BEST Thai Red Curry Paste – Maesri
The best Thai Red Curry Paste by a long shot is a brand called Maesri. This is also the brand I use for Thai Green Curry. Other brands tend to have less authentic flavour and are (usually) too sweet.
Sold in small cans for around $1.30 (it’s the cheapest!), it’s available in large grocery stores (Coles, Woolies, Harris), Asian grocery stores and here is the cheapest one on Amazon US.
Don’t worry if you can’t find it. This recipe is still great even with mainstream curry pastes.
How to make jar curry paste better
Store bought curry paste in a jar lacks the freshness of freshly made curry paste. So if you just dump it into coconut milk, you’re going to be sorely disappointing.
So here is how to make curry paste in a jar taste way (way, way!) better:
Sauté the paste in oil with garlic, ginger and fresh lemongrass or lemongrass paste
Adding the fresh aromatics does wonders for improving the flavour!
What does a Thai Red Curry Taste like??
Thai Red Curry, like most Asian curries, has a great depth of flavour. The sauce flavour is complex, it has many layers from all the ingredients in the paste that is then simmered with broth and coconut milk. It’s sweet and savoury, and it is quite rich.
The use of shrimp paste and fish sauce in the curry paste (jar or homemade) provides the saltiness as well as the umami *. However, this red curry recipe does not have a strong fishy or fermented shrimp flavour like some “hardcore” Thai restaurants. Most non-Thai nationals find those versions too fishy for their palette.
While one may assume Thai Red Curry is fiery hot, if from the colour alone, in actual fact it is not! It is actually quite mild, and generally most restaurants tend to stick with the mild level of spiciness though you will find some restaurants that dial up the heat considerably.
* Food-nerd word for savouriness, now officially considered to be the 5th taste in food along with sweet, salt, bitter and sour.
We love Thai Red Curry for the flavour, the creamy sauce, and how can one not love the colour!!
Complete your Thai meal with a starter of Thai Fish Cakes or Satay Skewers with Peanut Sauce, and a fresh Asian Slaw on the side. And while you can totally serve the red curry with plain steamed Jasmine rice, you could take it to the next level with Thai Fried Rice or Coconut Rice! – Nagi x
PS If you’re wondering if the sauce is supposed to look sort of split – yes it is. The oil is actually supposed to separate. I’ve included some general commentary in the recipe notes, for those that are interested. 🙂
Thai red curry
Watch how to make it
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Thai Red Curry with Chicken
Ingredients
Red Curry Paste – choose ONE:
- 5 – 6 tbsp Thai Red Curry Paste (store bought, Maesri best) (Note 1)
- 1 quantity homemade Thai Red Curry Paste
Extras – only for jar curry paste (Note 2)
- 2 large garlic cloves , minced
- 2 tsp fresh ginger , finely grated
- 1 tbsp lemongrass paste or finely chopped fresh (Note 3)
Thai Red Curry
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil (or canola or peanut)
- 1 cup (250 ml) chicken broth/stock , low sodium
- 400 ml / 14 oz coconut milk (full fat!)
- 6 kaffir lime leaves (Note 4)
- 1 tbsp sugar (white, brown or palm)
- 2 tsp fish sauce , plus more to taste
- 350g / 12 oz chicken thighs (boneless and skinless), cut into 0.75 / 1/3″ thick slices (Note 5)
- 150g / 5 oz pumpkin or butternut squash, cut into 1.5cm / 3/5" cubes (~1 heaped cup)
- 120g / 4oz green beans , trimmed and cut into 5cm/2″ pieces
- 12 Thai basil leaves (Note 6)
Garnishes (optional) & serving:
- Fresh red chilli slices (small chilli – spicy, large = less spicy)
- Fresh coriander / cilantro leaves
- Steamed jasmine rice
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large heavy based skillet over medium high heat.
- Add curry paste and Extras (if using jar paste) and cook for about 2 minutes so it “dries out” (See video)
- Add chicken broth and stir to dissolve paste. Simmer rapidly for 3 minutes or until liquid reduces by half.
- Add coconut milk, lime leaves, sugar and fish sauce. Stir, then add chicken.
- Spread chicken out, bring to simmer, then turn heat down to medium. Simmer for about 8- 10 minutes or until Sauce reduces, the chicken is cooked and the sauce is almost at the thickness you want.
- Do a taste test. Add more fish sauce (or even shrimp paste) to add more saltiness, sugar for sweetness.
- Add pumpkin and beans, stir. Cook for 3 minutes or until pumpkin is just cooked through and Sauce is thickened – see video for Sauce thickness.
- Remove from heat. Stir through a handful of Thai basil leaves.
- Serve over jasmine rice, garnished with fresh red chilli slices and fresh coriander/cilantro leaves, if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Spiciness: Thai Red Curry is not supposed to be crazy spicy but it has a nice tingle to it.
Sauce thickness varies drastically between restaurants – at some it is almost watery, at others it is really thick and seems to be made with coconut cream. I like mine in between – a sauce that is pourable but with a gravy like consistency. I am not a fan of very sweet Red Curry, but if you are, just add more sugar.
Consistency: Thai red curry sauce doesn’t look completely smooth, it looks a bit split because of the oil and that’s the way it is supposed to be.
Stuff in it: There are no hard and fast rules about what goes into a Thai Red Curry. You’ll find Thai eggplant in curries at very authentic Thai restaurants but to be honest, I am not a huge fan of them – they are like tiny eggplants and kind of hard (also not easy to find in shops). I’d say that the two most common vegetables I’ve noticed are pumpkin and green beans or snake beans. While pumpkin may not sound “Thai”, don’t dismiss it, it is spectacular in red curry for both the texture, the sweetness and also because it soaks up the sauce. 8. Nutrition per serving, curry only.
Nutrition Information:
I adore Thai curries
See?
Life of Dozer
It’s lucky he’s so cute because he isn’t going to win any prizes in the spelling bee…. When he bonks his head on the door frame, it sounds hollow. I swear!
Wow this is delicious! I made it with Japanese sweet potatoes, onions, and broccoli and instead of chicken I used smoked tofu and veggie broth to make it vegan. Served over thin udon noodles. My goodness it was so satisfying!
A new meal rotation favourite in my house! Thanks Nagi
Absolutely delicious. Is this able to be frozen?
I would love an answer to this one, too. It’s a fabulous recipe! We love it.
Nagi I never tire of receiving your delicious recipes & looking at how Dozer is doing, but I must commend you on attention to detail & careful instructions. Those people who say they “can’t cook” I say if you can read you can cook. You are an absolute gem.
A useful trick if you have only got dried lime leaves and loose leaf lemongrass tea. Toss some in with the stock, simmer it while prepping the other stuff and sieve the solids out before using as stock. Yummy, frugal and gives it a nice “almost-fresh” flavor. Love this dish with local yellow squash (think of small zucchini but yellow) and pineapple chunks. (the “fresh” green beans in my local store would have taken an annoying amount of time to blanch) This sort of recipe also works well with pork or shrimp.
Omg!! So tasty
I can’t get the Maesri brand red curry so just used Ayam and omitted the sugar. I also did this with bone in thighs. I replaced beans with zucchini as I am growing them and need to use them. . Amazing! Thank you.
Absolutely delicious! I stopped making thai curries a while back because i never got the paste:stock:coconut milk ratio right. This was perfect, especially with the additions to the the store-bought curry paste. I made it vegetarian with leftover veggies. Can’t wait to make it again!
I cooked this last night and it was delicious with the added ginger, lemongrass etc to the Ayam paste. It was a little spicy and I used coconut cream and sweetened it a bit more with pineapple. Everyone loved it and the chicken was perfectly cooked adding it to the sauce for 8 minutes.
This was absolutely delicious! We only had blue dragon paste available, but it certainly tasted authentic in the end. I tripled the recipe on order to batch cook and freeze (I’m disabled so cook in bulk when I have help). We added three red peppers and I cubed courgette, along with 350grams of frozen pre cubed butternut squash. We couldn’t get hold of fresh lime leaves sadly, nor Thai basil, but with normal basil and dried lime leaves it was still absolutely delicious. I think next time I’ll use breast instead of the thigh meat as the texture wasn’t really what we are used to in curries. Thanks again for a beautiful recipe.
My husband is allergic to shrimp. Can I leave the shrimp paste out of the curry paste or can you recommend a substitute?
Cooked this tonight and it was so delicious. It was way longer to prep than 5 minutes though! I’d say 45 minutes prep (washing and cutting green beans etc; cutting the chicken). Highly recommend – was fun to make too! Used jalapeño instead of red chilies and it worked out.
Hi there – can this be made using red meat instead of chicken????
Hankering for red thai chicken curry and disappointly having trouble finding it in “take out” form (after 10 or so years)… Thought I’d try making it myself (nervously). Came here first and WOWZAH!!
Used what was on hand; vegetable stock instead of chicken, dried ginger in a bit of water instead of fresh, coconut cream instead of milk… Oh! The hips! But it didn’t split!
Added more sugar than I probably should’ve… And the butternut held itself together really well!
Wonderfully warming and creamy, not too spicy and the flavor explosion is exactly how I remember.
Thank you Nagi & Dozer x
I cooked this tonight and it was extremely fatty. I followed the recipe exactly and am guessing that the fat was all from the chicken. How can I avoid that?
I cooked this tonight and it was extremely fatty. I followed the recipe exactly and am guessing that the fat was all from the chicken but how can I avoid that,
Help!!
This is a weekly staple now in our home. The last 3 times I’ve made it it ‘curdles’ ?? I know it’s supposed to look split but this is different like curdles milk? Any suggestions
This red curry was really delicious, using the add-ins to the bought curry paste really boosts the flavour making it taste like a good Thai restaurant.
Only thing I always add a can of coconut at the very end after turning off the heat to make it creamier and thicker. And that means I can add a bit more chicken and veg beforehand too.
Outstanding recipe I’ve made several times. All ingredient recommendations are spot on. Use the Maesri red paste (the best and so easy). Also enhance with lemongrass paste, dried lime leaves and a couple red chiles. In summer I use firm farmers market eggplant and okra to replace squash and green beans.
Perfect. No adjustments needed. Nagi has done it again
Delicious as always. Rare that I can find a curry recipe which has enough flavour. I used tofu instead of chicken and added broccoli. The ratio of sauce to veg was a bit high so I ended up adding extra veg/tofu.