Thai Red Curry Recipe With Chicken

In recent years, Thai Cuisine has become quite popular among food lovers. Thai food ain’t about simplicity. It’s about the juggling of disparate flavours to create umami. It is a deadly combination of delicious aroma, brilliant colours, fresh herbs, local spices and a lot of coconut milk, especially – spicy, slurpy Thai Curries.

Red Curry Paste – Homemade vs Readymade

I always stick to Homemade Red Curry Paste to make an authentic Thai curry. The colour, texture, and taste of the curry prepared from freshly ground paste are mind-blowing. Plus, the homemade paste is: The fresh flavours, lingering aroma, creamy texture, and uniquely bold taste – all make me obsessed with this Thai Curry recipe. I am sharing a Thai Red Curry Recipe with chicken made from homemade red curry paste that you can store for a month.

vegan gluten-free freezer friendly preservative free no artificial colour easy to store for 30 days

You can store homemade curry paste for about 30 days in the refrigerator and even longer if frozen. But for making red curry on short notice, I rely on some of the best readymade curry paste available in the supermarket. Real Thai Red Curry Paste, Blue Elephant, Mesri and Ayam are a few of my favourite brands. Zest up the readymade curry paste by frying in oil for 3 – 5 minutes with chopped garlic before adding chicken or vegetables.

How To Make Red Curry Paste

Step 1) Discard the crown of dried red chillies. Roughly chop them. Discard the seeds if you do not want spicy curry. Step 2) Soak red chillies in hot water. Cover and set aside for 15 minutes. Step 3) Clean the stalk of lemongrass. Wash to remove dirt. Thinly slice it. Step 4) Scrape the skin of the galangal. Wash it. Either grate or chop it. Step 5) Dry roast the coriander seeds, cumin, and peppercorns for 1 minute only to release their aroma.

Step 6) To make the paste, add soaked chillies, lemongrass, galangal, roasted spices, salt, garlic, shallots, and lemon zest, to a mixer. Blend the ingredients to a smooth paste using the soaked chilli hot water. You must scrap the ingredients a few times and add water in small batches to make a smooth paste. Transfer it to a bowl or store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

How To Make Thai Red Curry

Step 1) Clean, wash, and cut the chicken thigh or breast into bite-size pieces. Step 2) Heat the oil in a wok or large saucepan over medium flame. Step 3) Stir in the curry paste and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the oil separates from the paste. Step 4) Add chicken pieces. Stir-fry till chicken pieces turn pale white. Add 2 tablespoons of coconut milk if the curry paste sticks to the wok or burns.

Step 5) Add sugar, fish sauce, vegetables, and salt. Combine and cook for 1 minute. Step 6) Add the remaining coconut milk along with kaffir lime leaves, red chillies, and stir to combine. Taste and season with salt accordingly. Step 7) Add chicken stock or water if the curry seems too thick. Bring slowly to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 6 – 8 minutes or until chicken and vegetables are cooked. Before serving, add Thai basil and chopped cilantro.

Serving Suggestion

Thai Curry is best enjoyed with warm jasmine rice or any other short grain, aromatic, starchy rice. You can serve it with rice noodles or my signature pineapple fried rice. I like my Thai red curry with a bowl of plain rice topped with toasted peanuts, shrimp crackers, a spoonful of spicy sambal, and a bowl of smashed cucumber salad on the side. Apart from these herbs and spices, a medley of seasonal vegetables, meat, or seafood is added to the Thai red curry. From local mushrooms, green beans, bell peppers, squash, and Turkey Berry, eggplant to baby corn, feel free to add vegetables of your choice to the curry.

Lemongrass – use dry lemongrass or lemon juice and zest Kafir Lime Leaves – regular lime leaves or lemon zest Galangal (Thai Ginger) – regular ginger Coconut milk – cashew or almond milk Thai Basil Leaves – Italian Basil Brown Sugar – jaggery or white sugar Fish Sauce – soy sauce or skip it Birds Eye Chilli – any other variety of spicy red chilli