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visual recipe: thai chicken curry
Thai curries are not as complicated and exotic as you might think, especially this one. While there are a couple of specialized ingredients, it’s a fairly quick and very scrumptious recipe otherwise and the results are well worth it. So pick up a small jar of Thai curry paste and some fish sauce and stash them in your cupboard. I think after you make this once, you’ll be using them on a regular basis.
Ingredients
- 2 (14-ounce) cans coconut milk (unsweetened), not shaken
2 tablespoons red curry paste
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1-1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of excess fat and sliced thin
salt
1 cup carrots, sliced
1 cup celery, sliced
6 ounces white mushrooms, sliced
1 medium red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into thin strips
1 large chile pepper (jalapeno or serrano), stemmed, seeded, and quartered lengthwise
1 tablespoon lime juice from 1 lime
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves (or omit the mint and use 1 cup cilantro, lightly chopped)
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
Directions:
Carefully spoon off about 1 cup of the top layer of cream from one can of coconut milk — this layer will be thick and possibly solid. Place the coconut cream and curry paste in a large Dutch oven and bring to a simmer over high heat, whisking to blend, about 2 minutes. Maintain this brisk simmer and whisk frequently until almost all of the liquid evaporates, 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-high and whisk constantly until the cream separates into a puddle of colored oil and coconut solids, 3 to 8 minutes. (You should hear the curry paste starting to fry in the oil.) Continue cooking until the curry paste is very aromatic, 1 to 2 minutes.
Whisk in the remaining coconut milk, the fish sauce, and the brown sugar. Bring back to a brisk simmer and cook until the flavors meld and the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Season the chicken with salt and add it to the pot, stirring until the pieces are separated and evenly coated with the sauce, about 1 minute. Stir in the carrot, mushrooms, and celery and bring back to a brisk simmer over medium heat. Cook until the vegetables are almost tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the bell pepper and fresh chile, if using, and cook until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the lime juice, basil, and mint. Serve immediately.
[Recipe based on a Cook’s Illustrated recipe and others.]
Photo notes:
- Gather up your ingredients.
- Slice the chicken breasts into thin strips.
- I recommend you use regular coconut milk, not light. The difference is that light is consistently blended all the way through, while the regular has a thick “cream” resting on top of a clear liquid. We need this for this recipe. However, you can use one can of each if necessary, as I did here.
- As you can see here, the “cream” of one can is separated out and placed in the bottom of the pot. The remaining liquid is reserved for now.
- The coconut milk cream is whisked with the red curry paste in the hot pan.
- The curry paste-coconut cream mixture is cooked and whisked until the oil separates again.
- Now you can add your various vegetables.
- The dish is nearly done with the addition of some chopped cilantro. Fresh basil is preferred, but this is what we had and it tasted pretty good.
- You can serve the curry over rice, but we cooked up some rice noodles. Just a few minutes in boiling water, although 3 minutes wasn’t enough for these. Should have kept them in a few more minutes. Too chewy.
- The finished dish, plated up.
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