Thai red curry chicken recipe - tender chicken slices and fresh vegetables cooked in creamy, aromatic red curry sauce infused with Thai herbs. You can create restaurant-style red curry at home with our easy to follow recipe in less than 30 minutes!

This particular dish contains creamy red curry sauce cooked with coconut milk and added with meats, veggies and aromatic herbs. A well-balanced combination of spicy, creamy, savoury, umami flavour in one dish and its aroma is hard to resist! I can finish two bowls of rice whenever we cook Red Curry at home. If you are a fan of Thai food and curry lover, Red Curry is a ''must try''!
How To Serve This Dish
When it's simply served with a bowl of steamed white rice, it's incredibly delicious! But it's also a perfect match with Thai style basil fried rice. It'll be flawless when accompanied by Thai salmon curry, Thai Red Prawn Curry, Tom Yum soup, and other side dishes like easy Sausage Curry, Thai Satay Skewer, Thai Wings, or Thai Fish Cake.
For drink choice, coconut water is our favourite, a glass of fresh lime juice or lemonade would be perfect too. After having a creamy curry taste, the sour tinge can make your taste buds fresh again.
Fun Facts About Thai Red Curry
Authentic Red curry which is also known as ''Kaeng Phet'', is a very significant traditional cuisine in Thailand. Even when we watch Thai movies or TV series, we can see Red Curry quite often at the dining scenes. Also, when we google Thai foods, the picture of Red curry is one of the first things that pops up. So yes, red curry is undeniably one of the popular trademarks (besides Green Curry and Pad Thai) of Thailand's food and culture.
Thai people have been cooking and eating it since ancient times and it was recognized as one of the Thai royal cuisines in history.
But now, it's widely popular all over the world, you can order and have it at any Thai restaurant and takeout.
Not only in South East Asia but also in the US & European countries, red curry has become a ''must ordering dish'' in the menu list.
Basic Ingredients You Need
Chicken:
Boneless chicken breast, thigh or cut bone-in chicken are commonly used for red curry. In case you are tired of chicken, other varieties of protein such as prawns, fish fillets, squid, any seafood, or beef can be substituted.
Or you can even cook it with tofu without adding any meats if are a vegetarian. So it'll simply be ''vegetable red curry'' then! With or without any meat source, the taste won't change a lot. It'll be delicious just the way it is.
Vegetables:
To get this aromatic Thai dish, you will need a few pungent ingredients and herbs such as garlic, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, red chilies. I love the scent of kaffir lime leaves because it gives the dish a vibrant fresh scent. If you cannot get kaffir lime leaves easily, you can add some fresh lime zest for the zesty flavor. Bell pepper, onions, bamboo shoot, and baby corn are ideal to add but you can customize the vegetables according to your taste.
Curry Sauce:
I use store-bought Thai red curry paste in this recipe to make life easier so you could make this curry with less effort. Red curry paste can be bought at any Supermarkets or grocery stores easily at a reasonable price. As many of you have requested I'll share my recipe for how to make red curry sauce from scratch very soon!
Coconut milk - Of course, you cannot forget or skip it. It's one of the major ingredients in this dish. I usually use Chaokoh or Aroy-D Thai coconut milk which you can buy in most Oriental/Asian groceries. But you can add any brand which you can easily buy at your local stores or online. Is there any substitute for coconut milk? Evaporated milk or cream milk is a good substitute for this recipe.
Fish sauce- The fish sauce has a distinct salty, sweet, savory, earthy umami taste and flavour. Commonly used in Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, and Indonesian dishes. If you have a small bottle at home you can use it in dozens of popular Southeast Asain dishes, as it doesn't need to use a large amount.
Simple Cooking Process
Lets start by cutting chicken, bell pepper, onion and chilli into thin slices.
Roughly chop the garlic cloves. Slightly bruise the lemongrass and cut into half. Remove the hard centre part of kaffir lime leaves and cut into thin strips.
Heat the pan into medium heat, drizzle a tablespoon of oil. Saute lemongrass, and chopped garlic, and stir for few seconds.
Add the red curry paste and stir for few seconds until the nice fragrant comes out. Then add the paprika powder in, stir well.
Pour the coconut milk in, stir well and let it simmer for few seconds.
Add the chicken slices and cook for 2-3 mins. Pour the chicken stock and water, sugar and fish sauce in. Let it simmer another 1 min.
Add the onion and bamboo shoot strips, stir well for few seconds. Add pepper slices, stir well and cook for another 1-2 mins until the chicken and vegetables are cook through.
Then and chilli slices and kaffir lime leaves strips and stir well. Aromatic Thai Red Curry Chicken is ready! Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and lime slices.
Serves with a bowl of steamed rice. Enjoy!
Watch How To Make Thai Red Curry Recipe Video
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 350 g Boneless chicken breast/thigh
- 2-3 cloves Garlic
- 1 Lemongrass
- ½ Bell pepper
- ½ Sweet onion
- ½ cup Bamboo shoot see recipe note for details
- 1-2 tbsp Oil
- 1 Red chilli optional
- 2 Kaffir lime leaves see recipe note for details
Curry Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Red curry paste see recipe note for details
- 1 cup Coconut milk
- ½ cup Chicken stock/broth
- ½ cup Water
- 2 tbsp Fish sauce
- 3 tbsp Sugar brown/white
- ¼ tsp Paprika
Garnish
- Coriander
- Fresh lime
Instructions
- Cut chicken, bell pepper, onion and chilli into thin slices.
- Roughly chop the garlic cloves. Slightly bruise the lemongrass and cut into half.
- Remove the hard centre part of kaffir lime leaves and cut into thin strips.
- Heat the pan into medium heat, drizzle a tablespoon of oil.
- Add lemongrass and chopped garlic and stir for few seconds.
- Add the red curry paste and stir for few seconds until the nice smell come out. Then add the paprika powder in, stir well.
- Pour the coconut milk in, stir well and let it simmer for few seconds.
- Add the chicken slices and cook for 2-3 mins.
- Pour the chicken stock and water, sugar and fish sauce in. Let it simmer another 1 min.
- Add the onion and bamboo shoot strips, stir well for few seconds.
- Add pepper slices, stir well and cook for another 1-2 mins until the chicken and vegetables are cook through.
- Then and chilli slices and kaffir lime leaves strips and stir well.
- Aromatic Thai Red Curry Chicken is ready! Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and lime slices.
- Serves with a bowl of steamed rice. Enjoy!
Notes
- If you use bamboo shoot tin, strain the water from the bamboo shoot tin and squeeze the water out from the bamboo shoot.
- Kaffir lime leaves brings citrus flavour to the dish. Only few amount need to use, overpowering can bring bitter taste to the dish. You can freeze the leftover kaffir lime leaves in airtight bag for future use. If you cannot find kaffir lime leaves you can add ¼ teaspoon of lime zest as a substitute.
- I've used Mae Ploy red curry paste in this recipe. You can use your favourite brand or any red curry paste available at your local stores. You can find Thai red curry paste in most supermarkets and Oriental groceries.
If you enjoy our recipe, please leave a comment and give us a rating! If you’ve tried this recipe, tag me on social media, I would love to see your creations! Follow me on social media Facebook, Instagram , and Pinterest for the latest updates.
Here is our another go-to Thai stir fry dish. If you love Thai cuisine, you would definitely like this Spicy Basil Chicken recipe.
Ian says
The most professional recipe site I have come across. An explanation on every aspect of the recipe.
Dave Hajra says
Amazing flavor. I will avoid the 1/2 cup water next time and the sauce will be richer and creamier. Perfect amount of spice with the red chili. Delicious