This Thai red curry chicken recipe is spicy and sweet at the same time. Seared chicken in a delicious coconut curry broth, this Thai red curry dish will make your taste buds sing.
Ingredients
There are things that you can always find in my pantry, two of those being: a can of coconut milk and red curry paste. Making curry is such an easy and flavorful way to use up vegetables that you have in the fridge.
I always start all of my recipes in an organized fashion. ‘Mise en place’ is a french phrase for putting everything in its place prior to cooking. I diced up ½ a yellow onion, minced garlic, minced fresh ginger, sliced chili peppers, and julienned two bell peppers.
One of my favorite hacks, is for peeling ginger. Using a spoon, scrape it against the ginger to remove the skin. This allows you to quickly peel the ginger and get into the nooks and crannies on the knobs.
Chicken
For the protein, I used boneless skinless chicken breast. I sliced them thinly into 1-2inch long pieces. Taking kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, season both sides of the chicken.
In a large cast iron skillet, we are going to sear the chicken until you get a nice golden brown color on each side. Don’t worry about fully cooking the chicken through, it will finish cooking in the curry broth. Remove and set the chicken pieces aside.
Making the curry
You can find red curry paste at almost every grocery store and as I said before, I always recommend keeping one on hand at all times. I like this Thai kitchen red curry paste, because it has less sodium than most of the ones my grocery store carries.
Sauté the onion, ginger, and garlic until the garlic is fragrant. Then we are going to add 2 tbsp of the curry paste. You can add more later if desired, but wait till we are finished with the broth.
Keep sautéing until the curry paste is fully combined with the rest of the ingredients.
Broth
The base of this curry broth is coconut milk. Make sure you get the unsweetened version, because you don’t want an overly sweet curry. I also always use the full fat coconut milk for a thicker and more flavorful broth. Give the can a good shake before opening, so it loosens up the coconut inside the can.
Mix the coconut milk with the red curry paste mixture until it is fully combined. This is a good time to give it a taste and adjust the seasoning. I added some kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. After that, add the chicken back in along with the bell peppers. If you like your curry spicy, add in half of the peppers you sliced before. If you want the broth more mild, add the jalapeños at the end as a garnish instead. Allow this to simmer for 15 minutes.
I love adding broccoli to my curry, for not only added nutrients, but because it soaks up the flavor so well. I quickly steam the broccoli by putting the florets in a microwave safe bowl, filling it with ½ inch of water, cover, then microwave for 3 minutes. The broccoli will be flash steamed and bright green. Drain and set aside.
Red Curry Chicken
Once the curry is done simmering, add the broccoli and rest of the chilis in, stir to combine. I love to garnish with fresh basil, cilantro, and extra chiles for spice.
I serve the red curry chicken along with a bowl of white rice. I use either jasmine or basmati rice. Cook it following the package instructions.
I hope you and your taste buds enjoy this Thai red curry chicken!
Love Asian flavors? Check out these other recipes:
- Szechuan Cold Sesame Noodles
- Asian Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing
- Blistered Shishito Peppers
- Spicy Chicken Stir-Fry
- Vegetable Lo-Mein
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Thai Red Curry Chicken
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast sliced thin into 2 inch long pieces
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt + more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
- ½ yellow onion diced (⅓ cup)
- 2 inches fresh ginger peeled, and minced
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 2 bell peppers color of choice, seeda and stem removed, cut into ¼ inch strips
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon coconut sugar or light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 13.5 ounces full fat coconut milk
- 1 ½ cups broccoli florets trimmed to bite size pieces
- 2 sliced chiles serrano or jalapeño
- 1 cup jasmine rice cooked to package instructions
- Garnish: fresh basil and cilantro leaves
Instructions
- Prepare rice according to package
- In a cast iron skillet over medium/high heat, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and add sliced chicken. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, sear each side for 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Remove from skillet and set aside (chicken will finish cooking in the broth).
- Lower the heat to medium, add 2 tbsp of olive oil and the yellow onion. Sauté for 3 minutes. Add in the minced ginger and garlic and sauté for 1 more minute until garlic is fragrant. Add in 2 tbsp of red curry paste and stir to combine ingredients. Add in the coconut milk, fish sauce, and coconut sugar and stir to combine. Add in the chicken, the bell peppers, and half of the chiles [see note]. Cover with lid and lower the heat, simmer for 15 minutes.
- While the broth simmers, place broccoli in a microwave safe bowl and fill with ½ inch of water. Place a paper towel on top and microwave for 3 minutes. Broccoli should be bright green and steamed. Drain.
- Once broth is done simmering, add in the broccoli, stir to combine and taste. Add in more kosher salt or fresh ground black pepper if desired. Garnish with leftover chiles, fresh basil, and fresh cilantro. Serve over the white rice.
Notes
- If you don’t want the broth spicy, do not add in the chiles until the end when garnishing.
- When storing, store the rice and the curry in separate containers
Tracie
In the Thai Curry Chicken recipe, you mentioned broth. However, I don’t see broth as apart of the recipe. Is the coconut milk mixture considered the broth? Thanks,Tracie.
Stephanie
Hi Tracie, yes the broth would be the coconut milk mixture