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Delicious and easy green curry with chicken in rich coconut curry sauce. This homemade and authentic Thai green curry recipe takes 20 mins and better than restaurants!
Green Curry Recipe
What is Green Curry?
It’s called Gang Kiew Wan in Thai language, one of the best Thai recipes.
The curry is green in color, spicy, aromatic, sweet and savory at the same time.
Thai green curry is so delicious, specially when served with steaming white jasmine rice.
Looking for more Thai recipes? Check out my Choo Chee Salmon, Pad See Ew, and Thai Red Curry recipes!
Thai Green Curry
If you love Thai food, I am sure you know Thai curries, named after the color of the curry paste used to make the curry, for examples: red curry and yellow curry.
There are also Panang curry, Jungle curry, Massamam curry, etc.
The green color in this curry comes from the main ingredient in the green curry paste, which is fresh green chilies, hence the name green curry.
Here are the ingredients of the curry paste:
- Fresh green chilies
- Cilantro roots or stems (not the leaves)
- Garlic
- Shallots
- Lemongrass
- Galangal
- Coriander
- Cumin
- Shrimp paste
- Kaffir lime skin and leaves
Curry paste is traditionally made by pounding the ingredients in a stone mortar and pestle until all ingredients become a fine texture.
I usually use instant curry paste from Asian stores, for example: Maesri brand Green Curry Paste.
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken – use skinless and boneless chicken breasts or chicken thighs
- Thai eggplant. In Thailand, the curry is made with these eggplants, which come in the green color variety and purple color variety. They are small like ping pong balls; they are halved or quartered and cooked in the curry. However, they are not commercially available in the US, unless you grow the tree. As a substitute, most Thai restaurants here use bamboo shoots and my recipe tastes just like Thai restaurants.
- Coconut milk
- Fish sauce
- Fresh red chilies
- Kaffir lime leaves
- Thai basil leaves
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
How To Make Thai Green Curry Chicken
Homemade green curry recipe is so easy to make and takes about 15-20 minutes from prep to dinner table.
To cook the curry at home, first of all saute the curry paste and add the chicken.
Add the coconut milk, water, bamboo shoots, and all the seasoning ingredients.
Cook until the chicken becomes tender and the curry sauce is slightly thickened.
Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full details on each ingredient.
Cooking Tips
For the best result at home, follow the cooking tips below:
- You can make very good, authentic and delicious curries using store-bought curry paste.
- The secret is to balance the flavors; the curry has to be spicy (from the curry paste), rich and creamy (from the coconut milk), savory (from the fish sauce) and sweet (from palm sugar or sugar).
- Sweet, sour, salty and spicy are the four pillars of Thai cuisine. Once you master the perfect balance, you can make just about any Thai food at home!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between the two? Other than the color, the difference is the main ingredient used in the curry paste. Red curry uses dried red chilies, hence the red color.
Malaysian curry, such as curry chicken is made with curry powder, salt, and coconut milk. There is never sugar in the ingredients list. However, Thai curries use sugar or palm sugar and fish sauce to season the curry sauce.
This recipe is only 317 calories per serving.
What To Serve With This Recipe
This meal is best served with steamed rice, preferably Thai rice. For a wholesome Thai meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Other Thai Recipes You Might Like
Green Curry
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tablespoons oil
- 2 tbsp green curry paste, Maesri brand preferred
- 8 oz. chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 4 oz. bamboo shoot
- 5 kaffir lime leaves, lightly bruised
- 2 red chilies, cut into thick strips
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar , or palm sugar, preferred
- 1/4 cup Thai basil leaves
Instructions
- Heat a pot over medium heat and add the oil. Sauté the green curry paste until aromatic, then add the chicken and stir to combine well with the curry paste. Add the coconut milk and water, and bring to a quick boil.
- Add the bamboo shoots, kaffir lime leaves, and red chilies. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and let it simmer for 10 minutes or until the curry slightly thickens.
- Add the fish sauce, sugar, and basil leaves. Stir to mix well. Turn off the heat and serve immediately with steamed rice.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Some useful substitutions for vegans:
Use Maggi seasoning sauce in place of fish sauce, seitan (sold in Asian groceries as “vegan chicken”) and/or extra firm tofu in place of chicken, and make sure your green curry paste does not contain shrimp paste (I use Maesri brand). After 8 minutes of simmering, I remove the kefir lime leaves (you don’t want to eat these). If you can’t find palm sugar, try to use light brown sugar.
This recipe is just a template for me – sometimes I’ll use more vegetables and less protein. Sometimes I’ll add zucchini or baby corn. As you make this recipe repeatedly, you’ll get a good sense of how much stuff to put in the pot while maintaining the same amounts of water, coconut, milk, and curry paste.
Hi! I had this recipe bookmarked, but it seems that that recipe card at the bottom disappeared/is no longer showing so I can’t see the exact measurements for this recipe. Can you please upload the recipe card back? Thank you!
Hi Melanie, thanks for letting me know. The recipe card was accidentally deleted. I have added it back!
Excellent recipe! Used chicken thighs – my preference (and juicier) and fresh bamboo shoots (yum)! Recipe took more like 40 minutes, not 20 since the prep (for me) was longer. Just great! Thank you Bee!
Hi Jeana, so great that you love my green curry and thanks for the 5 stars rating. Please try more recipes on my site!
Can you freeze
Yes, make sure it is cooled off, airtight and used within 3 months. Only difference is possibly texture of vegetables.
Hi! Can you make this with tofu instead of chicken for a vegetarian? And is this recipe gluten free?
Thank You!
Yes, you can! I am not sure about GF…not familiar.
Would you add the tofu when you would normally add the chicken? Also, if I don’t have kaffir lime leave or Thai basil, will that bring down the dish a lot?
Yes you can use tofu. You won’t have aromatic flavor.
I love this recipe, have been making it for a while. I do have easy access to Thai eggplants. I’ve been substituting them for bamboo shoots and the curry is very good. The eggplants seem to thicken the curry.
Any advice on how much eggplant to use in this recipe is appreciated
1 cup of cut egg plants will be good.
What distinguishes “Thai red chilis” from all the other unlabeled varieties of fresh red peppers contaning varying quantities of capsicum? They range all the way from zero capsicum in Holland red bell peppers to lord only knows what the Scoville scores some of the other red peppers may have – in the 10’s of thousands, at least, for the hotter ones.
I like spicy foods, so the chilis being hot is no problem, but in my lengthy cooking career I have had peppers labeled as “Thai” exactly once – tiny green “bird” chilis pickled in a bottle. Those were very hot and so lasted me a long time, but once they were gone, I have never seen any other “Thai”-labeled chilis offered again anywhere in my vicinity.
I’m in an area where “spicy” is considered anywhere from “somewhat suspicious” at best to “avoid at all costs” (although local tastes are being somewhat improved and matured by newer food trends) and we probably have 10 different, unlabeled varieties of red chilis to choose from in the (western) supermarket. Asian markets are few and far between here and mostly are heavily involved with ingredients for Korean and Japanese cuisines.
Is there some name by which the chilis you recommend are known other than “Thai”? – Mostly the chilis in our supermarkets are assumed to be for Latin American styles of cooking and carry Spanish names – is there another name by which these “Thai chilis” might be known/marketed?
I made this recipe many times. Just right ratio of coconut milk and water. Not too thick, nor too thin.
What type of red chilies do you use? I made this last night and while it was delicious, it was incredibly spicy; I think that’s because I used fresh Thai red chilies. I want to try it again because it was so good otherwise, but the spice made it hard to enjoy.
No, you don’t Thai red chilies, that will be too spicy. You can use regular red chilies which is bigger and longer, that one is less spicy.