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5 Secrets to Authentic Thai Cooking
Tips, tricks, and recipes for perfect Thai dishes
FREE EMAIL BONUS:
5 Secrets to Authentic Thai Cooking
Tips, tricks, and recipes for perfect Thai dishes
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
Green Curry Vs. Red Curry
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 Vs. Thai Curry
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.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 317 calories per serving.
What Dishes 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.
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 up a pot over medium heat and add the oil. Saute the green curry paste until aromatic, add the chicken and stir to combine well with the curry paste. Add the coconut milk and water and bring it to a quick boil.
- Add the bamboo shoots, kaffir lime leaves, and red chilies. Lower the heat to simmer, cover the pot and let 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.
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?
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.
I have made this twice now. Absolutely delicious! Love your recipes. My thai sweet sticky chicken wings are marinating as I write! Thank you!!!
Thanks.
This was delicious. I had a favorite Thai restaurant that closed and made the most delicious Emerald green curry dish that I always loved. They closed. ? retired. I have been in search of a great recipe for a long time. This was wonderful! As close as I have come to. My husband was very fond of it!
Awesome!
Green Curry has always been my favourite. Will try this recipe. Thanks !
Thanks!
Good recipe – I’ve moved to Europe, where ethnic dishes are given some sort of fusion spin with the spices and I did not want any unfamiliar tasting curry from takeout. After having a European friend make the most bland, salty green curry, I decided to make my own to wash out the bad memory of the taste. Very fortunate to find this recipe.
Also, the eggplants mentioned in this blog can be found at many asian grocery stores. They are often translated as “baby eggplant” and the very young ones are often all white before they mature with green coloring. Sometimes households will use the purple eggplants, instead.
I wanted to make this into a soup. How much more water and coconut milk should I add?
This green curry is soupy. You may add more water if you like.
Great recipe made it a few times now.
Kids love it
Added green beans snowpeas & okra for a bit more veg.
Thanks
Sounds yummy!
This recipe is fantastic. I was having trouble getting my ratios of fish sauce/sugar correct and I love that you included those! The flavor is wonderful!
I have made many thai curry recipes for the past 20 years and this is the quickest and most delicious. It is my go-to thai curry recipe and I change up the ingredients depending on what I have in the house.
Thanks and I am glad you love my recipe.
Made this tonight. Better than takeout. Highly recommended.
Simple and fantastic. For so long I’ve tried to get the right balance of fish sauce and sugar; this recipe nails it. I did an all veggie version (onion, eggplant, zucchini, jalapeño, orange bell pepper) using Mae Ploy green curry paste and Thrive Market coconut cream. Perfect!
Can you make this in a crockpot?