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Thai Yellow Curry - creamy yellow curry recipe loaded with chicken, zucchini and bell peppers in a curry sauce. This recipe is so easy and much better than Thai restaurants.
Thai Yellow Curry
I love all kinds of Thai curries, for examples: Thai Red Curry and Green Curry. Imagine rich coconut curry with chicken and all sorts of vegetables, in a curry sauce, it’s delicious.
Making traditional and authentic curry is easier than you thought. Once you master the basic skills in making Thai curries, you can make just about any curry like.
Yellow Curry Paste
While you can make the curry paste from scratch, I always buy canned yellow curry paste, for example: Mae Ploy brand. The instant curry paste is pretty good and authentic; making curry is so easy with the curry paste.
You can find them easily at Asian stores and some regular food stores do have them in the ethnic food section. You can also buy it online at Amazon.
Yellow Curry Chicken Ingredients
How to make authentic yellow curry? This yellow chicken curry is very easy to make. The ingredients are:
- Boneless and skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs.
- Bamboo shoots.
- Red bell pepper.
- Zucchini.
- Yellow curry paste.
- Coconut milk.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
Make the curry in a big pot and serve it with steamed rice; the curry sauce is delicious with soft and fluffy rice.
How To Make Yellow Curry
Step 1. Heat the oil in a small pot over medium heat. Add the yellow curry paste. Once you smell the aroma from the curry paste, add the chicken, bamboo shoots, zucchini, and bell peppers to the pot. Stir to combine well with the curry paste.
Step 2. Add the coconut milk and water, then cover the pot with its lid. Let it cook for about 3 minutes or until all the ingredients are cooked through. Add the fish sauce and sugar, and stir to mix well with the curry. Turn off the heat and serve the curry immediately with steamed jasmine rice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. You can make this curry vegetarian and vegan friendly. You can use vegetarian and vegan ingredients such as cabbage, zucchini, tofu, squash, red and green bell peppers, eggplant, etc. For the seasoning, just use sugar and salt.
This recipe is only 376 calories per serving.
What To Serve With Yellow Curry
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Other Recipes You Might Like
Yellow Curry Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons yellow curry paste
- 8 oz (230g) boneless and skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1/3 cup bamboo shoots
- 1/2 small zucchini, cut into rounds
- 1/2 small red bell pepper, cut into pieces
- 1/3 cup coconut milk
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons sugar
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a small pot over medium heat. Add the yellow curry paste. Once you smell the aroma from the curry paste, add the chicken, bamboo shoots, zucchini, and bell peppers to the pot. Stir to combine well with the curry paste.
- Add the coconut milk and water, then cover the pot with its lid. Let it cook for about 3 minutes or until all the ingredients are cooked through. Add the fish sauce and sugar, and stir to mix well with the curry. Turn off the heat and serve the curry immediately with steamed jasmine rice.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hello! I made this yellow curry recipe recently and loved it. What can I do to adjust/increase the heat/spice level? Thank you!
Add more curry paste.
I can’t find kaffir lime leaves in my area. Can I use lime zest or lime juice as a substitute?
Just skip.
is there substitute for yellow curry paste if it cannot be found in store?
You can make red curry, green curry, please search the recipes on my site.
You can also make yellow curry paste at your house.
I made it last night, and it was really great! I did add some big chunks of onion, but otherwise, made it just like above. I did have to reduce it by simmering for a little while for desired thickness, but otherwise, it was perfect! Thanks for posting this recipe!
Hi Katie, awesome. Please try more recipes on my site: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
Frankly, I added salt and pepper for more flavor to the chicken. Also, added a coconut creme with sugar as the milk was not thick enough. I wanted the sauce to be creamy not watery. You can also sprinkle some flour into the sauce while cooking to make it thicker. Basically came out well, minus bamboo shoots and fish sauce (which we don’t care for)
Patricia – to make the sauce creamy, just reduce it on simmer. DO NOT ever use flour in curries. We do not use flour to thicken curry sauce. The reason there is no flavor in your chicken is because you didn’t use fish sauce. The savory flavors of Thai cooking come from fish sauce, without fish sauce, the curry is simply not going to taste the same.
Fish sauce is sooo interesting. I use it in by Bison Bone Broth to meld the complex spices I use together, would not be right without it.
If you prefer thicker, go with coconut “Cream” so it’s not as liquidy as coconut milk. Hope that helps! ?
Patricia – I use Chaokoh Brand (Thai) Coconut Milk and it is plenty thick and creamy, unlike what you find in an American supermarket. I usually end up thinning it a bit with some water because it is so thick and yummy.
To achieve a better, more depth to the curry, a trick I was taught; prior to adding chix and vegetables after you bloomed the curry paste , remove the fat off the coconut milk and a low heat cook the fat and cook out it till you get the aroma of peanut butter then proceed with the rest of the recipe. IMHO
Fish sauce is Southeast Asia’s
equivalent to our salt. Use it sparingly to begin with but it is a vital ingredient to that style of cuisine.
Corn starch is better than flour to thicken
Tapioca or potato starch are even better.
Loved this mouth watering yellow curry! wanted to try it out but confused on sugar issue. As a diabetic patient, i will definitely skip sugar in the recipe. Just wanted to know the taste affect without sugar in this recipe..
How % of difference would you say in the taste without usage of sugar?
Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Thai curry is sweet. You can skip it but the taste is not balanced.
I use Zylitol with great success when something really needs a sweetener.
Me too being a type 2. Im Malaysian n love to cook.
I just experiment leaving out the sugar until my Blood glucose read normal! Zylitol or stevia works too. Bee, Thank you for sharing all yr easy n tasty recipes. You must be Hokkien, from Penang? Me too!
Ho chack!
Yes! Thanks for your comment.
I found (by mistake?) that when I added pumpkin to my curry, it just dissolved and made the sauce naturally sweet. The potato stayed intact. I added broccoli right at the end and cooked It only for one minute. The sauce became delicious, slightly sweet and pumpkiny?
Potatoes are actually worse for a diabetic than sugar as it’s pure starchy glucose and gets rapidly added to the blood stream.
This looks SO amazing, Bee! Yellow curry is my absolute favorite and this looks so good! I mean, so good I could eat it for breakfast as well good.
I love yellow curry the best out of all the Thai curries.
Hi Bee.. I’ve come across you and your site a few times as I’ve explored my cooking horizons and wanted to let you know I’ve enjoyed every recipe. Very accessible and I like how you use more vegetables in certain dishes like this delicious yellow curry that’s faster, healthier (and MUCH cheaper) than delivery. Just one important thing. I added.. Lime Leaves!
. Your personality really shines through in your posts. You have a new subscriber. All the best!
Hi Daniel, awww, thanks so much! You’re so sweet. :)