Thai Red Curry – everything we know and love about Thai food! Big, bold Thai flavours, beautifully fragrant, the creamy red curry sauce is so good you can put anything in it and it will be amazing!
Make the easy 30 minute red curry recipe using my trick to pimp up store bought curry paste. Or go all out and make a Thai Red Curry Paste from scratch! Complete your Thai banquet with Thai Satay Skewers or Thai Fish Cakes to start.
Thai Red Curry recipe
We’d all love to be able to have a Thai Red Curry any night of the week made with homemade red curry paste. Freshly made, like the best Thai restaurants do every day. But it’s simply not viable.
So today, I’m sharing a recipe for how to make Thai Red Curry two ways:
30 Minute quick version using curry paste in a jar – sharing my secret for how to make an AMAZING curry using curry paste in a jar!
From scratch, using a homemade red curry paste
The BEST Thai Red Curry Paste – Maesri
The best Thai Red Curry Paste by a long shot is a brand called Maesri. This is also the brand I use for Thai Green Curry. Other brands tend to have less authentic flavour and are (usually) too sweet.
Sold in small cans for around $1.30 (it’s the cheapest!), it’s available in large grocery stores (Coles, Woolies, Harris), Asian grocery stores and here is the cheapest one on Amazon US.
Don’t worry if you can’t find it. This recipe is still great even with mainstream curry pastes.
How to make jar curry paste better
Store bought curry paste in a jar lacks the freshness of freshly made curry paste. So if you just dump it into coconut milk, you’re going to be sorely disappointing.
So here is how to make curry paste in a jar taste way (way, way!) better:
Sauté the paste in oil with garlic, ginger and fresh lemongrass or lemongrass paste
Adding the fresh aromatics does wonders for improving the flavour!
What does a Thai Red Curry Taste like??
Thai Red Curry, like most Asian curries, has a great depth of flavour. The sauce flavour is complex, it has many layers from all the ingredients in the paste that is then simmered with broth and coconut milk. It’s sweet and savoury, and it is quite rich.
The use of shrimp paste and fish sauce in the curry paste (jar or homemade) provides the saltiness as well as the umami *. However, this red curry recipe does not have a strong fishy or fermented shrimp flavour like some “hardcore” Thai restaurants. Most non-Thai nationals find those versions too fishy for their palette.
While one may assume Thai Red Curry is fiery hot, if from the colour alone, in actual fact it is not! It is actually quite mild, and generally most restaurants tend to stick with the mild level of spiciness though you will find some restaurants that dial up the heat considerably.
* Food-nerd word for savouriness, now officially considered to be the 5th taste in food along with sweet, salt, bitter and sour.
We love Thai Red Curry for the flavour, the creamy sauce, and how can one not love the colour!!
Complete your Thai meal with a starter of Thai Fish Cakes or Satay Skewers with Peanut Sauce, and a fresh Asian Slaw on the side. And while you can totally serve the red curry with plain steamed Jasmine rice, you could take it to the next level with Thai Fried Rice or Coconut Rice! – Nagi x
PS If you’re wondering if the sauce is supposed to look sort of split – yes it is. The oil is actually supposed to separate. I’ve included some general commentary in the recipe notes, for those that are interested. 🙂
Thai red curry
Watch how to make it
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Thai Red Curry with Chicken
Ingredients
Red Curry Paste – choose ONE:
- 5 – 6 tbsp Thai Red Curry Paste (store bought, Maesri best) (Note 1)
- 1 quantity homemade Thai Red Curry Paste
Extras – only for jar curry paste (Note 2)
- 2 large garlic cloves , minced
- 2 tsp fresh ginger , finely grated
- 1 tbsp lemongrass paste or finely chopped fresh (Note 3)
Thai Red Curry
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil (or canola or peanut)
- 1 cup (250 ml) chicken broth/stock , low sodium
- 400 ml / 14 oz coconut milk (full fat!)
- 6 kaffir lime leaves (Note 4)
- 1 tbsp sugar (white, brown or palm)
- 2 tsp fish sauce , plus more to taste
- 350g / 12 oz chicken thighs (boneless and skinless), cut into 0.75 / 1/3″ thick slices (Note 5)
- 150g / 5 oz pumpkin or butternut squash, cut into 1.5cm / 3/5" cubes (~1 heaped cup)
- 120g / 4oz green beans , trimmed and cut into 5cm/2″ pieces
- 12 Thai basil leaves (Note 6)
Garnishes (optional) & serving:
- Fresh red chilli slices (small chilli – spicy, large = less spicy)
- Fresh coriander / cilantro leaves
- Steamed jasmine rice
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large heavy based skillet over medium high heat.
- Add curry paste and Extras (if using jar paste) and cook for about 2 minutes so it “dries out” (See video)
- Add chicken broth and stir to dissolve paste. Simmer rapidly for 3 minutes or until liquid reduces by half.
- Add coconut milk, lime leaves, sugar and fish sauce. Stir, then add chicken.
- Spread chicken out, bring to simmer, then turn heat down to medium. Simmer for about 8- 10 minutes or until Sauce reduces, the chicken is cooked and the sauce is almost at the thickness you want.
- Do a taste test. Add more fish sauce (or even shrimp paste) to add more saltiness, sugar for sweetness.
- Add pumpkin and beans, stir. Cook for 3 minutes or until pumpkin is just cooked through and Sauce is thickened – see video for Sauce thickness.
- Remove from heat. Stir through a handful of Thai basil leaves.
- Serve over jasmine rice, garnished with fresh red chilli slices and fresh coriander/cilantro leaves, if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Spiciness: Thai Red Curry is not supposed to be crazy spicy but it has a nice tingle to it.
Sauce thickness varies drastically between restaurants – at some it is almost watery, at others it is really thick and seems to be made with coconut cream. I like mine in between – a sauce that is pourable but with a gravy like consistency. I am not a fan of very sweet Red Curry, but if you are, just add more sugar.
Consistency: Thai red curry sauce doesn’t look completely smooth, it looks a bit split because of the oil and that’s the way it is supposed to be.
Stuff in it: There are no hard and fast rules about what goes into a Thai Red Curry. You’ll find Thai eggplant in curries at very authentic Thai restaurants but to be honest, I am not a huge fan of them – they are like tiny eggplants and kind of hard (also not easy to find in shops). I’d say that the two most common vegetables I’ve noticed are pumpkin and green beans or snake beans. While pumpkin may not sound “Thai”, don’t dismiss it, it is spectacular in red curry for both the texture, the sweetness and also because it soaks up the sauce. 8. Nutrition per serving, curry only.
Nutrition Information:
I adore Thai curries
See?
Life of Dozer
It’s lucky he’s so cute because he isn’t going to win any prizes in the spelling bee…. When he bonks his head on the door frame, it sounds hollow. I swear!
I’d never describe the Maesri one as “quite mild”, perhaps I’m a wimp 🙂
Nagi! I need your official verdict on something I have wondered my whole life. Is 6 kaffir lime leaves 3 double leaves? Or 6 double leaves?
Please I need to know!
Perfect recipe Nagi and you are so right about the Maesri brand curry paste! Third brand I’ve tried and the first one that was truly flavourful.
Thank you!
Holly
Fourth time I’m making this. I’m using sweet potatoes since I didn’t feel like cutting up a huge butternut. Next time I’m going to do shrimp, for sure. I had a lot of thighs so I made some soup and this.
There are a few things I do since discovering this recipe.
1. I stock up on Maesri and order from Amazon. I’ve used it in the pumpkin soup recipe and then rigged up a Thai curry red lentil soup. It was spectacular.
2. Kaffir leaves are not always in stock and then I don’t decide to drive when they are. I got a bag of dried ones and they work fine.
I am a big fan of yours, so, of course this curry was a big hit. I prepared today for a family dinner and it was loved by all, said it was better than any restaurant’s. Congratulations.
Love Nagi’s curry recipes. Both the green and red have turned out excellent, using Maesri paste and her “extras”. We prefer onions, eggplant, and peppers (red/green/red) as veggies vs some that are in the recipe, but the overall curry flavor is excellent.
This was an easy recipe to follow and truly did turn out tasting like it could’ve come straight from a restaurant! Definitely worth it to take a trip to an Asian food store to get some of the ingredients if you can’t find them at your supermarket. I added some extra red curry paste because there was an awkward amount left in the can and didn’t want to waste it, and enjoyed the more intense flavor!
I had the same dilemma about the small amount of curry paste left over and I’ve realized that if you use 5tbsps of red curry paste that there is exactly enough left (two tbsp -scant) to make Nagi’s beef Satays so I just froze the last two tbsp to save for later.
Thought I’d mention for other thrifty home chefs! 🤓
Holly
This could be the best thing I have ever made. Wow! I couldn’t even wait to write this. I literally just finished cooking it and tasted a bit. The Maesri paste is a must I would say and the add ons she recommended to freshen it up. It tastes like the curry I had in Thailand. I never knew what the flavour of the limes leaves added to this dish, but if you can find them I highly recommend using them.
About the lime leaves. I meant to say that when I had eaten Thai red curry in the past, I didn’t know that it was lime leaves that were adding that extra flavour. I still have a lot of the lime leaves left, so I’ve frozen them to use in the future.
Just love it!
My Thai curries that I make at home are always just pretty meh – but using some of these little tweaks, like jazzing up the paste, forming that lil gravy with the stock at the start and cooking it down, just did wonders! We were almost licking the bowl tonight, it was so delicious! Thanks Nagi ❤️🏆
This was so incredibly yum and easy, but you absolutely must use the maesri paste if you don’t make your own. This tastes so close to a red curry you’d get at a really nice Thai restaurant – Wollongong people, this reminds me of the red curry at Kinn! So good. Thanks Nagi for another delicious meal!
This is absolutely fantastic! Loved the flavor, was really easy to make, & all of the ingredients were easily found at my supermarket. ( loved that) You recipes make me feel so confident! Thank you for sharing them! 🙂
Wish I had looked at the sodium content of Maesri paste before I bought/used it….INCREDIBLY salty!
Nagi I love all your recipes n everyday look fwd to cooking only coz of it.. Your recipes are a hit with my family n they all think I am a good cook only cause of you 😊
Fabulous! Our new go-to red curry recipe. Loved the addition of pumpkin, it really made it. Thank you 🙂
It was a hit!
If using Mae Ploy red curry sauce (the main ‘authentic’ brand in the UK) then I’d recommend you halve the quantity (if you like it spicy) or more than halve it (if you don’t like it too spicy). Maesri must be relatively mild.
Wow! This was terrific! The first bite was like New Year’s Eve and Mardi Gras, a full on party for our tastebuds.
Hi, was wondering if I could use duck breast instead of the chicken, if so do I change the recipe at all
Ps absolutely love your website and your cookery book is on my Christmas list 🤞
You’d probably want to cook the duck a bit first to render some of the fat out.
I made this recipe for dinner today, and the whole family enjoyed it! We don’t have all of the ingredients available nearby us, so i used some substitutes like lime instead of kaffir lime leaves, and used different vegetables. It was easy to make milder (my dad is not a fan of spicy food), and such an easy recipe in general!! It tasted very similar to the curries we made in Thailand at a cooking course:) Thank you Nagi for this wonderful dinner <3