Made-from-scratch Beef Massaman Curry! This epic Thai coconut curry takes time to make but you’ll be rewarded with a rich, fragrant curry with fall apart meat and beautiful layers of flavours that you can’t buy in a jar.
BONUS: I’ve also included directions for how to make this using store bought Massaman Curry paste, including my tip for the BEST brand to use!
Feeling inspired to make a Thai banquet? Try adding Chicken Satay Skewers, Thai Fish Cakes, Pad See Ew Noodles or Thai Fried Rice to your menu!
Massaman Curry
Peanuts, coconut, aromatic fresh and ground spices, potatoes and fall apart beef. What’s not to love about Massaman Curry? It’s like all my favourite things, simmered in one pot!
And it’s not just me. There’s a reason why Massaman Curry seems to appear as a Chef’s Special at almost every Thai restaurant, along with its lamb shank counterpart. And that it was probably the single most requested recipe when I did a recipe call out.
We’ve embraced Massaman as a firm favourite and it’s totally worthy!
What is Massaman curry?
Massaman Curry is a bit of an outlier in Thai cuisine. It was born from Indian and Malay influences and as a result, the main flavours comes from spices typically associated with Indian curries. Spices such as: cumin, coriander, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom.
Basically, if you take Indian curry spices and do a mash up with aromatics used in Thai curries (garlic, lemongrass, galangal), add coconut and peanuts, you end up with Massaman Curry. So it tastes like a mash up between an Indian curry and Thai Curry.
And we love it!
“It’s not quick and easy, but it’s worth it!”
This recipe was never going to make my quick ‘n easy recipe collection, but every minute is worth it. The freshness of a made-from-scratch massaman curry paste puts store bought to shame.
Yes there are quite a few steps – but it’s not hard and I hope these process photos and the recipe video will give you the confidence that you got this!!!
Best beef for Massaman curry
One of the signature characteristics of Massaman Curry is tender fall apart meat. It’s most commonly made with beef. Though it will work fine with any slow cooking cut of beef, I find that beef chuck has the ideal amount of fat and fibre texture for this curry.
The cooking method for the beef is quite unique – it’s simmered in a pot with beef broth with lemongrass trimmings and bay leaves until it’s fall apart tender, then the reduced braising liquid and beef are later stirred into the curry.
This cooking method makes Massaman Curry very easy to adapt for almost any protein because basically, you just simmer your chosen meat until it’s super tender.
PS The pieces of beef are quite large – and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Big, juicy, fall apart pieces of beef. yesssssss!
The aromatics
The curry paste uses fairly common Thai aromatics.
Galangal is a common ingredient used in South East Asian cuisine – it looks like a red ginger but is tougher to cut, and tastes like citrusy/piney ginger. It can be found at everyday supermarkets in Australia (Coles, Woolies, Harris).
In addition to this, there’s dried Asian chillies (Asian store, or use these ones from Harris Farms), ginger, lemongrass and eschalots (the baby onions / French shallots).
The preparation of the Aromatics for Massaman Curry is quite unique, so I’m going to step through some of the key ones.
Dried Chillies – The seeds of chillies is where most of the spiciness is so by removing the seeds, it makes this curry quite mild. Also, dried Asian chillies are typically more mild than dried chillies from other regions (such as Caribbean and Hispanic).
Lemongrass – Typically when lemongrass is called for in a recipe, the reedy outer layers are peeled off and discarded. I like how the trimmings are used to flavour the beef broth in this recipe. Then the softer inside stalk is used in the standard manner – finely chopped then blitzed in the curry paste.
How to make Massaman curry paste
One of the characteristics of Massaman Curry is the signature hint of smokiness. In order to achieve this, the Aromatics are charred in some way – methods vary from using a charcoal grill to cooking in oil, or in a dry skillet which is how I do it in this recipe.
Once charred to infuse the Aromatics with the smokey flavour, the galangal is grated (it’s tough, so that’s the best way to ensure a smooth sauce), the garlic is peeled and the chillies are emptied of the seeds before blitzing in a food processor with toasted spices to make the paste.
Alternative: BEST store bought curry paste
We all have times when we need Massaman Curry but making it from scratch simply isn’t viable for whatever reason.
So I’ve included directions for how to make a really great Massaman Curry using store bought curry paste. Whatever the jar says to do, IGNORE IT! Follow the directions I’ve provided to toast the curry paste and brighten it up with a fresh hit of garlic, ginger and lemongrass paste before adding the coconut milk.
And for the BEST Massaman Curry paste, find the little Maesri cans. Restaurants use it, chefs use it, and I hoard it.
And it happens to be a bargain at ~$1.50 a can.
I use it for all my Thai curries when I don’t have time / ingredients to make the curry paste from scratch – Red, Green and Lamb Shank Massaman Curry.
Where to find Maesri curry paste – at your local grocery store!
It’s sold at most metropolitan Coles and Woolworths grocery stores in Australia (Asian section), at Harris Farms, practically all Asian stores (it would be un-Asian not to carry it!) and here it is online in Australia, US, Canada* and UK.
* Obscenely expensive, please try to get to an Asian store!
Can’t find it?
Use any Massaman Curry paste you can find. Order of preference (Aussie brands) – Ayam, Five Tastes and bringing up the rear is Volcom (it’s always too sweet).
Making the Massaman curry sauce
We’re on the home stretch here with the best part yet to come – EATING IT!
Making the Massaman Curry sauce and bringing it all together is relatively straight forward. Start off by sautéing the curry paste to bring out the flavour, add coconut milk, cinnamon and star anise.
Next, we season the curry sauce with fish sauce (the salty), tamarind (sour) and sugar (sweet). The holy trinity of Asian cooking – the perfect balance of sweet, salty and sour!
Add potatoes (raw) and by the time the potatoes are tender, the sauce should have reduced and thickened. If it thickens too fast, just thin it with water. Then lastly, plonk the beef back in just to heat through.
OMG can you imagine the smell of this, simmering away on the stove?? It’s insane!
And those hunks of beef that just fall apart at a touch…. and those tender potatoes that have sucked up all those amazing flavours….
And that sauce… that sauce!! 😩
It’s simply amazing.
Well, not that simple to make. But it’s so, so worth it! – Nagi x
PS Update: I’ve since shared Lamb Shank Massaman Curry. That too is amazing – with a capital A!
Complete your meal – starters!
On the side
Watch how to make it
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Massaman Curry
Ingredients
Spice Paste:
- 1 lemongrass (Note 1)
- 6 dried red Asian chillis (not Thai! Note 2)
- 4 eschallots , peeled (Note 3)
- 5 cloves garlic , unpeeled
- 3 cm / 2.25″ galangal piece , peeled, cut into 3/4 cm / 1/2″ slices (Note 4)
- 4 – 6 tbsp water
Spice Paste Dried Spices:
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 3/4 tsp cumin
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 3/4 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Beef:
- 700 g / 1.4lb beef chuck , cut into 4cm / 2.5″ cubes (Note 5)
- 500 ml / 2 cups beef broth , low sodium
- 2 bay leaves
Curry Sauce:
- 1/4 cup / 65 ml vegetable oil
- 400 ml / 14 oz coconut milk (full fat, 1 can)
- 1 cinnamon quill
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp tamarind paste/puree (Note 6)
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp white sugar
- 2 medium-small potatoes , peeled and cut into 2.5cm / 1″ pieces
Garnish & serving:
- 3 tbsp peanuts , roughly chopped
- Finely sliced red chilli (optional)
- Asian fried shallots (optional, Note 7)
- Steamed jasmine rice
Instructions
Lemongrass (see video):
- Remove reedy outer layers and trim lemongrass per Note 1.
- Reserve all the trimmings (for beef). Finely chop the white part (for paste.
Beef:
- Place Beef ingredients in a medium saucepan. Liquid should almost cover beef but not completely – if not, add water.
- Add lemongrass trimmings.
- Bring to boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 1.5 – 2 hours until beef is fork tender.
- Remove beef. If there’s much more than 1.5 cups liquid, simmer to reduce. Set liquid aside.
Char Aromatics (char = flavour!):
- Place heavy based skillet over high heat until smoking (no oil).
- Add eschalot, garlic and galangal in skillet. Get a nice char on them, then remove (~1.5 minutes).
- Add dried chillies into skillet, char 10 seconds or so on each side until charred, then remove.
- Once cool enough to handle: Grate galangal. Peel garlic. Break chillies in half, shake out seeds and discard.
Spice Paste Dried Spices:
- Wipe the skillet used above or use a clean one. Heat on medium heat, add Spice Paste Dried Spices. Toast for 30 seconds or until they start to smell fragrant – do not let them burn. Immediately transfer into bowl.
Curry Paste:
- Place chillies in food processor. (Note 8) Blitz until finely chopped.
- Add galangal, finely chopped lemongrass, the toasted Spice Paste Dried Spices, and remaining Spice Paste ingredients, starting with 4 tbsp water. Blitz until smooth – add more water if required.
Curry Sauce:
- Place oil in a pot or large skillet over medium high heat. Add curry paste and cook for 3 minutes until the liquid has cooked out and it’s thick and fragrant.
- Add coconut milk, stir to incorporate.
- Add cinnamon, star anise and reserved beef braising liquid. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 3 minutes.
- Stir in fish sauce, tamarind and sugar, stir.
- Add potatoes and cook for 7 minutes or until potatoes are tender, turning as required.
- Add beef and simmer for 2 minutes or until sauce has reduced and thickened.
- Adjust: saltiness with fish sauce, sour with tamarind and sweet with sugar. The taste should be sweet, salty and sour, with more emphasis on the sweet and sour notes. Top up with a little water if the curry seems too thick
- Serve over jasmine rice, garnished with peanuts (essential!) plus optional crispy Asian shallots and fresh chillies.
Recipe Notes:
- Follow Beef steps to cook beef and make broth;
- Skip all curry paste making steps;
- Under Curry Sauce steps, use store bought paste instead of homemade PLUS 2 garlic cloves minced, 2 tsp minced ginger plus 1 tbsp lemongrass (paste OR finely grated fresh, white part only).
- Cook it off for 3 minutes per recipe, proceed with recipe as written.
Nutrition Information:
I adore Thai curries!
Proof:
Life of Dozer
His eyes boggle at the sight of a big slab of beef…. OMG OMG….
Was in a hurry – used the Maesri brand and was so good.
Will look to keep this in the pantry…………now onto your Vanilla Cake for Easter!
Wow, wow, wow!!! What can I say? This recipe is full of flavour. Layers of flavour, produce a meal full of wow!! I have made a number of Massaman curry’s. But this one has beaten them all!! Thank you 😊
Massaman is in my top three curries of all time, the other two being beef rendang and East Indian pork sorpotel. This is a fantastic version of the recipe with a great balance of flavours. I like to add a few finely shredded kaffir lime leaves after adding the coconut milk, really adds some zing
Thankyou again Nagi.
Made this tonight using the Maesri paste. My friend is Malaysian and her mother uses this brand. Only used half a tin so put the rest in the freezer for another day. Added the extras as suggested. Used coconut milk powder mixed with water and added a bit of coconut essence. Instead of cooking the meat for so long used the pressure cooker so was able to get dinner on the table in a reasonable amount of time. I used your suggestion to cook the meat first in stock and bay leaves then add to curry. Cooked potato in sauce then added carrot, beans and the cooked meat at appropriate intervals. So glad I checked your website for inspiration. Better than the instructions on the tin. You take your work seriously and it shows. We know we can trust your recipes. Thanks Abby
Hi Nagi – thank you so much for your recipes! I’m just wondering about increasing quantities of things in when they’re mentioned in instructions but not in the list of ingredients and don’t scale up/down when you change the number of servings. For example, instruction 4 for cooking the beef says to reduce the liquid to about 1.5 cups but this doesn’t seem to scale up when you change the number of servings. Also, if I am using Maesri paste (I live about 400km from the nearest supermarket so it’s very difficult to get some fresh ingredients!), at what number of servings should I use two cans of paste instead of one? I presume that I would double the minced garlic, ginger and lemongrass when using another can of paste. Thank you!
Made this last night – soooo good!
Used the Maesri curry paste and tricked it up with freshly crushed garlic and ginger and lemongrass (fresh paste in a tube from the supermarket!) as instructed.
My beef stock wasn’t low salt – seemed to be fine – just used a little less fish sauce. Didn’t have tamarind liquid to hand – so spritzed in fresh lime juice for the sour/tart element. Was delicious!
Only real variation was that I required some more veg besides potatoes and didn’t want to use another pan – so slipped in some topped-and-tailed green beans and a roughly chunked zucchini. Not trad – but very good nonetheless.
Thank you again!
Could you double this and use legumes for half of it eg chickpeas or puy lentils? Just trying to reduce meat
I just have a quick question this looks fabulous and I love massaman curry at Thai restaurants. but I honestly don’t cook Thai that much and here in the States lemongrass, the real thing, is a bit expensive; could I substitute pure lemongrass tea in some way? I know it pulls down the integrity of this lovely, authentic recipe, but a budget is a budget, so just asking…
I am just making this now and after simmering the meat for just over an hour an a half it’s like old rubber tyres, hoping it will come good but I doubt it, any idea what I did wrong 😑
You need to cook the meat much longer if it’s still tough. I’m using gravy beef from an elderly cow, so I intend cooking it several hours. It’s got to be tender before starting the curry part of the recipe. I’ve made this recipe before with chuck steak, following Nagi’s timing and it was great. Tough beef just needs longer cooking.
Delicious! I used Ayam curry paste and the only warning is that you probably need to watch the salty flavour (fish sauce) as the paste is a touch salty.
Absolutely phenomenal! I’m vegan so veganised this recipe with fake beef and added carrots, and it was delicious!!! So full of flavour and easy to cook!
Hi Nagi. I made this using the Maesri curry paste and it was brilliant. I’ve made Massaman curry in the past but this recipe takes the dish to a new level. The extra fresh ingredients were perfect. So rich and full of flavours.
Thanks!
Thanks
Great recipe. I cooked from scratch and added Kumara. Also served w tomato, onion and cumin AND banana and coconut raita’s. A winner from the family. Prepared beef and charred bits yesterday ( called away to meet my great niece just born) and it still came together brilliantly. Very tender. I was heavy on the dry spices – always am. As always thanks Nagi. Note : do taste and adjust sweet, sour, salty etc. Be careful w galangal. Yum!!!
Beautiful recipe. Would
Iike to try with chicken next time But not sure if I should simmer chicken chicken stock instead?
EPIC! Used the tinned curry paste with the additions per recipe. Didn’t have galangal so used ginger and lime zest.
Nagi , you dont disappoint. And thank you for the suggestions and workarounds in your recipes. Very helpful.
This is sooo delicious! My husband Rooster loves it – it’s his favourite!
Hi Nagi, I’ve made this before and it is insanely good! I’m wanting to make again this week, but wondering if I could braise the beef the night before and pop it in the fridge until I put the curry together, to save time?
I just did that. Prepared meat yesterday, charred the onions etc and then called away. Cooked today – my husband is raving about it. The meat was pull apart. I also added Kumara and served with coconut and banana AND tomato and onion Raina’s. All great.
A really authentic tasting massaman curry with different layers of flavour.
I have yet to find a Nagi recipe which has left me disappointed.
Thank you Nagi!
Tastes amazing
Loved it, I made this with the Maesri paste, it was delicious.
Awesome flavours and very tender meat
Just delicious. I was pressed for time so used the tin of Maesri paste as per your directions. The flavor was wonderful. It didn’t last long! Another winner.
Did everything to the letter and beef was still tough .. can only blame the beef used chuck steak and topside cut into chunks and after 3 hours very slow cooking was still tough. Flavours were there but not texture 😞
After I brown the meat I add the beef stock and slow cook the beef alone for 1-2hrs to soften it up then I progress with the rest of the recipe.