Thai Green Chicken Curry
The main thing with Thai food is getting a nice balance of hot (chillies), salty (fish sauce), sweet (sugar) and sour (lime juice). I’ve put measurements in there for those things to use as a guide, but it’s up to you how much of each you put in; have a play until you’re happy with the way it tastes because there are no hard and fast rules. Also, I never use lite coconut cream, it makes the curry thin and sad – I prefer to use Kara coconut cream.
Ingredients
Curry Paste
- 2 tbsp Thai green curry paste
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 ea shallots (or ½ a large onion) roughly chopped
- 1 bunch bunch fresh coriander (including stalks and roots) washed
- 1 tbsp lemongrass paste (optional)
- 3 tsp ground cumin
- 3 ea big green chillies*
Curry
- 1 tbsp peanut oil (or grape seed)
- 800 grams boneless chicken thighs
- 400 ml coconut cream
- 500 ml chicken stock
- 1 ea kaffir lime leaf (or use the zest of 2 limes)
- Vegetables of your choice – green beans, cherry tomatoes, snow peas, baby corn, tinned bamboo, spinach, mushrooms
- 1 tbsp palm or brown sugar
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- big handfull basil leaves (Thai or regular)
- Cooked rice, to serve
- Coriander leaves, chopped peanuts, chopped red or green chillies, to garnish
Instructions
- n a processor, mortar & pestle or stick wand blender, mix the curry paste, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, cumin and chillies with ½ cup of the coconut cream to make smooth thick paste.
- Heat the oil a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the curry paste mixture and cook for 4-5 minutes to release the aromas, stirring continuously (you should see little beads of oil come to the top by the end).
- Add stock, kaffir lime leaf or zest, the remaining coconut cream and simmer gently for around 10 minutes.
- Add the chicken and simmer for another 15 minutes until just cooked through and the sauce has reduced and thickened.
- Add the vegetables and simmer for a few more minutes until just tender
- Add the brown sugar, lime juice and fish sauce. Stir to combine and taste it – then, add more sour, sweet or salty to taste. If you like it hot, you can throw in some chilli flakes or chopped red chillies. Lastly stir through the basil leaves.
- Serve with rice and pile up with loads of coriander, peanuts and chillies.
Notes
Tips
Big green chillies are usually milder than red chillies. Watch out for small red chillies – they can really pack a wallop and may blow your head off. If you hate spicy food, just use one green chilli (and you can scrape out the seeds/membrane out as well for less heat).
If you can find lemongrass sticks, finely mince one instead of using paste.
If you can find lemongrass sticks, finely mince one instead of using paste.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!