Green Thai Chicken Coconut Curry
on Sep 17, 2022, Updated Apr 11, 2024
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Thai food is such a delight. It is intense in flavor and tastes exotic in the best way. Green Thai Chicken Coconut Curry is sweet, creamy, spicy to taste and has the most fragrant sauce. It’s a recipe that you’ve got to try. If you love curry like I do, try my pumpkin chicken curry , or my vegetable curry !
Green Thai Chicken Curry is of our favorite dishes and we eat it at least once a month. It takes a few oddball ingredients, but I don’t mind finding and buying them because I know I’ll use them over and over again, even if they are just for this dish. The cilantro, lime, and fish sauce aren’t optional garnishes, they really make the dish and it wouldn’t taste nearly as good without them.
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love this Recipe:
- Very delicious flavorful recipe!
- Can be made to your liking of spiciness
- Makes amazing leftovers
- Stores well in the fridge or freezer!
The recipe is very flexible and I have some suggestions if you are curious about substituting veggies or anything else. Curry is one of those things that only improve with time. The longer it can cook the better. It’s always phenomenal the second day, so plan on left overs.
Curry pastes varies from brand to brand. Ask around for suggestions of friends, hit up the local Asian market, and when you find a good one stick with it! I recommend Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste. It tends to be little bit spicier than others but you can pick it up from Walmart or Target today.
Ingredients:
- Oil – essential to any curry.
- Green curry paste– the base of the flavor. Can be spicy so use as much or as little as you want.
- Onion and garlic– adds a bitter and robust dimension of flavor
- Chicken breast
- Ginger – a kick of flavor
- Coconut milk– adds a creaminess and helps bring the flavors together
- Fish sauce– like stated above, this is not an optional ingredient. It makes the dish taste so flavorful.
- Soy sauce– a little saltiness
- Sugar– just a little sweetness to balance the spice
- Potatoes– these will soften and absorb so much flavor
- Carrots– color and crunch
- Peas– a delicious addition
- Cilantro– another non optional ingredient.
- Limes– lime juice marries all the flavors together
- Rice– you choose what kind
See recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Recipe Instructions
- Heat the oil and green curry paste over medium heat in a large pot.
- Add the onions and garlic and cook for an additional 5 minutes
- Add the raw chicken and cook until the chicken is cooked through.
- Stir in the ginger, coconut milk, fish sauce, soy sauce, and sugar.
- Add the potatoes and carrots. Allow the the curry to gently simmer, uncovered, until the mixture thickens and the vegetables are cooked through, 45 minutes to an hour. Add the peas 5 minutes before serving.
- Serve on top of hot rice and then sprinkle with chopped cilantro and fresh lime juice.
Frequently Asked Questions:
The spiciness comes from the curry paste, so if you don’t like it hot start with less. If you like a little heat add a bit more. We like a medium heat and I’ll normally do about 3 tablespoons of curry paste.
Red curry is traditionally hotter and gets it’s color from using a lot of chilies. Green curry tends to be less spicy, more subtle and sweet and obviously green in color from the ingredients that are in it.
I highly recommend serving it over rice. The rice is so delicious with the sauce and completes the meal. You could also put Thai green curry chicken over rice noodles or a salad but rice is always my go-to.
More Stovetop Pot Meals to Consider:
Soups, Stews, & Chowders
Chicken Wild Rice Soup
Soups, Stews, & Chowders
Tomato Basil Soup
Recipes by Cook Time
Vegetable Soup
Soups, Stews, & Chowders
Wendy’s Chili Recipe
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Green Thai Chicken Coconut Curry
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup oil, (oil, peanut, coconut)
- 2-5 Tablespoons green curry paste
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 pounds chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
- 2 cans coconut milk
- 3 Tablespoons fish sauce
- 3 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 4 potatoes, cubed
- 4 carrots, sliced
- 1/2 cup peas, fresh or frozen
- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
- 2 limes cut into wedges
- hot cooked rice
Instructions
- In a large soup pot or dutch oven heat the oil and green curry paste over medium heat. Stir to combine and cook for 3-5 minutes. You are giving the oil and curry paste a chance to marry and this is an important step.
- Add the onions and garlic and cook for an additional 5 minutes over medium heat. If the mixture seems to be sticking to the bottom of the pan just add a little more oil as needed. A little sticking is ok, but you don’t want to burn it.
- Add the raw chicken and cook until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
- Add the ginger, coconut milk, fish sauce, soy sauce, and sugar. Stir to combine.
- Add the potatoes and carrots. Allow the the curry to gently simmer, uncovered, until the mixture thickens and the vegetables are cooked through, 45 minutes to an hour.
- Add the peas 5 minutes before serving.
- To serve, dish the hot curry on top of hot rice and then sprinkle with chopped cilantro, fresh lime juice, and if it needs more salt, additional fish sauce on top.
Notes
- The cilantro, lime, and fish sauce aren’t optional garnishes, they really make the dish and it wouldn’t taste nearly as good without them.
- Curry is one of those things that only improve with time. The longer it can cook the better. It’s always phenomenal the second day, so plan on left overs.
- Potatoes are a great base, but feel free to add just about anything else you have on hand. Sometimes I don’t add chicken either… just skip that step and add lots more veggies.
- Curry pastes varies from brand to brand. Ask around for suggestions of friends, hit up the local Asian market, and when you find a good one stick with it!
- The spiciness in this dish comes from the curry paste, so if you don’t like it hot start with less. If you like a little heat add a bit more. We like a medium heat and I’ll normally do about 3 tablespoons of curry paste. It has a kick but isn’t so hot my kids won’t eat it, it would be way too hot for my Mother-in-law though…
Great recipe. I halved it. Delicious!
Recipe looks delicious but, if you describe flavors that come together harmoniously, they “marry”, not “merry”. Can’t wait to try the recipe!
First of all, I LOVE this recipe! I haven’t looked through the other comments but I was wondering how many calories per serving? And how big is a serving? Thanks!!
Not sure, I’ll add it to my list to do the nutritional information for. So glad you liked it!
We loved this dish!! I also have had mixed success with curries at home, but this was just fantastic and even better the second day. It was probably my particular brand of fish and soy sauces at work, but I found it a bit too salty at first and added about a cup of chicken stock to balance it out. I will just cut back a touch on the soy and fish sauces next time. I like that (while also flexible), this recipe calls for vegetables I always have on hand. That means I can whip this up last minute! Thanks so much for a great recipe!
Yay! We love this one too and make it often. Good call on adding a little chicken stock, and thank you for noting that in case anyone else runs into that issue. Enjoy from my kitchen to yours friend!
It is very strange! I used normal coconut milk. I will plan on making it again because it does taste good its just not as saucy now. 🙂 Thanks for the recipe though !! I love your blog, I made the best baked chicken legs and they were delicious!!
Help!! I was so excited about this recipe and it was going so perfectly until I added the peas and then all of the sudden my sauce separated and became an oily mess. I don’t know if I overcooked it but it seemed to happen right after I added the peas. It still tastes amazing, just does not look as pretty. Any tips?
That is crazy! I’m so sorry! I make this dish all of the time (we had it Tuesday of this week) and have never ever had is separate. Did you use a light coconut milk? Mine is a full fat and it’s always stayed together. Hmmm… skip the peas next time (does a rush of cold normally make things separate?) If you can’t tell I don’t know what happened, but that’s the pits. I do hope you make it again though, it’s so good!
My husband is such a picky eater… I always say he could order off the kids’ menu at restaurants. I didn’t tell him much about the recipe when I made this, other than “chicken, coconut milk, and rice.” Anyway, he loved this! Such a simple meal to make! My two little boys (ages 4 & 6) ate it as well without a fuss. Definitely keeping this recipe! Thank you!!
this was excellent! I will definitely make this again. I used Thai Kitchen Green Curry paste and it was very good. Thank you for the recipe!
My hubby was nervous about this as I’ve not had the best results with curry dishes in the past, but this turned out fantastic! It’s a keeper!
Do you buy the green curry paste, or make it yourself?
I pick it up at the Asian market… ask around and see what’s good in your area because they can vary a lot!