If I had to pick one type of food to live off of for the rest of my life, it would be Thai. I can’t pick a favorite food to save my life (seriously, how can people actually narrow it down to one thing and answer that question?!)but I can easily say with confidence that as a “cuisine”, Thai is the winner.
The funny thing about that assertion is that up until last week, I’d never actually cooked anything Thai at home. Curry pastes, fish sauce, bamboo shoots…not things I ever have on hand and honestly, they scared the heck out of me. It all seems so foreign and overwhelming. But last week I’d had enough. The closest Thai place is 25 minutes away from us so takeout is pretty much impossible unless eating cold pad thai is your thing and the ghetto produce store I go to all the time has an entire 2 aisles dedicated to Asian ingredients. So after staring at the shelves for at least 10 minutes trying to make sense of it all, I realized there are way more intimidating things in life than cooking Thai food, grabbed the red curry paste and fish sauce, threw it in the cart and walked away pretending like I knew what I was going to do with them.
Fake it till you make it.
And guess what? All of that intimidation…totally unwarranted. Thai really couldn’t be easier. Bamboo shoots are lovely, lemongrass is great, but you don’t need any of that stuff to get a delicious curry at home. Curry paste, coconut milk, a ton of veggies and you’re all set.
Is it the most traditional recipe? Probably not, but it beats cold take out.
Give me a week and the fish sauce is next to be tackled.
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 15oz. can coconut milk
- 1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into chunks
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- salt & pepper
- 4 bell peppers of different color, chopped
- 1 leek, chopped
- ½ cup grape tomatoes
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped plus more for garnish
- juice of 1 lime, divided
- In a large skillet over medium high heat, saute olive oil and curry paste, pressing the paste into the oil for 1 minute.
- While that sautes, combine chicken, curry powder, salt & pepper in a small bowl and toss to coat. Set aside.
- Add half the coconut milk into the pan and whisk together until it’s incorporated with the curry paste. Then add remaining coconut milk and simmer for 3 minutes.
- Add seasoned chicken and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add vegetables, cilantro and half of the lime juice to the pan, stir, cover and cook for about 5-7 more minutes until chicken is fully cooked.
- Remove lid, squeeze remaining lime juice on top just before serving.
- Serve over brown rice and garnish with additional cilantro.
{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
That entire asian aisle overwhelms me! I’ve always wanted to make curry stuffs at home but never felt like stocking up on all those ingredients that would likely go bad before I get around to using it again. It’s nice to know that you can get away with just the paste. Which means I may get around to that asian aisle
How does anyone pick any favorite food? There are so many yummy ethnic foods out there, it’s so hard to choose! I think for me, it’s Thai, sushi, Indian (of course) and comfort foods
Thai is probably highest on the list after Indian food. My hubby is the one responsible for making Thai curries in our house. I’m too intimidated to try, but this one sounds like a no brainer, so maybe I’ll give it a shot..sans chicken though 
anything with curry and coconut milk, I am in love with. Though I’ll probs sub tofu. I do a tofu curry with both red and green curry pastes, I lovvvve it.
you what’s weird…I like tofu (wouldn’t say love, but strongly like) but hate it in Asian dishes. Full out hate. I think b/c it’s usually the silky kind which grosses me out. Miso soup makes me want to throw up. haha
I’m with you – thai food is just so good. And while I’m not usually a curry fan, I have to admit, this looks amazing.
I’m kind of shocked you didn’t say Mexican!
I love the color combination in your dish! It sounds fantastic!!
I don’t think I’ve ever had red curry. Looks great!
yum!!! we’re on the same wavelenght! i’m posting my go-to lentil & veggie curry tomorrow!
Can’t wait to see it
I’m with you on the Thai food – definitely my cuisine of choice. I love all of the bright flavors, lime, coconut, curry…so good!
I love food that’s so full of colour and flavours like this!
I’m all about some curry. The spices are so intense and so incredible that the dish usually comes together effortlessly – or at least easier than other things.
I just can’t decide about thai food for myself… I’ve had some sad excuses for thai food and truthfully I hate when veggies and meat are swimming in brown teriyaki ginger sauce, blech. I’ve had a few good curries though, which I do enjoy. I think I prefer Indian over thai if I had to choose though… but Greek (Mediterranean) and Mexican win top cuisine for me by a landslide.
totally agree with you on the teriyaki sauce thing. Not a fan of gooey brown sauces either. But curry I could do all day long
That looks really yummy!! Do you have a recommendation for a “coconut milk” alternative? I’m allergic to coconut milk
Eyes get all puffy and swollen and I can’t breathe well… puts a real damper on enjoying Thai food!! But I love everything else in the recipe.
That’s like the saddest thing I’ve heard, Kelly! haha I love coconut milk so much
A substitution is tough…I feel like the coconut milk kind of makes the dish (or at least makes it that classic Thai flavor). I suppose you could try regular milk? Honestly not sure though…
That looks delicious! I have a pricy Thai place literally on my block (!) so I think this recipe will encourage me to give my wallet a rest.
This is awesome, Gina. I love Thai too and I love making Thia, or any Asian cuisine, at home. This sounds wonderful!
Love the post title
And all those tomatoes. I am a huge fan!
Totally with you on thai food – do you have a good recipe for tom yum up your sleeve, too?
I’ve never attempted that one but I did take a Thai cooking class in NYC last year and we made a hot and sour soup that was pretty similar. The only scary part was the dried shrimp. Weird and ew. I can email you the recipe if you want, just let me know
I’ve never really bought produce from the Asian store in my area… I am Filipino and love Filipino food but I have found that I can get ingredients for my native dishes at Fred Meyer’s. Thai food ingredients however are seemingly impossible to find at grocery stores so I never really attempted to make any Thai dishes at home.
this Asian store is not your typical “asian” store. It’s a weird combo of insanely cheap (normal) produce, an awesome (also cheap) fish market and then an entire section of Asian ingredients. It’s owned and run by Koreans and they’ve just made one awesomely ghetto fab, cheap conglomeration of a store! haha
Looks authentic to me! Yum!
This looks so delicious and simple, Gina! Lovely recipe!
MMMM I love curry!
I only recently started enjoying curry. I’ve been really into some Indian curries, but your recipe looks awesome! Thanks!
I’ve just started experimenting with Thai and other pan-Asian foods, and, lo and behold, it’s actually pretty darn easy! And you just can’t beat the complex flavors of Asian food. I love being able to whip up a take out quality meal in under 30 minutes. This looks fantastic and I can’t wait to add it to my menu!
my husband and i loooove thai food too. i learned how to make it about a year ago, and ever since we’ve had it about once a week for dinner. you’re right, it really is so easy!
I love thai food but cant eat at a thai restaurant because there are cashews and my daughter has an allergy. I really need to start making it at home. Guess I need to buy some red curry paste!
I’ve cooked Thai food but I’ve never made anything with curry paste. Why haven’t I ever made anything with curry paste?!
I used to be intimidated by Thai cooking too, but once I realized that Thai curry pastes were readily available and really good, it became so easy. Thai is definitely one of my favorite cuisines and I love making it at home now.
This is really something delicious and comforting which can be cooked in a hurry. I just saw this picture on Foodgawker and couldn’t stop appreciating the clicks!! The recipe sounds delish!!!
Thai cuisine is one of my favorites too…I love lemon grass and chicken wrapped in some kind of leaves. Tastes really great. But just the same, the Thai place is a little out of the way, so I rarely visit. This is a nice dish to cure my Thai cravings. Looks perfect, Gina!
I absolutely loooove thai food as well! Unfortunately generally you do need to seek out the various ingredients – fish sauce, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves so it can be discouraging but as you said you can always just use the red curry paste and coconut milk! If you have a Whole Foods by you they usually carry a lot of different Thai flavors/spices/ingredients. This September my boyfriend and I are starting a 2 year backpacking trip through Europe and Asia (which we’ll blog about on http://acoupletravelers.com) and I am SO excited for Thailand and the fact that I’ll be able to eat Thai food 24/7!
Vicky- first of all, I’m totally jealous of your trip! That is pretty much my dream that will never happen with a husband who claims to like to travel but really doesn’t! Unfortunately, the closest whole foods is about 70 miles away from me. I’m sure I can find some good spices and stuff locally and I probably will seek them out now that I’ve at least attempted Thai once and am more comfortable with it
Can’t wait to read about your travels!
That’s too bad your husband doesn’t like to travel! Maybe he’ll eventually come around? I work in the center of DC so there is a Whole Foods half a mile from my work so I’ll pop in there every now and then on my lunch break to buy a couple of things – though I usually go overboard and end up with a whole basket of random food : /
Thai food intimidates me. I have never actually tried anything with curry before….this looks so yummy and colorful.
I just finished off a kale salad for dinner and now I want that red curry!
oooo this is a very similar dish to what i’m going to make tomorrow night..this looks delicious and i love all the veggies you have in here!
Haha, I also tend to stand in front of certain ingredients at the grocery store over and over thinking what the heck I can do with them. “Fake until you make it” yep, one of my fave phrases. But I won’t be faking next time, I can just feel the confindence with which I will be grabbing that curry paste next time
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