A simple easy chicken red curry dish made in less time than it takes to get takeout.
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.
MORE CURRY RECIPES TO TRY:
Chicken Saag Curry
Winter Vegetable Curry
Coconut Red Curry Shrimp
Coconut Red Curry Shrimp
Easy Chicken Red Curry
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 15 ounces canned coconut milk
- 1 pound chicken breasts, cut into chunks
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- salt & pepper
- 4 bell peppers of different color, chopped
- 1 leek, chopped
- 1/2 cup grape tomatoes
- 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped plus more for garnish
- juice of 1 lime, divided
Instructions
- 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.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
This looks so delicious and simple, Gina! Lovely recipe!
Looks authentic to me! Yum!
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
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 :)
Love the post title :) And all those tomatoes. I am a huge fan!
This is awesome, Gina. I love Thai too and I love making Thia, or any Asian cuisine, at home. This sounds wonderful!
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.
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…
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 :)
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. ;)