Creamy Thai Red Curry

A warm and comforting creamy coconut Thai red curry that's easy and quick to put together with many layers of flavors from the shrimp paste, coconut cream, kaffir lime leaves, and condensed milk.

More often then not, I find myself always leaning towards takeout especially during hectic times of the year. It's easier to just blame it on my laziness but truth be told I just over think food and forget that delicious food doesn't always have to be complicated and take a decade to make.

So for anyone out there who falls into this rut like me, I would like to share my super easy and versatile Thai red curry recipe in hopes that this recipe can bring you a whole lot of deliciousness without a lot of effort so you can use your time on more important things - like eating dessert - priorities 🙂

INGREDIENTS FOR THAI RED CURRY

For this Thai red curry recipe, a few of the ingredients should be available at your local grocery store but a bulk of it (fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves, red curry paste, and shrimp paste) might be harder to find unless you shop for it at an Asian grocery store.

When you are shopping for shrimp paste, keep in mind that it is sometimes known as shrimp sauce as well. Look for a brownish-gray paste-like sauce in a glass or plastic jar.

To keep things simple and quick, I use red curry paste for this recipe instead of making it from scratch but rest assured this shortcut does not compromise the flavor of it at all. 🙂 In fact, I highly recommend keeping a small jar around all the time. Depending on the brand you buy, they almost always have all the main components of thai cuisines (kaffir lime leaves, lemon grasss, galangal, garlic, shrimp paste and chilis) and it takes the work out of finding these ingredients if they are not easy to find in your area - and the flavors are definitely authentic. 🙂

COCONUT MILK vs COCONUT CREAM

Once I discovered how flavourful and full-flavored coconut cream was, I rarely ever use coconut milk now. Coconut cream has a more robust coconut flavor and provides a more creamy texture in anything it is used in from to it's higher fat content.

Unfortunately, coconut cream is not always easy to find but if you can find it then definitely use it. If you can't find coconut cream, you can use coconut milk but make sure to find a higher fat content one - I find those types of coconut milk are a lot more flavourful. Try to also find coconut milk without any chemicals or preservatives - ideally you want to find one with just coconut milk (or coconut extract) and water. I have found in the past that any coconut milk I have used with a lot of added chemicals and preservatives actually has less of a coconutty flavor.

CUSTOMIZING YOUR THAI RED CURRY WITH DIFFERENT PROTEINS

This is a very versatile Thai red curry and you can easily use any type of protein for this recipe. A few types I have used in the past successfully are:

• Thinly Sliced Chicken (white and dark meat - use the meat marinade below)
• Thinly Sliced Beef (use the meat marinade below)
• Fish - this also works very well in this Thai red curry. You don't need to cut this super-thin since fish is quite delicate and can break apart easily if it is sliced too thinly.
• Tofu
• You can make this completely vegetarian by adding only vegetables as well (red peppers, sugar snaps, snow peas, bok choy, etc.)

HOW TO GET A CREAMIER THAI RED CURRY

For this recipe, I used condensed milk to give the curry a hint of sweetness but also give it an added creaminess as well. You can use palm sugar interchangeably with the condensed milk but it will be slightly less sweet so tweak this to adjust this to your taste. If you substitute the condensed milk with white sugar, you will lose a bit of the creaminess - to compensate for that you can add an additional tablespoon of coconut milk. Keep in mind as well that white sugar is a lot sweeter than condensed milk so use half the amount of white sugar and work your way up slowly until it is at the right degree of sweetness for you.

SIMPLE MEAT MARINADE

Have you ever noticed that whenever you cook any type of thinly sliced chicken or beef they sometimes come out dry and sometimes tough? I have a solution for that - it's my two-ingredient super simple meat marinade that I pretty much use in all my stir-fries.

It's made of salt and water! It's essentially a mini brine. The salt draws the water into meat and makes it super supple so that it is harder to overcook and dry out the meat. Neat eh? For this marinade, I rarely ever use salt though and I prefer to use either soy sauce or fish sauce instead.

LOOKING FOR MORE COMFORT FOODS? TRY THESE!

• Khao Soi (Thai Coconut Curry Noodle Soup)
• Tom Yum Goong (Thai Hot and Sour Soup)
• Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew)
• Beer-Braised Pork Belly (Chinese Style)
• Creamy Cheese Ramen

DID YOU MAKE THIS THAI RED CURRY RECIPE?

If you made this Thai red curry recipe leave me a comment to let me know how it went! I also want to see! Follow Pups with Chopsticks on Instagram, snap a photo, and tag and hashtag it with @pupswithchopsticks and #pupswithchopsticks. I love to know what you are making!

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Creamy Thai Red Curry

5 from 5 votes

A warm and comforting creamy coconut red thai curry that's easy, versatile and quick to put together with many layers of flavours from the shrimp paste, coconut cream, kaffir lime leaves and condensed milk.

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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Total Time 35 mins

Servings: 3 Servings

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INGREDIENTS

 

Beef & Chicken Marinade

• ▢ ½ lb beef (or any type of protein)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• ▢ 4 tablespoons water

Curry Ingredients

• ▢ 1-2 garlic cloves
• ▢ 1 onion
• ▢ 3-4 tablespoons oil
• ▢ 3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (or honey, see notes below)
• ▢ 4 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
• ▢ 1 tablespoon shrimp paste
• ▢ 4 kaffir lime leaves
• ▢ 3 cups water
• ▢ 1 cup coconut cream
• ▢ 1-2 teaspoon fish sauce (adjust this to taste)

Toppings & Garnishes (optional)

• ▢ basil leaves
• ▢ crushed roasted peanuts
• ▢ red chili peppers
• ▢ lime

INSTRUCTIONS

 

Preparing and Marinating the Protein

• If you are using beef, chicken or pork as the protein - Thinly slice the meat and add in the marinade and set aside. The thinner you slice this, the less time it will take to fully cook it.
• If you are using veggies, tofu or fish as the protein cut them up into bite sized pieces and set aside

Putting the Curry Together

• Slice the onion and set aside
• Roughly chop the garlic and set aside
• Add 3-4 tablespoons of oil in a pot and set the stove to medium heat.
• Once the pot is hot, add in the onions and saute them until they are soft, then add the garlic and kaffir lime leaves in and cook it for 1 more minute until it is soft and fragrant.
• Add in the red curry paste and toast it for 1-2 minutes - it's okay if some of it sticks to the bottom of the pot.
• Add the coconut cream and gently scrape the bottom of the pan with your spoon to scrape all the burnt red curry paste off the bottom of the pot. The burnt red curry on the bottom of the pot gives the curry additional flavor.
• Add in the water, shrimp paste, condensed milk and stir until everything is well combined
• Adjust the heat to low heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes

Cooking the Protein in the Curry

• Once you have simmered the curry for 20-30 minutes, adjust the heat back to medium-low heat and give the curry 2-3 minutes to come to come to temperature again.
• Add in the protein (beef, chicken, fish, tofu etc) and cook it until it is cooked all the way through. The time it takes for the meat to cook all the way through will depend on how thick you sliced the meat. It takes about 5-8 minutes for the meat to cook all the way through for me when I slice it ⅛ inch thick.
• Add in the fish sauce at the very end and adjust it to your preference of saltiness
• Remove from heat when it is done and discard kaffir lime leaves. Garnish the curry with toppings of your choice and serve it with rice, noodles or rice cakes! Enjoy! 🙂

NOTES

• You can substitute condensed milk with palm sugar. If you do, add an additional 1-2 tablespoons of coconut cream to give it the creaminess it is missing
• If you are substituting the condensed milk with sugar, start by adding only 1 tablespoon of sugar and tweak it to your liking. Sugar is much sweeter than condensed milk. Add in an additional 1-2 tablespoons of coconut cream to replace the missing creaminess
• You can substitute the condensed milk with honey as well, but add 1 extra tablespoon of coconut cream.
• If you cannot find coconut cream, try to find a coconut milk with high fat content with as little preservatives and chemicals as possible. The ingredient list should ideally just be coconut milk (or coconut extract) and water.
• If you are using fish as your protein, try not to cut it too thin. Fish is super delicate and will break apart in the curry if it is cut too thinly.
• When shopping for shrimp paste, keep in mind that shrimp paste and shrimp sauce is used interchangeably. Look for a brownish grey paste in a glass or plastic jar.
• You can easily use leftover meats and protein for this recipe! If you use leftovers instead of raw protein, add it in under the 'Cooking the Protein in the Curry' section and cook it for 1-2 minutes instead of 5-8 minutes.

NUTRITION

Serving: 1Serving | Calories: 477kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 35g | Sodium: 1187mg | Sugar: 13g

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