Make this with chicken or even entirely meat free. With a sauce this good, you can put anything in it – and it will taste amazing!
Thai Green Curry recipe
The single most requested recipe is finally here!! We love the colour, the spiciness, and how fragrant the creamy sauce is. Along with Pad Thai, Chicken Satay and Thai Red Curry, green curry is the gold standard by which we rate Thai restaurants. It’s the curry we sweat and swear our way through, guzzling down water and wiping our brows when we confidently tell the waiter “give it to us the way it should be – extra spicy!!” Luckily, when we make it at home, we can dial back the spiciness substantially. 😂 Whether made with curry paste in a jar OR homemade green curry paste! “This can be a quick 30 minute Thai Green Curry made with store bought curry paste – OR go all out with a homemade curry paste!”
The BEST Green Curry Paste
With the fresh aromatic ingredients used in South East Asian curries, I’ll always be an advocate of making the curry pastes from scratch because it’s not possible to capture that flavour in jars. But it’s just not viable to do that every time I have a hankering for curry.
Maesri yields the closest result to homemade green curry paste. I find the other brands to be too sweet with less green curry flavour – and strangely, they are spicier!
Pimping up curry in a jar
It’s inevitable using any curry paste out of a jar rather than making it from scratch that the curry will be lacking a certain freshness. So what I do is freshen it up using fresh garlic, ginger and lemongrass. Because “quick and easy” is the go here, I usually don’t even use fresh lemongrass, I use lemongrass paste. It works a treat!
What goes in green curry
The most popular version of green curry is Chicken, so that’s the base version I’m sharing today. While there’s no set rules about what goes in a Thai Green Chicken Curry, the most common combination seems to be chicken, eggplant and snow peas which is what I’ve gone with. But it’s very easy to switch it out for another protein of choice, or to make it meat free so I’ve included directions in the recipe. In addition to the curry paste (and pimping it up, if using jar paste), there’s actually not that many ingredients in Thai Green Curry.
Coconut milk – full fat please! Fat is where the flavour is, if you use low fat coconut milk the sauce will lack flavour. You could even use coconut cream, if you want a richer version! Chicken or vegetable broth – chicken is better (deeper flavours) but vegetable is fine if making a vegetarian version. Chicken – Thigh is best because it stays juicy even after the requiring simmering time to thicken the sauce Asian (Japanese) Eggplant – brilliant sponge for soaking up the sauce. The small eggplants are ideal because the eggplant is cooked until soft and the skin holds it together. Sub with small normal eggplants, or if you dislike eggplants, try zucchini! Snow peas – for colour and freshness Sugar – for extra sweetness Fish sauce – may not be needed if using paste from a jar. Yes it’s stinky but it’s essential for Thai curries and once cooked, it doesn’t taste fishy at all Kaffir Lime leaves – it provides a earthy citrus fragrance to the sauce that’s inherent to green curry. It’s readily available in Australia nowadays, but if you can’t find it, then a lemongrass stalk will be a decent substitute. Freezes great – I almost always have some in the freezer.
Finishing:
Thai Basil – essential for a true green curry experience! Tastes like Italian basil with a slightly more aniseedy flavour Lime juice – just a squeeze, for freshness!
The colour mostly comes from large green chillies which aren’t that spicy, they are mostly for colour and flavour. The curry paste also has small Thai chillies which provide the fiery heat that green curry is known for. If you make your own green curry paste, you can skip the spicy chillies without compromising on flavour!
How to make Thai Green Curry
The making part is very straightforward which is why if you use curry paste from a jar, green curry is something you can have any night of the week. The essential step here is to fry off the curry paste, whether using store bought or homemade. This is the equivalent to sautéing garlic until golden, a step used in virtually all my savoury recipes.
Homemade vs curry in a jar
Here’s a comparison of the two. Flavour wise, it’s inevitable there is a difference but the curry in a jar version is still very, very good. Certainly better than many local Thai restaurants which are often far too sweet, weak, or watery. The homemade curry paste version is also slightly greener – owing to the fresh chillies and coriander/cilantro blitzed into the paste.
Thai Green Curry is….
Very fragrant – from all the herbs and aromatics in the curry paste. It has a less “in your face” flavour compared to Thai Red Curry but it’s more fragrant with chilli than Thai Yellow Curry. Creamy, sweet, and salty. But all too often, Thai takeout places make it far too sweet! Spicy – it’s meant to be! Green Curry is spicier than the other three very popular Thai curries on this site – Thai Red Curry, Yellow Curry and Massaman Curry Sauce is not as thick as Thai Red Curry, it’s meant to be a thinner sauce. My theory is because if you simmer the sauce too long to make it thicker, the sauce turns dark and loses the fresh green colour. It kind of looks like spinach soup! Completely addictive
Serve green curry with jasmine rice for a true Thai restaurant experience. And don’t forget some ice cold beer to temper the heat! – Nagi x
Make a meal out of it – try these on the side
Steamed Jasmine rice, Thai Fried Rice or Coconut Rice Crunchy Asian Slaw on the side – great all rounder Asian salad that goes with all Asian foods Asian Sesame Dressing for any fresh salad or steamed vegetables To start – Chicken Satay Skewers or Thai Fish Cakes
More Thai takeout favourites
Pad Thai – truly just like takeout! Thai Red Curry Thai Yellow Curry Massaman Curry Starters – Chicken Satay and Thai Fish Cakes Thai Fried Rice Pad See Ew – Thai stir fried noodles Browse the Thai recipe collection
Thai Green Curry
Watch how to make it
Life of Dozer
He high tailed it out of the house pretty quickly when I started frying off the curry paste – he can’t handle the heat!! (Neither can I – I always forget not to breath in the chilli fumes!!)
