This Thai red curry recipe with chicken is easy to make and takes less than 30 minutes to cook! Made with juicy lean chicken in the yummiest Thai red coconut curry sauce, it's served over your favourite rice or noodles. It's easy to customize with your favourite vegetables!
If you love delicious Thai flavours as much as I do, you'll love this Thai red curry with chicken! I love the complex flavours of Thai food. Thai recipes feature ingredients that are sour, sweet, salty, bitter and spicy, all balanced harmoniously.
If you search "Thai" in the search bar, you'll find I have almost 20 Thai recipes! Some of my favourites are Easy Thai Baked Chicken, Easy Thai Chicken Skewers and Spicy Thai Mussels in Coconut Milk. Today's recipe, however, is also a favourite: Thai red curry with chicken!
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❤️ Why you'll love this Thai chicken curry recipe
- Now you can have your favourite Thai food, right at home!
- I've tested this recipe many times, tweaking the ingredients until I know I've got it just the way I like it. You may have tried my Easy Thai Red Curry with Shrimp. Today's recipe uses the same red curry sauce but replaces the shrimp with boneless chicken breasts. It's more vegetable-forward, adding extra veggies for extra flavour and nutrition.
- It's easy to adapt to your tastes. This recipe as written below makes a mild curry. Feel free to amp it up by adding more red curry paste and a little more fish sauce.
- It's naturally gluten-free.
- You'll only need one pan!
- It's another one of my favourite 30-minute meals!
🛒 Ingredients and substitutions
You'll find a complete list of ingredients with amounts in the recipe card below. But before we get to the full recipe, here are a few notes about some of the key ingredients.
- chicken: two medium to large chicken breasts,(1 pound) boneless and skinless.
- coconut milk: use the full-fat coconut milk that comes in a can for the richest, creamiest Thai curry sauce.
- fish sauce: adds an umami flavour to this dish. While it smells strong when you open the bottle, you won't notice the odor or the taste in the finished dish.
- Thai red curry paste: While you could make your own, buying red curry paste pre-made makes this a quick and easy red curried chicken recipe.
- coconut sugar, or brown sugar: helps to balance the acid from the lime in this recipe and adds a rich caramel flavour. Don't leave it out.
- garlic and dried red chili flakes: add flavour and a little heat to the chicken.
- vegetables: bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, snow peas, green onions
- herbs: basil and cilantro. You'll use half in the curry sauce and half to garnish the finished dish. Use Thai basil if you have it, but regular basil is fine, too.
- ginger: freshly grated ginger root brightens the flavours in this curry. If you don't have any, you could use half the amount of ground ginger, but I highly recommend using fresh. It really amps up the flavour.
- limes: you'll need two or three. You'll juice two to add to the sauce and slice the third into quarters to garnish the finished dish.
🔪 Instructions
Here's an overview of what you'll do to make this recipe perfectly. You'll find complete instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
This chicken curry recipe cooks quickly. You'll want to watch carefully to make sure you don't overcook the peppers or the chicken.
I suggest having everything sliced, diced or combined before you start cooking. If you have the chicken prepared, the curry sauce ingredients combined and the vegetables and herbs prepped, this red curry chicken recipe will turn out perfectly!
First, put your rice on to cook, either in an Instant Pot or use my Never-Fail Thai Coconut Rice recipe.
Once you have everything for the curry prepared, start by sautéing the onions, mushrooms and peppers. Once they've softened, you'll remove them to a bowl.
Next, cook the chicken in the same skillet, then remove it to a separate bowl.
Now you'll add the coconut curry sauce to the skillet. Lower the heat and let it simmer until it has reduced by half. It will still be runny. Don't expect it to be thick like an Indian curry. 
Add the onions, mushrooms and peppers back into the skillet along with the chicken and snow peas. Next, stir in half the herbs and green onions. Simmer until the snow peas are crisp-tender, then remove the pan from the heat.
Serve in bowls over fluffy rice and garnish with the remaining cilantro, basil and green onion. Offer lime quarters for an extra squeeze of bright flavour!
🔁 Possible Variations
Try this Thai red curry recipe with different vegetables like
- thinly sliced carrots
- tiny cauliflower florets
- sugar-snap peas
- kale sliced in ribbons
- sliced zucchini
👍🏼 Helpful Tips to make the best Thai curry
- The best curries are made with lots of aromatics, like onions, fresh garlic and ginger. This is a vegetable-forward recipe making veggies the stars! It uses bell peppers, mushrooms and snow peas, but you can add your own favourites!
- It's easiest to slice chicken when it's partially frozen.
- This recipe as written is mildly spicy. Taste the coconut curry sauce once you've simmered and reduced it. Not spicy enough? Add a little more red curry paste, a small spoonful at a time, or another tablespoon of fish sauce and grate a little more ginger if you like.
❓Reader's Questions
Your choice! I like to use jasmine rice and cook it in my Instant Pot or make my favourite Never-Fail Thai Coconut Rice. Feel free to use brown rice or serve this curry over rice noodles. It's also delicious with Cauliflower Rice.
No. The coconut milk that is sold in a carton is actually a coconut beverage. You need the creamy full-fat coconut milk that comes in a can. You can read more about the different types of coconut milk and their uses in Know What Type of Coconut Milk to Use.
🍽 How to serve Thai chicken curry with vegetables
You can serve the rice and the curry sauce separately, as you'll find in a Thai restaurant. Let your guests add the sauce to their rice bit by bit as they eat.
I like to serve this chicken curry in a bowl with the rice on one side and the curry on the other! While they'll all mix together eventually, I think looks more appetizing to see them separately.
⏰ Storage Instructions
To store: Cool the cooked curry before refrigerating it. To be safe, it must not be left at room temperature for more than 2 hours. It should be stored in a covered container in the fridge for 1 to 2 days.
To reheat: Reheat gently over low to medium heat in a skillet.
To freeze: Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
🗒 More 30-minute meals to try soon
Enjoy these delicious Thai flavours! When you make this Thai chicken curry recipe, please leave a comment and a rating below. I love hearing from you! Thanks in advance. Subscribe to my newsletter and receive new recipes delivered straight to your inbox.
📖 Recipe
Thai Red Curry with Chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken breasts, or thighs, boneless and skinless
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried red chili flakes
- 1 large onion, peeled and diced
- 1 medium red bell pepper, seeded, diced or sliced
- 1 medium orange bell pepper, seeded, diced or sliced
- 1 medium yellow bell pepper, seeded, diced or sliced
- 6 medium mushrooms
- 24 snow peas, or sugar-snap peas
- 2 14 oz .(396 ml) cans full-fat coconut milk
- ¼ cup fish sauce
- ¼ cup red curry paste
- 4 teaspoons fresh ginger root, finely grated
- 2 tablespoons coconut sugar, or brown sugar, or Golden Monkfruit sweetener
- ¼ cup lime juice, from 2 limes
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- ½ cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped
- ½ cup basil leaves, finely chopped
- 1 medium lime quartered, for garnish
Instructions
- Begin by cooking the rice. Rinse it first. You can either cook it in an Instant Pot (2 cups rice with 2 cups water and a pinch of salt) for 5 minutes with a 10-minute natural release OR use my recipe for Never Fail Thai Coconut Rice, cooked on the stovetop. (link to recipe in Notes, below.)
- Slice the chicken breasts into ¼ inch slices, then in half. In a medium bowl, toss the chicken pieces with 2 teaspoons olive oil, minced garlic and red chili flakes. Set aside in the fridge.
- Make the Thai red curry sauce. Combine the coconut milk with the fish sauce, curry paste, ginger, sugar, and lime juice. Set aside.
- Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken pieces until no longer pink inside. Remove to a clean bowl and set aside.
- Heat another 2 teaspoons oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté diced onions, mushrooms and bell peppers until softened but not browned, about 5 - 7 minutes. Remove to a bowl.
- Pour the coconut curry sauce to the pan. Simmer over low heat until reduced by half.
- Add the bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and chicken back into the pan.
- Add the snow peas to the pan. Sprinkle with half the herbs and half the green onions and stir to combine. Cook just until the snow peas are crisp tender.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve over rice or noodles. Garnish with the remaining cilantro, basil and sliced green onions.
Norah
So quick to whip up! Love making this with noodles, too!
Elaine
Great idea!