This is a delicious, quick and simple Thai yellow curry recipe you’ll find. It only takes a couple of minutes to prepare, then you let the stove do all the work.
The secret to a Quick and Simple Thai Curry
One of the secrets to a simple and quick Thai curry is sourcing the right curry paste. With a good foundation, you know that you would need to do little to it to make it delicious.
Over the years, I have tried and tested many off-the-shelf yellow curry pastes. So let me share with you a list of my trusted brands that I know works every time.
Lobo brand makes one of the best instant seasonings. During university years I have brought over more of the little sachets that I’d want to count. The seasoning is on point and you’d have to do very little with the dish, which makes it incredibly simple to cook.
Next is Kanokwan brand. I particularly love this one as it is catered to the Thai palate, as I find they bring the spice level up slightly compared to the other ones. Which means that, a little goes a long way. One sachet would make a curry dinner for 3-4 person.
Last but not least, I have recently discovered Mae Sri to be consistently quite good across their curry paste ranges. As far as I know, Mae Sri is the only brand among the 3 recommendations that does a 400g tub. The only occasion for me to purchase a big tub is when I know I am cooking for a big party.
My second secret to making a Thai curry that will hit all the spots is the coconut milk. DO NOT USE COCONUT CREAM. I have had many questions regarding whether they could use coconut cream instead and my answer is to avoid it. Yes, you can still make curries from coconut cream, but it will not taste the same.
Many supermarkets now stock coconut milk so I would always recommend you get coconut milk instead. If you feel bombarded by the selection available at your local supermarket, I’ve made a post on the best coconut milk brands for Thai curries.
Lastly, my recipe uses bone-in chicken chunks from half a chicken cut into generous bite-sized pieces. Nowadays, I tend to buy whole chicken instead of the prepackaged isolate chicken parts. This, I felt like I’m using every bit of the chicken and knows that nothing goes to waste.
In addition to that, cooking with bones give the curry that extra flavour. It’s like supercharging your curry with a chicken stock!
The perfect accompaniment
Along with a bowl of hot rice, the traditional accompaniment to a yellow curry is a quick pickle of cucumber, shallots and chilli. This is also known is archaad also known as achar (South Asian pickles).
Its purpose is the cut through the heavy mouthfeel of the coconut milk with the light acidity. If you haven’t tried having yellow curry with archaad, I highly recommend you do.
Simple Thai Yellow Curry (Gaeng Karee Gai)
Ingredients
- 1/2 chicken (bone-in) cut into small pieces
- 1 sachet yellow curry paste
- 600 mL coconut milk
- 400 g new potatoes or salad potatoes
- 1 tsp fish sauce optional
- 1 tsp sugar optional
Instructions
- Prepare the chicken by cutting it into generous bite-sized pieces then set aside. If you're not a fan of bone-in meats, you can use chicken thighs instead.
- On a medium heat, add one sachet of the curry paste and about 100mL of the coconut milk. Sautee in the pan for about 5 minutes until you start seeing an orange-tint oil. That is the sign of the coconut milk separating.
- Add the chicken pieces into the pan. When the pan heats up again (coconut milk starts to boil) then add in the remaining coconut milk.
- As soon as the curry comes back to temperature, simmer on low heat for another 20 minutes.
- Season to your taste. The measurement above is suitable for the curry I used. So make sure you give your curry a taste before adjusting the seasoning.
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