thai green chicken curry, an aromatic favorite

There is one cuisine that we both love equally and that is Thai. We set out months ago to learn a bit more about it, we know we like to eat Thai food but until recently hadn’t done too much from scratch ourselves. Whether its a hot and spicy tom yum soup, a rich massaman or a fragrant red or green curry, we’ll happily eat it up.

Doubtless there are good pastes out there and we’ll be the first to admit that we both have these to hand for preparing quick mid-week dinners. However we do get pleasure from preparing the pastes ourselves as there is a freshness you just can’t get with shop bought paste. Many recommend using a pestle and mortar to grind down your paste rather than a food processor to cut everything up. We say use whatever method suits the time you have and your lifestyle.

We spent a morning experimenting with the paste and we also made two versions of this curry using firstly groundnut oil and then coconut cream. We preferred the taste using the coconut cream and that’s been recommended in our recipe. Where we have used chicken feel free to experiment with any vegetables that you like. Getting some of the ingredients locally can be a bit difficult but we use Thai Food Online, if for no other reason than to receive the best smelling package in the post!

thai green chicken curry

Print recipe

Ingredients

80g coconut cream
4 medium sized chicken breasts (cubed)
600g coconut milk
120g baby sweetcorn
150g mangetout
2 tbsp thai fish sauce

paste

25g green birds eye chillis
25g galangal
25g lemongrass stalk (trimmed using soft white part only)
3 banana shallots
30g garlic
5g fresh red turmeric
zest of a whole lime
4 kaffir lime leaves
large bunch fresh coriander stalks
10 white peppercorns (ground)
1/2 tsp coriander seeds (roasted and ground)
1/4 tsp cumin seeds (roasted and ground)
1 tbsp thai fish sauce
2 tbsp water

garnish

3 kaffir lime leaves (finely sliced)
2 long red chillis (sliced diagonally)
handful thai basil leaves (torn)

Directions


Place all the paste ingredients in a food processor and blend to a really fine paste.

Heat the coconut cream in a pre-heated non-stick wok or frying pan over a medium heat, so that it dissolves. Coconut cream burns really easily so keep it moving around the pan and do not walk away from the hob! Once melted, add 4 tbsp of the green curry paste and cook gently for 30 seconds to incorporate all the paste with the coconut cream.

Add half the coconut milk and fish sauce to the wok and give everything a good stir round to combine.

Add the chicken and remainder of the coconut milk and cook gently over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes then add your vegetables and continue to heat until the chicken is cooked through.

Stir through the garnish ingredients and serve immediately with some steamed jasmine rice.

Note

If you don't have a food processor you can use a pestle and mortar, just add an ingredient at a time and take care to ensure that each ingredient is finely mashed up before adding the next.

The paste will easily make 6-8 servings of the curry. Any leftover paste can be put into an ice-cube tray and frozen for use later.