Cookbooks
By Hong Thaimee
4.0
(5)
Photo by Noah f*cks and Paul Wagtouicz
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After a long day of shooting photographs at my parents’ new farmhouse outside of Chiang Mai, one evening their neighbors surprised us all with a huge pot of delicious gaeng khiaw wan gai and jasmine rice, easily enough to feed the dozen of us and more. The fragrance of green curry, coconut, and basil kept everyone in a great mood. Soon there was a whole party going on on the front lawn, with music, dancing, and sending up fire lanterns (this was during the lunar festival of Loi Krathong, celebrated across Thailand), culminating in fireworks and a parade to a nearby temple. It was an unforgettable night.
Ingredients
Serves 2 to 4
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or coconut cream
1 cup green curry paste (homemade or storebought)
1 pound boneless chicken thighs, sliced 1 inch thick
1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
1 cup cubed eggplant (½-inch cubes)
½ cup whole Thai basil leaves
¼ cup thinly sliced fresh long red Thai chiles
4 makrut lime leaves, torn 3 or 4 times to release their oils
3 tablespoons palm sugar, or to taste
3 tablespoons fish sauce, or to taste
Steamed jasmine rice, rice noodles, or roti
Preparation
Step 1
In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat until sizzling (or if using coconut cream, heat it until bubbling). Add the curry paste and cook, stirring, just until fragrant and the color has intensified, about 1 minute. Watch carefully so it doesn’t burn.
Step 2
Add the chicken and stir to coat in the curry paste, then pour in the coconut milk and bring to a boil. Add the eggplant, lower the heat to maintain a simmer, and simmer until the chicken and eggplant are cooked through, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the Thai basil, chiles, and lime leaves. Stir in the sugar and fish sauce until the sugar has dissolved. Serve hot over jasmine rice or rice noodles or with roti for dipping.
Excerpted from True Thai: Real Flavors for Every Table © 2015 by Hong Thaimee. Photography by Noah f*cks and Paul Wagtouicz. Reproduced by permission of Rizzoli New York. All rights reserved.Buy the full book from Amazon.
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Reviews (5)
Back to TopTriangleAs mentioned by another reviewer. No way would you use 1 cup of curry paste here!
See AlsoConfetti Chicken CasseroleAnonymous
LA, CA
2/11/2023
I had a ton of thai basil in my garden, so I made my own green curry paste. I did have to sub ginger for galangal(sp?) and I tweaked the chiles a little to our preference. I also used chicken breast. This recipe was fantastic! Made enough paste to freeze for future use.
whyliewoo
11/16/2020
Delicious! but if you are using the green curry paste that comes in little jars, then 1 cup of green curry is way to much as one person stated below. I used a 3/4 of the jar and that seemed to be plenty. I also used chicken breasts instead of thighs because that's what I had, brown sugar instead of palm sugar and lime juice from 1 lime instead of leaves.
Anonymous
Sebastopol, CA
9/3/2020
My husband made this mostly as written last week, and it was excellent. We bought 2 jars of Thai Kitchen green curry and used both, about 8 ozs total. We used regular basil and bay leaves as substitutes for the makrut lime leaves, with some lime zest. We also subbed brown for palm sugar and 1/2 serrano chile for the Thai red chiles. The spice was just right. The jasmine rice is the perfect complement. If anything, the dish was a little bland. I would recommend including some lime juice if you don't use the Makrut leaves and a little more spice, if you like it. My family loved this.
acookfromtarrytown
Tarrytown, NY
8/28/2020
I typically don’t write reviews, but, chef beware!...there is a problem with this recipe! It calls for 1 cup of green curry, and being the novice I am to Thai cooking, I wasn’t aware that, this is seriously inaccurate. It’s TOO much!..and I ruined this batch of curry. Afterwards, I dialed up other recipes, and the curry amount is in the neighborhood of 3 tablespoons! Unfortunately, I have to throw this away, it was too spicy and too salty! Do not use this recipe!
Anonymous
8/24/2020
I think the taste of this recipe is great, but do be careful with Thai red Chile’s. I tripled the recipe and only put in about 1/3 of the chiles it called for (because of my husband’s preference) and we could hardly eat it. 😅😳 I also only added 1/3 of the fish sauce a tripled recipe would call for, and 2/3 of the sugar. Would definitely make it again, with less chilies. 👍👍👍👍
D Lawrence
Eagle Point, Oregon
7/25/2023
TagsCurryStewSoup/StewThaiSoutheast AsianAsianChicken ThighChickenPoultryCoconut MilkEggplantVegetableThai BasilBasilThai ChileChileMainDinnerDairy FreeGluten FreeQuickEasyOne-Pot MealsWeeknight MealsSimmerCookbooks
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