Easy Thai Green Curry Recipe (Chicken) – Gaeng Kiew Wan Gai – Love it!

This authentic Thai Green Curry Recipe is a curry made with coconut milk that comes from the Central Thai region. It is most commonly found made with chicken as the protein but you can swap out the chicken for pork, shrimp, seafood, or beef.

Video on How to Make Thai Green Curry

Link in case the Thai Green Curry Recipe Video above does not load.

It is also quite commonly made with vegetables like mushrooms or corn or a protein substitute such as tofu. You will often see this dish served during the Jae or vegetarian festivals or at vegetarian restaurants.

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Ingredients for this Thai Green Curry Recipe

Why You Want to Make Delicious Thai Green Curry

• Easy & quick
• Super yummy(of course)
• Can be adjusted to nearly zero spice, if not no spice, and still be authentic
• Doesn’t require too many ingredients

Thai green curry is available all over Thailand and is popular internationally as well.

It can be eaten with Jasmine Rice or with Rice Noodles or even with roti instead. Personally, I prefer this soupy curry served with rice noodles – it just somehow goes together perfectly!

If you also like Red curry, stay tuned for our recipe – we’re planning on making it. And if you like red curry, it’s very likely that you’ll also like Massaman Curry Recipe. If you are fancying something drier, maybe you can check out our Pad Prik King Moo Recipe. Anyway, let’s continue.

How to Make Green Curry Step by Step

Step 1 Preparing the Paste

Now you can go about gathering the ingredients and pounding out the green curry paste at home – it’s not that hard but you will probably be missing many of the ingredients from your larder store.

For that reason, and because it is just easier, I prefer to use shop-bought paste or buy it from the local market. If I use shop-bought paste then I always liven it up with some fresh spices. The result is a paste that is almost as good as fresh anyway!

To prepare the paste, take the cumin and coriander seeds and place them in a frying pan. Heat to toast a little until they just begin to jump – if they start smoking get them outta there quick!

Take your toasted seeds and place them into a mortar. Give them a good bash and grinding with a heavy pestle to turn into a powder. It will smell divine!

Then take the green curry paste and drop it into the mortar with your freshly powdered seeds and mix them together thoroughly.

Presto – fresh and aromatic green curry paste in a couple of minutes tops!

Step 2 Prepare the Chicken

I prefer to use chicken thigh for this recipe because the meat is tastier than chicken breast and because I want the bones for a continual supply of chicken stock – it is stock that makes everything taste soooooo much better.

Some Thai cooks and people out in the sticks use whole chickens which they chop up into small pieces. I hate this idea because it produces bones in every mouthful and chicken bones are sharp and dangerous for my children.

If using thighs, cut out the bones and set aside for stock, and then cut into bite-sized pieces – do the same if using chicken breast.

You can choose to leave the skin on or remove the skin. Bear in mind the chicken is essentially cooked in liquid so the skin will be soft and a little rubbery which is not to some people’s taste. If that’s you get the chicken skin off now.

Step 3 Prepare the Spices & Vegetables

You can make Thai green curry with many different kinds of vegetables such as eggplants of any green variety (in Thailand we use Thai eggplants or the smaller marble-sized ones or a mixture of the two), mushrooms, gourd, etc.

If you want to stay traditionally mainstream then use eggplant together with mushrooms if you choose.

Cut the vegetables into fairly large size pieces and if using eggplant then submerge into salted water to prevent browning from oxidation.

Tear the center spines out from the kaffir lime leaves and break each leaf into quarters, squeezing together in your hands to bruise the leaf and release the freshness and leaf aromas.

Cut the chilis diagonally into slices. You can adjust the spiciness of the dish by removing some or all of the seeds from the chilies and also by the type of chili used, though most commonly we use chili spur for Thai Green Curry which is traditionally not so hot.

The other way of adjusting the heat of the dish is by reducing the green curry paste which is green because it is made from green chilies – just cut the quantity down for a milder creamy green curry.

Step 4 Cooking the Green Curry Paste

It is important to cook off the green curry paste first before incorporating the other ingredients. To do this add a small amount of the coconut milk into a frying pan – the amount is not critical, just not too much.

This process helps break down the paste to release the full flavor and oils from the paste ingredients. The coconut milk here helps stop the paste burning and reduces it to a slurry to make the next step easy and avoid lumps.

Step 5 Making the Thai Green Curry

Once you have your paste cooked off which will take just a couple of minutes, add in further coconut milk, retaining some for later dilution and adjustment of the curry sauce/soup consistency and creaminess in the tasting stage. I typically reserve about one-quarter of the milk.

Speaking of coconut milk, I find the boxed milk perfectly fine for making this curry and in fact a bit better than fresh pressed coconut milk that is readily available to me at the market. The boxed milk is less watery and so allows for more leeway in adjusting the consistency of the finished curry.

Stir together the coconut milk and curry sauce you made in step 4 and bring to a simmer for a few minutes. At this point add in most of the fish sauce and palm sugar to season.

We reserve a little for the tasting stage as it is much easier to add a little more sweetness or savory than try to rescue a dish that you made too sweet or too savory! Let’s not do that!

Once you get to a simmer drop in your chicken and eggplant and other vegetables either at this stage or a little later if, like mushrooms, they need less cooking time.

We also add the kaffir lime leaf with and finger root (if using) at this stage which gives these ingredients time to add taste.

Cook at a fast simmer, with the lid on, for about 8 minutes by which time your chicken and eggplant should be nearly cooked.

Then add the chili spur slices and cook together for a further two minutes ensuring your chicken and eggplant is cooked.

Immediately before serving, turn up the heat until the curry is simmering quickly which will avoid the basil leaves turning black when added. Add in the holy basil and stir into the curry until the leaves wilt (about 1 minute maximum) and serve immediately.

Serving Ideas for Thai Green Curry

I think the best combination is to serve up with white rice noodles. These noodles are made from rice powder and are smooth and silky in your mouth which compliments the creamy curry you are about to devour.

Alternatively, you can eat with freshly steamed Jasmine Rice which also goes very well with any curry including this one.

A third alternative is to eat with roti or another bread-type product if you are looking to reduce your carbohydrate intake.

Obviously, if gluten is something you want to avoid then adapt accordingly. Rice noodles should be gluten-free but do check the packaging as some products are not 100% rice-based and include wheat products so do check carefully.

Recipe for Thai Green Curry With Chicken

Planning on Making this Recipe?
It would be great if you could take a picture of your finished creation and share it out on Instagram. Tag me with #TASTYTHAIEATS – I love to see your ideas!

Katie in Action

Katie often goes to the local market to get the ingredients we use in the featured recipe. Today here she is getting the chicken thighs for today’s green curry!

I really hope you enjoy this dish and if you cook it I would love to hear your comments below so please come back and let me know how it turned out for you.

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