Thai Green Curry in 30 minutes made by freshening up store bought curry paste OR with a homemade green curry paste! Whichever way you go, the one essential step to make a really great green curry is to fry off the curry paste.
Make this with chicken or even entirely meat free. With a sauce this good, you can put anything in it – and it will taste amazing!
Thai Green Curry recipe
The single most requested recipe is finally here!! We love the colour, the spiciness, and how fragrant the creamy sauce is.
Along with Pad Thai, Chicken Satay and Thai Red Curry, green curry is the gold standard by which we rate Thai restaurants.
It’s the curry we sweat and swear our way through, guzzling down water and wiping our brows when we confidently tell the waiter “give it to us the way it should be – extra spicy!!”
Luckily, when we make it at home, we can dial back the spiciness substantially. 😂 Whether made with curry paste in a jar OR homemade green curry paste!
“This can be a quick 30 minute Thai Green Curry made with store bought curry paste – OR go all out with a homemade curry paste!”
The BEST Green Curry Paste
With the fresh aromatic ingredients used in South East Asian curries, I’ll always be an advocate of making the curry pastes from scratch because it’s not possible to capture that flavour in jars. But it’s just not viable to do that every time I have a hankering for curry.
So I’ll reach for curry paste in a jar. I think the best green curry paste is Maesri (which also happens to be the cheapest at around $1.20). It’s sold at Woolies, Coles (I’m in Australia) and Asian grocery stores. (here it is on Amazon US).
Maesri yields the closest result to homemade green curry paste. I find the other brands to be too sweet with less green curry flavour – and strangely, they are spicier!
Pimping up curry in a jar
It’s inevitable using any curry paste out of a jar rather than making it from scratch that the curry will be lacking a certain freshness.
So what I do is freshen it up using fresh garlic, ginger and lemongrass.
Because “quick and easy” is the go here, I usually don’t even use fresh lemongrass, I use lemongrass paste. It works a treat!
What goes in green curry
The most popular version of green curry is Chicken, so that’s the base version I’m sharing today. While there’s no set rules about what goes in a Thai Green Chicken Curry, the most common combination seems to be chicken, eggplant and snow peas which is what I’ve gone with.
But it’s very easy to switch it out for another protein of choice, or to make it meat free so I’ve included directions in the recipe.
In addition to the curry paste (and pimping it up, if using jar paste), there’s actually not that many ingredients in Thai Green Curry.
Coconut milk – full fat please! Fat is where the flavour is, if you use low fat coconut milk the sauce will lack flavour. You could even use coconut cream, if you want a richer version!
Chicken or vegetable broth – chicken is better (deeper flavours) but vegetable is fine if making a vegetarian version.
Chicken – Thigh is best because it stays juicy even after the requiring simmering time to thicken the sauce
Asian (Japanese) Eggplant – brilliant sponge for soaking up the sauce. The small eggplants are ideal because the eggplant is cooked until soft and the skin holds it together. Sub with small normal eggplants, or if you dislike eggplants, try zucchini!
Snow peas – for colour and freshness
Sugar – for extra sweetness
Fish sauce – may not be needed if using paste from a jar. Yes it’s stinky but it’s essential for Thai curries and once cooked, it doesn’t taste fishy at all
Kaffir Lime leaves – it provides a earthy citrus fragrance to the sauce that’s inherent to green curry. It’s readily available in Australia nowadays, but if you can’t find it, then a lemongrass stalk will be a decent substitute. Freezes great – I almost always have some in the freezer.
Finishing:
Thai Basil – essential for a true green curry experience! Tastes like Italian basil with a slightly more aniseedy flavour
Lime juice – just a squeeze, for freshness!
What makes green curry green?
The colour mostly comes from large green chillies which aren’t that spicy, they are mostly for colour and flavour. The curry paste also has small Thai chillies which provide the fiery heat that green curry is known for.
If you make your own green curry paste, you can skip the spicy chillies without compromising on flavour!
How to make Thai Green Curry
The making part is very straightforward which is why if you use curry paste from a jar, green curry is something you can have any night of the week.
The essential step here is to fry off the curry paste, whether using store bought or homemade. This is the equivalent to sautéing garlic until golden, a step used in virtually all my savoury recipes.
Homemade vs curry in a jar
Here’s a comparison of the two. Flavour wise, it’s inevitable there is a difference but the curry in a jar version is still very, very good. Certainly better than many local Thai restaurants which are often far too sweet, weak, or watery.
The homemade curry paste version is also slightly greener – owing to the fresh chillies and coriander/cilantro blitzed into the paste.
Thai Green Curry is….
Very fragrant – from all the herbs and aromatics in the curry paste. It has a less “in your face” flavour compared to Thai Red Curry but it’s more fragrant with chilli than Thai Yellow Curry.
Creamy, sweet, and salty. But all too often, Thai takeout places make it far too sweet!
Spicy – it’s meant to be! Green Curry is spicier than most popular Thai curries, such asThai Red Curry, Yellow Curry, Massaman Curry. It’s about as spicy as Panang Curry – maybe even a wee bit spicier!
Sauce is not as thick as Thai Red Curry, it’s meant to be a thinner sauce. My theory is because if you simmer the sauce too long to make it thicker, the sauce turns dark and loses the fresh green colour. It kind of looks like spinach soup!
Completely addictive
Serve green curry with jasmine rice for a true Thai restaurant experience. And don’t forget some ice cold beer to temper the heat! – Nagi x
Make a meal out of it – try these on the side
Crunchy Asian Slaw on the side – great all rounder Asian salad that goes with all Asian foods
Asian Sesame Dressing for any fresh salad or steamed vegetables
To start – Chicken Satay Skewers or Thai Fish Cakes
Thai Green Curry
Watch how to make it
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
Thai Green Curry
Ingredients
Curry – use ONE:
- 4 – 6 tbsp Thai Green Curry Paste (Maesri best) OR (Note 1)
- 1 quantity homemade green curry paste (Note 1)
Extras – for jar curry paste (Note 2):
- 2 large garlic cloves , minced
- 2 tsp fresh ginger , finely grated
- 1 tbsp lemongrass paste (Note 2)
Green Curry:
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 cup (250ml) chicken or vegetable broth, low sodium
- 400 g/14oz coconut milk , full fat (Note 4)
- 1 – 3 tsp fish sauce *
- 1 – 3 tsp white sugar *
- 1/8 tsp salt *
- 6 kaffir lime leaves , torn in half (Note 5)
- 350 g/12 oz chicken thigh , skinless boneless, sliced (Note 6)
- 2 Japanese eggplants, , small, 1cm / 2/5″ slices (Note 7)
- 1 1/2 cups snow peas , small, trimmed
- 16 Thai basil leaves (Note 8)
- Juice of 1/2 lime , to taste
Garnishes:
- Crispy fried Asian shallots , high recommended (Note 9)
- Thai basil or cilantro/coriander , recommended
- Green or red chillies slices , optional
- Steamed jasmine rice
Instructions
- Heat oil in a heavy based skillet or pot over medium high heat.
- Add curry paste (and garlic, ginger and lemongrass Extras, if using) and cook for 2 to 3 minutes until it mostly “dries out” – see video. Don’t breath in the fumes!!
- Add chicken broth and coconut milk, mix to dissolve paste.
- Curry in a jar seasonings: Add 1 tsp fish sauce, 1 tsp sugar, no salt.
- Homemade curry paste seasonings: Add 3 tsp fish sauce, 3 tsp sugar, 1/8 tsp salt.
- Add kaffir lime leaves. Mix then bring to simmer.
- Add chicken, stir then lower heat to medium so it’s bubbling gently. Cook 7 minutes.
- Add eggplants, cook 5 minutes until soft.
- Taste sauce. Add fish sauce or salt for more saltiness, sugar for sweetness.
- Add snow peas, cook 2 minutes until a bit softened, then stir through basil and lime juice. Sauce should have reduced but will still be a be on the thin side, not thick – that’s how it’s should be. DO NOT keep simmering – sauce will darken.
- Serve curry over jasmine rice with garnishes of choice.
Recipe Notes:
* Vegetarian – Asian eggplant, green beans, zucchini (pictured in post). Other vegetables that go great: broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, carrots, sweet or normal potato, pumpkin, mushrooms (cook to soft, great sponge!)
* Prawns / shrimp or fish pieces instead of chicken – add towards end, 3 to 5 min cook time
* Beef or pork – Use a quick cooking cut, cut into strips or cubes. I sear beef and pork first before adding into curry sauces, the flavour is better. Use any quick cooking cut, sprinkle with salt and pepper, sear to brown outside but leave inside uncooked. Then add into sauce just to finish cooking through. 11. Nutrition excludes rice and toppings.
Nutrition Information:
I adore Thai curries!
Proof:
And more Thai food favourites
Life of Dozer
He high tailed it out of the house pretty quickly when I started frying off the curry paste – he can’t handle the heat!! (Neither can I – I always forget not to breath in the chilli fumes!!)
This Thai Green Curry is seriously even better than my local Thai Restaurant! Have made it four times so far and won’t bother looking any further for a better recipe. 🙂
Flavor is great-but super spicy for half the people eating it. Still, the flavor made it hard to not want more even with a mouth on fire. Made it vegetarian and added fried tofu.
The flavours are amazing, really deep! This’ll be a repeat recipe. I will tweak though: made it with Mae Ploy paste, coconut cream and chicken stock from cube. It was too thick and way too salty, so next time coconut milk and low salt chicken stock.
Can already taste how amazing it’ll be though!
Hi Sara, sorry you had issues – I use low sodium stock in my recipe so I assume the stock cubes you used were the culprit here! N x
Nagi, this is absolutely amazing. This curry transported me back to my pre-Covid babymoon in Thailand. 🤣 Your recipes are so easy to follow, it makes me want to cook everyday!
Thank you for the recipe Nagi. I have several questions after having made this for the first time.
I used the exact same Maesri curry as you did. However, I could not find the lemongrass paste anywhere so I made my own using the basic recipe for the paste on this site: (https://www.food.com/recipe/lemongrass-paste-460478).
2 things: There was a bitter taste to the dish once finished and, from reading stuff on the internet about making lemongrass paste, it appears as though it would have been much less bitter had I blanched the lemongrass before throwing it into the food processor with the other ingredients. Do you know anything about that?
My second point is that the finished product had WAY too much oil on the top of the sauce. I imagine the oil is coming from the curry paste itself. I had to skim a lot of it off. Is there a way to avoid this next time?
Thank you SO much for sharing this recipe with us.
Hi Anna, I imagine the problem came from the recipe of the lemongrass paste. Lemongrass paste should be ONLY lemongrass, no extra oil or other ingredients (this would have altered the flavour of the curry & added the extra oil that you saw). I mention subs for the lemongrass paste in the notes – no need to blanch the lemongrass, just finely shredded it. N x
Hi! Can you sub dried Lime leaves in this recipe? If so, would the proportions be the same? So excited to try this!
Hi Jessica, yes I mention this in the recipe notes. N x
I used fish . And loved it. Yummy
Just curious, have you tried Mae Ploy brand paste? We’ve found it to be awesome!
Hi Shane, yes Mae Ploy is good too! N x
OMG, this is the best green curry Ive ever made. My husband literally licked the bowl and said “it tastes just like takeaway”, which is a huge compliment given Ive stuffed this recipe up before. Recipe notes make this really easy. Instead of using eggplant I subbed in Zucchini. The fried shallots are a go-er. Thank you for this brilliant recipe.
GOOD GLORY … AWESOME !!! It was a huge hot hit with my family – I doubled the recipe and added some yellow peppers as well. Nagi I have tried many of your recipes and all soooooo good. I have your chocolate zucchini cake in the oven right now.
Nagi, Thank you so much for this recipe and video! I made this last week and will again tonight. It was truly the best green curry dish I have ever had! I added the ginger, garlic, and lemongrass paste like you suggested. The depth of flavor was phenomenal. I stunned my family! Thank you !!!
I’m glad you liked it Ken!! N x
Tried this recipe today…delicious!! I used one can of paste and added the lemongrass, garlic and ginger. My husband loved it and he is a hard critic.
This was really delicious. I used the Maesri paste and subbed in red bell pepper. Very easy. Absolutely will make again. Thank you!!!!
Hello! Does this recipe freeze well? I have double or even triple this amount of chicken to use.
Hi Nagi, If i was to put carrot into this curry would i need to steam a little first as I’m worried it would not be soft enough with the cook times,
Thank you
Hi Leanne, depends on how big you cut it, if you slice it thin enough it should cook (without becoming too soft) in the curry whilst simmering – add at step 7 🙂 N x
I’m so looking foward to giving this recipe a go next week. Do you think chickpeas would go well in it??
Yes definitely Shannon!! N x
Hi,
I’ve tried both the full recipe and the pimped up paste.
Both are really good but I found that using the paste and blending in a green capsicum aswell worked like a charm.
Gave the curry a really vibrant green colour.
Thanks.
Hello! I’m so glad I found your recipe site. Going to try making green curry this weekend!
What type of fish sauce do you use? Or what’s best for cooking. There seems to be many options!
Hi Nagi! This was such a lovely easy recipe! Sooo tasty. I used just one can of the paste, worked out great. I added some carrots, and water chestnuts! xxx
Hi Nagi
Is it normal for my sauce to become thin and look sort of curdled and thin? I used Ayam an a home brand (ran out of time)
Can you help please? Thanks