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Recipe-1 › Curries of the world › Thai red curry

Thailand

Thai red curry (Gaeng phed)

Like green curry, with a paste of dried red chillies; often with duck or beef.

Thai red curry
Same steps, different flavour base Hot

Too hot for you? Use half the chilli (powder, paste or fresh chillies) and leave out the green chillies.

New here? How this page works

Recipe-1 is one simple curry recipe in nine steps: fry onions and green chillies, add your vegetables or meat, add chilli powder and turmeric, then water and salt, and boil. With small changes the same nine steps make curries from all over the world.

This page takes those nine steps and shows what to change to make Thai red curry. You don’t need to read anything else first: every base step is written out below. The changes are worked out on paper from what is typical for this dish; not yet kitchen-tested. Cooked it? Tell others how it went.

Green: the base recipe step (crossed out = do not use it for this dish)Red: what to do instead for Thai red curry

See the full base recipe (with timers and tips) · See all curries on the world map

You’ll need

How many people?4

The amounts change with the number of people; cooking times stay about the same (use a bigger pot for more). Taste as you go: you can always add more chilli or salt, but you cannot take it out.

Main ingredient: 500 g Chicken, duck (roast duck is a classic) or beef, sliced.

From the base recipe

  • Onions not used
  • Green chillies not used
  • 1 tbsp Cooking oil
  • Red chilli powder not used
  • Turmeric not used
  • not used · 100 ml Salt and water
  • Ginger garlic paste not used
  • Cloves, cardamom and cinnamon not used
  • Garam masala (optional) not used

Add for Thai red curry

  • 2–3 tbsp Red curry paste
  • 400 ml Coconut milk
  • 1–2 tbsp Fish sauce
  • 1 tsp Palm sugar
  • 4 Kaffir lime leaves
  • 1 handful Thai basil
  • 150 g Bamboo shoots or Thai aubergine

Leave out

  • Onions
  • Green chillies
  • Chilli powder and turmeric
  • Whole spices

The nine steps, with the changes

Where a step has a red line, do the red line and not the crossed-out green base step. Steps with only green are done just as in the base recipe.

  1. Base step: do not useCut onions and chillies.

    Thai red curry: do thisSkip the onions and chillies.

  2. Base step: do not useFry in some oil for around 4 minutes on medium-high heat.

    Thai red curry: do thisInstead, fry 2–3 spoons of red curry paste in oil or thick coconut cream until fragrant.

  3. Base step: do not useCut the vegetable(s) of your choice.

    Thai red curry: do thisUse the meat and bamboo shoots or aubergine.

  4. Base step: do not useAdd them and fry for around 4 minutes on medium-high heat.

    Thai red curry: do thisAdd the meat and stir in the paste for 2–3 minutes.

  5. Base step: do not useAdd red chilli powder and turmeric.

    Thai red curry: do thisSkip the chilli powder and turmeric.

  6. Keep frying until just before they start browning.

  7. Base step: do not useAdd some water.

    Thai red curry: do thisAdd the coconut milk and a little water.

  8. Base step: do not useAdd salt.

    Thai red curry: do thisUse fish sauce and palm sugar instead of salt.

  9. Base step: do not useBoil until the gravy is as thick as you like.

    Thai red curry: do thisSimmer 10 minutes with the lime leaves; finish with Thai basil.

Serve: With jasmine rice.

For meat and seafood, make sure it is cooked through: chicken until no pink remains inside; mutton, goat and beef need long, slow cooking.

← Nepali chicken curry (kukhura ko masu)All curries on the mapPanang curry →

Food marks, as on packaged food in India: vegetarian · non-vegetarian (meat, fish or egg). Dishes with both marks can be made either way.

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