The Best Thai Chicken Panang Curry

Name: 📋The Best Thai Chicken Panang Curry
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 1/2 lbs chicken thigh (boneless, cut into bite size pieces); 1 white onion (finely chopped); 5 cloves garlic (minced); 1 green bell peppers (chopped); 1 red bell peppers (chopped); 1/2 inch galangal (roughly sliced); 1 inch lemongrass (roughly sliced); 1 tablespoon coconut oil; 1 small jar Thai Panang curry paste (measured to about 4 ½ tablespoons); 1 tablespoon unsweetened peanut butter; 1 teaspoons fish sauce; 1 pinch nutmeg powder (optional); Salt to taste (if required); 2 teaspoon palm sugar (or brown sugar); 6-8 kaffir lime leave (crushed); 1 can (14 oz) coconut milk; 1/4 cup Thai basil leaves

Last updated October 19, 2023. Originally posted April 11, 2024 By Jyothi Rajesh 94 Comments

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Thai chicken panang curry is a richly flavored Thai curry that you can make in 30 minutes. Try it once and you’ll be hooked. It’s a perfect weekday meal that the entire family will love. It’s the best comfort meal served with steamed rice or jasmine rice.

Panang Thai curry with chicken and vegetables cooked in cast iron skillet.

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Why does this recipe work?
Ingredients
Step-by-step instructions
Useful tips
Recipe FAQs
Related curries
📋The Best Thai Chicken Panang Curry

For hearty vegetarian Thai curry try our Thai butternut squash curry or Thai sweet potato curry.

Why does this recipe work?

It’s the ultimate comfort food.
It’s richly flavored and has loads of vegetables and protein in it.
It takes 30 minutes or less to make the curry.
It’s best served with rice. I love this curry with steamed rice, jasmine rice, and plain rice pilaf.

Ingredients

Panang curry paste – Use store-bought or homemade Thai curry paste. Panang curry paste is different than regular Thai curry paste. For an authentic taste, buy Panang red curry paste. You can substitute it with regular Thai red curry paste.
Aromats (onion and garlic) – yellow onion, white onion, or shallots may be used. Use fresh garlic for the best taste. It forms the base of the curry.
Vegetables – I recommend using a mix of red, and green bell peppers. You can switch it up and use different veggies like zucchini, broccoli, eggplant, sweet potato, celery, or mushrooms.
Protein – Chicken or beef is recommended. Fish and shrimp can be used if you opt for seafood. Use firm tofu for vegetarians or vegans. Chickpeas would work too.
Coconut milk – for rich creamy curry use full-fat coconut milk.
Natural peanut butter – peanut is one of the unique ingredients in this recipe. Use good quality, unsweetened natural peanut butter.
Coconut oil – dish tastes best with virgin coconut oil.
Other Thai curry ingredients – ingredients like galangal, lemon grass, and kaffir lime leaves induce strong Thai flavors. If you’re not a big fan of these strong Thai flavors, reduce the amount of these ingredients.
Fish sauce – you’ll need a dash of fish sauce. It makes the recipe, salty with a strong flavor.
Nutmeg – another ingredient that is specific to this recipe is nutmeg. Use a dash of nutmeg powder. I skipped nutmeg.
Palm sugar – use brown sugar if palm sugar is not available.
Thai basil – add it only in the end, it adds flavor to the curry.

Step-by-step instructions

Step 1: Heat coconut oil in a skillet. Sauté finely chopped onions in hot coconut oil until onion is translucent. Add minced garlic and red and green bell peppers. Cook for 2 minutes constantly stirring. Add roughly chopped galangal and lemongrass.

boneless chicken and vegetables cooked for Thai curry in a cast iron pan.

Step 2: Push veggies to one side of the pan. Add cubes of chicken things. Cook until chicken begins to brown.

red Thai curry paste cooked with vegetables in a cast iron skillet.

Step 3: Continue cooking it for a minute. Push the mix to one side, and add the paste. Stir the paste and fry it in oil. It’s crucial to cook the paste in oil first.

Note: Do not skip frying curry paste in oil.

Thai red curry paste is added to vegetables and chicken in a skillet.

Step 4: Stir frequently until oil is released from the paste and turns aromatic. Mix it with veggies and chicken and cook for a minute.

cook Thai curry with peanut butter, kaffir lime leaves, vegetables and chicken.

Step 5: Stir in unsweetened peanut butter, fish sauce, and palm sugar. Crush kaffir lime leaves in our palm and add it to the skillet. Cook stirring frequently for 2 minutes.

Note – If you can’t get palm sugar, substitute with brown sugar or jaggery. Crushing kaffir lime leaves helps release its wonderful aromatic oil, making it flavorsome.

Thai curry cooked in coconut milk in a skillet.

Step 6: Simmer flame. Pour in thick coconut milk. Stir well.

Thai chicken curry with coconut milk simmer in a skillet.

Step 7: Let it simmer and cook for 5 minutes.

best Thai chicken Panang curry topped with fresh basil cooked in a cast iron pan.

Step 8: Turn off the heat and add Thai basil leaves.

For best taste serve it immediately hot with steamed rice or jasmine rice.

For hearty vegetarian Thai curry try our Thai butternut squash curry or Thai sweet potato curry.

Useful tips

Fry curry paste – The essential step to make a good curry with great taste is frying the paste until you see the oil separate from the paste.
Kaffir lime leaves – Crushing kaffir lime leaves before adding to the recipe will release all its aromatic oil to the dish.
Peanut allergy? Panang paste usually has peanuts. If you are allergic to peanuts, you may want to avoid this curry.
Fish sauce – adjust as per taste preference. I didn’t add any salt.
Coconut oil – make the dish taste better. You can substitute with vegetable oil or canola oil, I don’t recommend olive oil.
Spicier curry – The recipe makes medium spicy curry. If you want to make it spicier, use curry paste that is spicy enough, or use 1 or 2 birds-eye chili in the recipe.
Palm sugar substitute – If you can’t get palm sugar, substitute with brown sugar or jaggery.

best Thai chicken Panang curry served with steamed rice in white ceramic bowl

Recipe FAQs

What is Penang curry?

This red curry originates from an island located off the west coast of Malaysia. This curry is richer, spicier, mildly sweet, and creamier.
It’s usually less spicy as the paste is made with milder red chilies compared to Thai curries. Peanut butter and coconut milk make the curry sweeter than other Thai curries.

What is panang paste made of?

Panang curry paste is traditionally made from chili peppers (birds eye chilies), galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime, coriander root, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, garlic, shallot, shrimp paste, salt and peanuts. Grind everything in a mortar and pestle.

Is Panang curry paste the same as red curry paste?

Panang paste is more aromatic than compared to red curry paste. It has cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and roasted peanuts which gives it a rich aromatic taste.

Is Panang curry spicy?

The level of spiciness depends on the brand of curry paste you use. Compared to regular Thai curry, this curry has mild spiciness.

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Created by Jyothi Rajesh

Thank you for stopping by.

I’m Jyothi Rajesh (Jo for short) and i’m the founder of the food blog, Curry Trail where I share my culinary Adventures. I live in Bangalore, India. I’m a mom of two beautiful kids. My passion is creating and sharing delicious and easy recipes for the home cook. I have been blogging since 2007 and many of my recipes have appeared in both online and print publications over the years. Learn more about Jyothi Rajesh.

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