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best Thai chicken Panang curry served with steamed rice in white ceramic bowl
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5 from 57 votes

Best Thai Panang Curry Recipe With Chicken

Thai chicken panang curry is a rich curry with complex flavors. You’ll need under 30 minutes to make this bright and hearty Thai Panang Curry.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Asian, Thai
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 460kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ 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
  • ½ 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
  • 2 teaspoon 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
  • ¼ cup Thai basil leaves

Instructions

  • Heat skillet or deep bottom pan. Add coconut oil and wait until oil melts.
  • Sauté finely chopped onions in hot coconut oil until onion is translucent.
  • Add roughly chopped galangal, lemon grass.
  • Add minced garlic, red and green bell peppers. Cook for 2 minutes constantly stirring.
  • Push veggies to one side of the pan. Add washed and cleaned chicken things. Cook until chicken browns a bit and changes colour.
  • Mix chicken and veggies together. Continue cooking it for a minute more.
  • Again gather chicken veggie mix to one side of the pan. Scoop out Thai Panang curry paste ( or Thai red curry paste) to empty side of pan. Stir the paste and fry it in oil. Wait until oil separates from the paste. Pro-Tip : Do not skip frying curry paste in oil. Flavors cone out and curry turns delicious with this step.
  • Stir in unsweetened peanut butter, fish sauce and palm sugar. Nutmeg powder to be added now if using. 
    Take Kaffir lime leaves on your palm and crush it. Add crushed kaffir lime leaves to the pan. 
    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 Panang curry flavorsome.
  • Cook stirring regularly for 2 minutes.
  • Simmer flame. Pour in thick coconut milk. Give it a good stir.
  • Let it cook for 5-7 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.
  • Add few Thai basil leaves. Stir.
  • Turn off flame. Thai Chicken Panang Curry is ready.
  • It’s great when served with steamed jasmine rice.
  • You can also serve Thai Panang curry with rice noodles.

Video

Notes

  1. Fry Curry Paste - Essential step to make a good curry with great taste is frying curry paste in oil. Fry curry until you see oil separates from the curry paste.
  2. Kaffir Lime - Crushing kaffir lime leaves will release all it’s aromatic oil to the curry. Crush leaves before adding to curry.
  3. Peanut Allergy? Panang curry has peanuts in it. If you allergic to peanuts, you may want to avoid this curry or leave out adding peanut butter in the recipe.
  4. Fish Sauce - Add it as per taste. Before adding fish sauce taste curry and if it's too salty, adjust the amount of fish sauce to be added to the curry. 
  5. Coconut Oil - I prefer to use coconut oil.
  6. Spicier Curry - The recipe makes medium spicy curry. Spice tolerance levels varies greatly for every palate. If you want to make it more spicier, use curry paste that is spicy enough or use 1 or 2 birds eye chili in the recipe. 
  7. Palm Sugar Substitute - If you can’t get palm sugar , substitute with brown sugar or jaggery.
 
Nutritional Info – Please keep in mind that nutritional information provided is only a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.

Nutrition

Calories: 460kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 38g | Saturated Fat: 21g | Cholesterol: 111mg | Sodium: 271mg | Potassium: 534mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 860IU | Vitamin C: 44.4mg | Calcium: 35mg | Iron: 3.6mg