Thai Red Curry Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
When I was a kid, the only curry I had ever tasted was the yellow sort you use in Indian cuisine. But in the last few years, Cook's Illustrated introduced me to Thai red curry paste and OOH I love this way more than yellow curry.
So delicious! And the bottle usually says something about it being spicy, but I never think it's very hot at all. And neither do the spice-averse people that I feed, so you can trust that this is not going to burn your tongue.
I initially tried this recipe a while back because it uses coconut milk, and I was always looking for dairy-free recipes for Sonia. But I liked it so much, I am still making it even though I am not feeding Sonia every night.
That's how you know a dairy-free recipe is good: you want to eat it even if you can have dairy!
My theory on that is the same as with gluten-free foods...the cuisine that is naturally dairy or gluten-free is always, always tastier than the dishes that are modified to be free of dairy or gluten.
Anyway, my last Hungry Harvest box contained a bag of sweet potatoes, so I put this on the menu, and then it occurred to me that I should share the recipe with you.
Things I like about this recipe:
- it's pretty quick to throw together
- it uses chicken thighs, which are nearly impossible to overcook
- it tastes great leftover
- it includes cilantro, lime, and red curry paste, all of which I adore
- you can prep a lot of it ahead of time if you wish
This recipe's main components are chicken thighs and sweet potatoes, and I often get those ready earlier in the day.
I also sometimes prep the green onions, cilantro, and limes; that way when it's dinnertime, I can get this onto the table really quickly.
I got this recipe from Dinner Illustrated (full review of that cookbook here), and the only change I've made is to use the whole can of coconut milk. The original recipe called for a cup, and then I was left with an awkward amount to use up.
Now I just dump the whole can in and it seems to work fine.
If you don't have fish sauce, you can use soy sauce instead. And the recipe calls for topping the curry with peanuts, but I never have done that, due to Sonia's peanut allergy.
While I skip the peanuts, I do always top my curry with scallions, cilantro, and lime wedges because they take the curry from good to awesome.
Scroll down for the printable recipe!
Thai Red Curry with Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
This quick meal is naturally dairy-free!
Ingredients
- 1 pound sweet potatoes
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 1 13.5 ounce can coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
Toppings
- 4 scallions, sliced
- fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1 lime, sliced
- ¼ cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts (optional)
Instructions
1. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into ½ inch cubes.
2. Trim fat off chicken; cut into 1-inch chunks. Toss with curry paste, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
3. Heat oil in large skillet until shimmering; add chicken and cook 3 minutes, or until chicken is browned (it doesn't need to be cooked all the way through yet).
4. Stir in coconut milk, fish sauce, and potatoes and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes, until chicken is done and potatoes are tender.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste, top with cilantro, peanuts, and scallions, and serve over rice, with lime wedges on the side.
Notes
You can prep the chicken (I mix the chicken chunks with the seasonings) and cut the sweet potatoes ahead of time; just refrigerate until you're ready to cook.
I used full-fat canned coconut milk; you could try using lite canned coconut milk, but I would not use the coconut milk that comes in refrigerated cartons.
Nutrition Information
Yield 4 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 667Total Fat 41gSaturated Fat 24gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 15gCholesterol 208mgSodium 888mgCarbohydrates 33gFiber 6gSugar 9gProtein 49g
I do almost the same recipe you are using. It is so delicious. I am adding peanuts as they add a nice crunch to it. Also when sweet potatoes are in season here it is quite a frugal dish and can be easily adjusted to feed a crowd.
I agree - the natural glutenfree, non-dairy or vegan dishes are always so much tastier than regular recipes modified to accomadate what ever "restrictions" you need to follow.
Off topic: Today I will be meeting with American reader Tamara.
Thank you Kristen to make this possible. I am so excited!
@Lea and Tamara, your get-together sounds lovely! Have fun. I hope you'll share an update!
@BJS,
I just walked Tamara and her husband back to the station. It was a lovely afternoon and so fun to get to know somebody from this blog. All so real! Great, how we do have many things in common and at the same time are so different.
Aww, I love this!!
This sounds delicious. I have all the ingredients except the red curry paste. It seems it will be worth it to buy some.
This sounds so delicious! I've never tried the red Thai curry paste.
Is there a brand of red curry paste that you recommend? I've tried one (can't remember which brand) and it wasn't good. Thanks for sharing.
@Victoria, I make a vegan version of this and I like Thai Kitchen red curry paste. Target usually has the best price in my area.
@CrunchyCake, I would love to know your substitutions in the recipe to make it vegan, if you wouldn’t mind sharing.
@CrunchyCake, thanks for the recommendation. I'm looking forward to trying this recipe.
@Erika JS, I use some combination of onions, mushrooms, potatoes, and cauliflower and then don't even use the fish sauce. I roughly follow this recipe but I didn't care for the chick peas so I just use vegetables: https://minimalistbaker.com/1-pot-yellow-chickpea-cauliflower-curry/
It looks good and it probably IS very good, but I can barely eat any hot peppers anymore, sadly, as I much prefer the taste of red pepper to black pepper. Curry paste seems to be based on hot peppers, though. I don't like roasted peanuts at all although I could leave those out, and cilantro tastes like soap to me. (I am a fan of fish sauce, though). So this will have to be a pass, since the recipe minus the paste, the cilantro, and possibly the peanuts is basically just bland sweet potatoes and chicken in coconut milk. If someone else were making it to serve to a group, I would definitely take a little dab of it, (picking out the cilantro, ha) and eat it, however. It looks yummy.
Our internet went down yesterday just as I was posting comments here and I looked today - my comment of my five frugals went off into outer space, I guess, yet my small response to someone else's comments made it through. Weird. At least we got the internet back finally.
@JD, try Thai basil in place of cilantro!
Thai red curry paste does take a meal to the next level, doesn't it? I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes and would probably sub in something else, but other than that, the recipe looks delightfully simple.
@Kris, I do a similar recipe and use cauliflower and regular potatoes - maybe one of those would work? You'd just need to watch the veggies to make sure they didn't get too mushy.
@CrunchyCake, thanks for the suggestions.
Kristen, this has nothing to do with today's post but I wanted to ask you a question. Those little gadgets that you use to take the pills off of sweaters, do you think it might work on a chair that has been scratched by a cat and has lose threads?
It is hilarious that you ask this because I just picked up a free couch last night that has kitten scratches and snags on the fabric. I was totally planning to try my fabric shaver on the snags. I'll let you know how it goes!
Update: I just tried it and it worked pretty well! Are you in my private Facebook group? I could post pictures there for you. Or do you follow me on Instagram?
@Kristen, actually neither one, but I am happy to take your word for it. Where did you buy it?
Mine is from Aldi, but this one on Amazon is nearly identical: https://amzn.to/3xvBwEz And it comes with replacement blades!
I bought “Dinner Illustrated” based on your recommendation (and using your affiliate link) and this is one of my favorite recipes from it! It tastes amazing and is fairly easy to make. My husband does not like sweet potatoes, but he loves the chicken and sauce so much that he’s always happy when I make it. (He just eats around the sweet potatoes.) Such a good recipe!
I usually don’t use the cilantro on top, but love the crunch from peanuts. None of the toppings are essential though - you can tailor this to your taste.
Along with Anne, I'm going off topic today just to be able to post something that may give everyone as big a laugh as it gave me: The New York Times has just discovered furniture flipping!
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/style/furniture-flippers.html
I saw that!! They must have been hanging out on Instagram. 🙂
@Kristen, poor old NYT, late to the party as usual...
@A. Marie, that's just what I was going to say. We maybe barefoot, cousin marryin' rednecks, but us frugalistas have been flipping things our whole lives. 😀
@Anne, you just made me laugh out loud. 😀 Whenever I read about people flipping furniture, I mentally count up how many times the nightstand I had as a teenager has been painted. It's still in use by my 32 year old son. I guess we do our flipping in-house.
Thanks for the reminder of a meal I adore.
Adding to next week's menu. 🙂
Oooh, that looks so good! My husband will not eat sweet potatoes, but I can easily do a swap for some of his favorite veggies, and maybe drop in just a few cubes of sweet potato for me.
"My theory on that is the same as with gluten-free foods…the cuisine that is naturally dairy or gluten-free is always, always tastier than the dishes that are modified to be free of dairy or gluten." This is very true. Also, if I am using a container product (like coconut milk, or even spinach). Anything really where I can see leftovers going to waste, I just use the whole thing. Better cooked food that will make leftovers for other meals than ingredients in the fridge wasting away. I also almost always make pesto out of fresh extra greens. Uses up the greens and the pesto tastes great on pasta or as a sandwich ingredient.
It's very easy to substitute fluid dairy (milk or cream) with canned coconut milk in almost any recipe and its very tasty.
I freeze extra coconut milk in ice cube trays and then pop them out into a freezer bag. Coconut milk doesn't suffer from the freezing at all, and when you need it you can often just put the cubes in the pot to melt during the cooking. I have 1/3 cup and 1/2 cup silicone cube molds, but I also pre-measure 90 ml for one particular recipe I make often.
Is the red curry hot spicy?
The bottle says it's spicy but I have never found it to be anything other than very mildly spicy. I actually wish it was MORE spicy!
We LOVED this! It was mild enough for this not-spicy fan. The peanuts and lime did take it up a notch! I threw in Asparagaus because we had it, I can see adding spinach or zucchini when we have lots of that. All the kids enjoyed it with some naan. That is high praise!
Ok, I am impressed you made this already!
@Kristen, I saw it this morning...and I have no meal plan for the week yet. I'm trying to find ways to use up lots of veggies from our box we got last week and more we were getting today! I had a sweet potato I needed to use up & I knew I was getting the aspargus and cilantro today, so this was perfect! (I was going to add zucchini as well but I forgot.) I pulled out some frozen chicken and it's so hot, that thawed quickly. 🙂 I already had plans to run by the store so grabbed the red curry paste. It was perfect to chop everything and then leave the directions for my son to saute/assemble while I had an evening meeting. I came home and all said it was good, so it's going in the "Make Again" file. I'm just thrilled we're branching out from Tex-Mex. 🙂
The best, and most frugal thing, about curries from ANY country is that you can load them up with veggies and legumes beyond the written recipes. It is such a great way to use vegetables that might otherwise go bad, and who doesn't need more veggies in their diet? No one is gonna call the Thai curry police if you throw in some cauliflower or chick peas or a handful of shriveling cherry tomatoes. Or zucchini, or greens, even lettuce. These recipes were born from frugality and the best way to honor their origin is to use what you have, even if it isn't technically authentic. Covid and food shortages have made my life difficult, but I've become a better and more adventurous cook, and I am thankful for that.
That recipe looks really good, I’ll have to try it.
Have you ever had Japanese Curry? It is super easy to make and so delicious. In a pan just saute some onions, lightly cook some meat if you want it, then add chunks of red potatoes and carrots with water and simmer until the vegetables are tender and meat cooked through. Then add S&B golden curry mix and stir until thickened. Serve along side rice. S&B is my favorite brand and I like the Hot kind although it isn’t spicy just very flavorful. It an inexpensive dish and even if you choose to add meat it would be a very modest amount.
Sonia was telling me about that golden curry mix recently...I should try it.
Sounds delicious, and very similar to the one I make: https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/thai-red-curry-chicken.html
We use tofu instead of chicken.
I think you would really like the other recipes on this site. Thanks for all your wonderful and inspiring posts!
Making this now for our Father's Day dinner. I have some Thai basil growing in my garden, so that is being added in, too. It smells so good!
Ooh, I bet basil would be very delicious in this!