This delicious Thai Red Curry Chicken with Quinoa is a great weeknight dinner recipe. It's super easy to make and so good!
So today I made a Thai red curry sauce, with chicken and quinoa on the side. I usually use quinoa as a substitute for white rice. .... and I have about 10 pounds of quinoa in my pantry, as my husband could not pass up a chance to buy it in bulk at a much cheaper price.
I love Thai food and good Thai restaurants and often try to replicate Thai dishes at home. After trying many recipes for red curry sauce, experimenting with ingredients and proportions, I came up with this wonderful curry sauce, which is now my "go-to" recipe and is very popular with my family. I'm really glad that I can cook my favorite Thai dishes at home! Because this way I can control so many things on my end: the ingredients I use, for instance, I like to use high quality chicken, cook different types of vegetables, serve quinoa instead of rice and so on.
Thai Red Curry Chicken with Quinoa
Ingredients
- 14 oz coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste of moderate spiciness, such as Thai Kitchen brand. Use less of red curry paste if using a spicier version of the paste
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar (use more or less sugar, depending on your preference)
- 1 tablespoon lemon grass or 1 lemon grass stalk
- 1 lb chicken breast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup mushrooms
- 1 red bell pepper
- ¼ cup basil leaves chopped (or use ½ teaspoon dry basil)
- 1 cup quinoa
- 2 cups water
Instructions
- In a medium pan, heat olive oil. Add sliced mushrooms and sliced bell pepper. Cook on high heat for 10 minutes until vegetables soften.
- In the mean time, cook chicken breast (or use the one already cooked). You can either boil it, or roast it in the oven. After it’s cooked, cut the chicken breast in medium size pieces.
- Bring coconut milk in a large pan to boil, reduce to simmer. Add 1 tablespoon of curry paste, fish sauce, brown sugar, lemon grass, and stir really well so that curry paste dissolves. Taste your stew and add 2nd tablespoon of curry paste, if desired. For a red curry paste, I usually use the one produced by Thai Kitchen (it’s a popular brand sold in most stores). I like to use frozen lemon grass (chopped lemon grass), which you just add and it remains in the dish. If I were to use a lemon grass stalk – I would remove it at the end of cooking time. Simmer for 30 minutes for all tastes to blend. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, add cooked vegetables and sliced chicken breast into the soup, stir well.
- In the mean time, bring 2 cups of water and 1 cup quinoa to boil, reduce to medium and cook quinoa for 10-15 minutes until all water is absorbed and quinoa is cooked al dente.
- To serve, pour soup into each bowl, garnish with basil leaves. Serve quinoa in a separate bowl.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
I made this last night but doubled the recipe since I had a lot of mouths to feed!
Next time I will use less fish sauce and brown sugar, I don't think I needed to double those two ingredients. I'll start small and add more as I think is needed! I also added minced garlic to bring a little savory back to the sweet.
It was my first time using lemongrass and curry paste! Would you be able to achieve the same effect with curry powder, you think?
Overall, a great recipe!! We topped ours with crushed cashews and toasted coconut
Thank you for such a detailed and insightful comment! Love that you topped this dish with crushed cashews and toasted coconut - so delicious!
I don't think using curry powder will have the same effect as using red curry paste - the flavor would be very different!
came here from Pinterest. Your sit is so full of popup ads I cannot read a whole recipe. They take me to other sites as they wont let me close them. Looked like you have some good stuff here but can't get through the ads to find out.
I didn't have mushrooms so I substituted cauliflower, and it was delicious! I was wondering if you could use light coconut milk to make it a little less rich?
Susan, using cauliflower instead of mushrooms is a great idea - I need to try that! Of course, you can use light coconut milk vs. regular one.
Would absolutely love this if nutritional information was included.
Hi Anna, I have not yet figured out how to efficiently add nutrition info to my recipes, but a lot of people use and recommend this site for calorie count: http://caloriecount.about.com/
Julia, I made this tonight for my boyfriend and I and we enjoyed it very much! I used more capsicums and mushrooms so it absorbed more of the sauce, it became a less saucy version but just as delicious! I only dared to use one tablespoon of the red curry paste 😛
Thanks for a wonderful recipe, my boyfriend said I must make this again!
Nancy, thank you for such a sweet comment! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂 I myself love homemade Thai curries and make this regularly! 🙂
Where do you find the lemongrass? Is there a brand to look for?
Edith, dry lemongrass stalks are usually sold in most grocery stores, along with other herbs. I bought it at Sprouts, Whole Foods, Fairway. Lemongrass (fresh and frozen, not dry stalks) is also sold at Asian markets. Both types of lemongrass, frozen/fresh (and finely chopped) or dry lemongrass stalks work in this recipe!
I made this tonight for us, our kids, and our Chinese exchange student. Both my husband and our student love spicy food so they were really happy, but my kids and I were unable to eat it due to how spicy it was. I was disappointed because I could tell that despite the spiciness, the flavour was amazing. Also, I doubled the recipe and it was more than enough for the 5 of us. Next time I'll double everything except for the red curry paste, and hopefully we can all eat it.
Hannah, I found that not all red curry pastes are created equal. Some are spicier than others. I need to mention this in this recipe. I think in this recipe I used Thai Kitchen red curry paste which had a moderate spiciness, but later on I used a paste I purchased from the Asian store - and it was much spicier. I will make a note in the recipe.
I made this last night! It was incredible!! Thank you for the recipe!! It was even better than our favorite Thai restaurant version. I doubled it but I did not double the fish sauce or brown sugar (used 2 TBLS) and we thought it was wonderful! I served it with a lime wedge too b/c the lemongrass stalks I used were not as flavorful. Thank you!!
So glad you liked it! It's my favorite recipe for a red curry sauce, and I use it all the time myself, too. I also think it's better than what you get at some Thai restaurants! 🙂
How necessary is the fish sauce? Is it for just for flavor? I'd consider making it without it only because the people I cook for are not a fan of seafood of any kind.
Chloe, fish sauce is used here to add some flavor plus saltiness. You can get away without the fish sauce, but you will have to add more salt to taste, or maybe even some squeezed lemon juice. I personally don't feel any fishiness in this recipe from 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, but if your guests are very sensitive, removing the fish sauce and adding salt and/or lemon juice instead should work.
Coconut Aminos is a good sub for fish sauce (and soy sauce!). You get the saltiness and a lot of flavor without worrying about any fishiness if you don't want it 🙂
I made this tonight. I would use less brown sugar next time. Too sweet! I didn't have lemongrass so I squeezed lemon. great
Thanks, Toya, for stopping by! Yes, 3 tablespoons of packed brown sugar could be too sweet for a lot of people, so I just corrected the recipe to 2 or 3 tablespoons (depending on your preference).
I made this tonight and I have to say it is delicious! Thank you
Very happy to hear that!