Panang Curry
Updated Jan. 26, 2024
- Total Time
- 35 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
Advertisement
Ingredients
- ½teaspoon coriander seeds
- ½teaspoon cumin seeds
- ¼cup/1 ounce dry-roasted, unsalted peanuts
- 2 to 4tablespoons red curry paste, to taste (see Tip)
- 1pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 2teaspoons fish sauce, plus more as needed
- 1(13.5-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk (do not shake)
- 8makrut lime leaves, deveined, 6 torn and 2 thinly sliced, or 1 teaspoon grated lime zest, for serving,
- 1½teaspoons palm, granulated or brown sugar, plus more as needed
- 1small, mild, thin-skinned pepper, such as a Fresno, Anaheim or banana pepper, or ½ small red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- Thai basil, thinly sliced, for serving (optional, if makrut lime leaves are not used)
- Rice, for serving
For the Panang Curry Paste
For the Curry
Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the curry paste: Heat a medium sauté pan over medium. Add the coriander and cumin. Swirl the pan around, or toss the seeds with a wooden spoon, and gently toast until fragrant, about 1 minute, taking care not to burn the spices. Transfer to a small plate and cool, then place in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, and grind to a fine powder.
- Step 2
Add the peanuts and finely grind until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl, add the red curry paste and stir until mixed.
- Step 3
Thinly slice the chicken into 1½-inch-long pieces. Place in a medium bowl, drizzle with the fish sauce and mix until coated.
- Step 4
Heat the same pan over medium-high. Scoop 4 tablespoons of the thick cream off the top of the coconut milk and add it to the pan; it will immediately sizzle. Stir until thickened and bubbling on the sides, about 30 seconds. Stir in the curry paste, to taste. Reduce to medium, and cook the paste, continuously stirring, until a thick paste forms and the coconut oil separates (the sauce “breaks”), 2 to 3 minutes. If it starts sticking, add a splash of coconut milk and scrape up anything from the bottom of the pan.
- Step 5
Add the torn lime leaves or zest and sugar. Cook, continuously stirring, to dissolve the sugar and infuse the flavors, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining coconut milk, increase to medium-high, bring to a boil and cook, continuously stirring, until the curry has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon and has a layer of bright red oil on top, 4 to 8 minutes. The curry should be at a lively simmer; adjust the heat as necessary.
- Step 6
Add the chicken and cook, stirring frequently, until cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. If using, stir in the peppers, saving a few for serving, and cook until just incorporated, about 1 minute. Taste and add more fish sauce and sugar, if needed. (Be mindful, this is not a sweet curry; the sweetness should hit a back note, not lead with it.)
- Step 7
Garnish with the sliced lime leaves or Thai basil and reserved peppers. Serve alongside rice.
- Different brands of curry paste vary in spice levels. Taste a little first and determine how much to use.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
If you only have ground cumin and coriander, halve the measurements the recipe calls for
These are my suggestions if you are buying pre-made paste. 1) Don't buy American brands of Curry paste or coconut milk. I buy Maesri curry paste, Chaokoh coconut milk and/or Mae Ploy coconut cream. 2) I like lots of sauce, so I combine one 4oz can of curry paste with one 19oz can coconut cream and one 13.5oz can of coconut milk. 3) for sauce, first combine the fatty portion of coconut cream and milk with the paste until it begins to look like peanut butter, then add remaining ingredients.
Here's two more tips. 1) serving on top of rice can dilute curry flavor. serve on the side instead. 2) I use pre-cooked meat. Buy a Costco chicken and shred, then dice. I prefer pork, so I buy a big pork shoulder, slow cook it, shred it, dice it, divide into multiple servings, and freeze them. When it's time to make curry, I pull a bag of pork out of the freezer and use that. Buying a big pork shoulder also saves money. I use the shredded pork for many different recipes: curry, tacos, BBQ.
We always have a few cans of Maesri curry paste in the pantry. It makes for a very quick and easy meal that doesn't taste quick and easy. I use a bit less than the can directions call for. About 1/2 can with 1 can of coconut milk (there's 2 of us). The other 1/2 can gets frozen.
I learned almost exactly this recipe at a cooking school in Thailand and it’s delicious! Highly recommend Maesri brand curry paste. It’s a bit spicy so I usually use around half a can per pound of meat. I also add in 1/4 teaspoon of tamarind paste.
The two best curry paste brands are Mae Ploy and Maesri.
substitute for peanuts in the curry: almond butter substitute for fish sauce: Yondu Vegetable Umami Sauce. Excellent replacement for fish sauce in all recipes it calls for!
As someone who is incorrigibly (genetic) Irish I use a large potato, either nuked or baked, in the place of rice for Panang, Green, and Red, but a sweet potato with Massaman. Maesri or M.P. are both good pastes. I used to make my own paste but it's a 45-minute plus Metro to the Thai store for coriander roots. At any rate, works for me.
Maesry actually makes a Panang curry paste. Not as easy to find as their red or green, but often available in Asian supermarket.
Made this as written last night using 3.5oz of Thai Kitchen brand red curry paste , the toasted spices, dry-roasted peanuts and, Thai Kitchen brand organic, unsweetened coconut milk chilled. Only had dried lime leaves and fished them out before serving. Used boneless, skinless chicken thighs sliced whilst still semi frozen. All round winner. Word of caution - four adults cleared their bowls and asked if there were seconds! Will double the recipe next time just to get some left overs.
I believe if you refrigerate your can of coconut milk, it will separate, MaryP.
The recipe says you can substitute 1 teaspoon grated lime zest for the makrut lime leaves
This was easy and tasty. Added green beans which worked out great. Next time will up the curry paste and the entire red pepper. A keeper
Coconut milk varies widely in its make up. Some cheap brands have as little as 25% coconut. Look at the ingredients, you should not accept less than 60%, some brands go up to 85% plus... Not all coconut milks are the same, it will makes a huge difference to the taste.
You can buy vegan/vegetarian fish sauce (soy-based) for dietary restrictions, but there is really no substitute when cooking Thai food. When I first started cooking Thai food decades ago I omitted or reduced the fish sauce because it smelled terrible and I didn't think I'd like it. Then I tried the food with and without it and have never omitted again!
I doubled the recipe, and it fed my family of five alright. I wasn't able to find the markut, but I was able to find everything else.
My cupboard had an unopened undated packet of Musmun Curry Paste, brand Nampick Mae Anong from Bangkok. It was dark reddish brown. Mae Ploy coconut cream. No unsalted roasted peanuts, so I weighed out some peanut butter. Turbinado raw cane sugar. Makrut lime leaves from our garden. The result was flavorful and mild. Thai cooking classes emphasized balancing flavors; I am surprised the recipe doesn’t have an acid - lime juice or tamarind - to balance it.
I doubled the coriander and cumin seeds, and toasted the peanuts with the seeds. The curry came out spicier and much more flavorful than when I followed the exact recipe.
This is an awesome recipe! We had to double it to feed all of us. The only change I would make is to add additional vegetables - spinach, mushrooms, etc?
I followed the recipe. Used Maesri Panang (the whole can), lime zest instead of leaves, didn't have basil. EXCELLENT! I'll try it again if I can find lime leaves and Thai basil. Could it be better? PS My wife liked the heat. The top of my head sweat!
This is tasty as written. Changes I’ve made after having made it exactly as written is to use 4 T Maesri panang curry paste & add some toasted, cumin and coriander, and 3T smooth peanut butter. It also benefits from the addition of some salt or MSG or both. If you use coconut milk in the paper container, you won’t get as much fat from the top and it’s thinner overall, but in that case, I just do a little cornstarch slurry at the end. I use 2-3 bell peppers thinly sliced to make it a full meal.
Thought I had red curry paste but only had green. Made it anyway and it was delicious!
This was quick and easy, but ok not great. Under-seasoned, even with salted peanuts and extra salt, and under-spiced (Fresnos are pretty tame). Not sure it was worth making my own panang curry paste, though did appreciate the use of makrut lime leaves and thai basil, which provided the only real flavor.
1/2 can curry paste to 1 can coconut milk was perfect. chicken so tender. great way to cook it
This was not Penang Curry. Maybe because I used the wrong red curry paste, or maybe because I skipped the fish sauce, but I love Penang curry and my dish wasn't even close. To add insult to injury: it was hardly saucy at all. There was barely enough liquid to coat the chicken (substitute), let alone the rice. To be fair, this dish was delicious. I happily ate it all. It just wasn't Penang curry.
Excellent recipe. I used shrimp instead of chicken.
Panang paste is easier. Just add coconut milk and protein.
Has anyone tried this with low fat coconut milk? (I know.....)
Very tasty. I made (almost) exactly as written. Used Maesri Panang curry paste plus a scoop of peanut butter. Used two bell peppers, one red, one yellow, sliced into thin strips. That way we didn’t need any extra vegetables. Needed quite a bit of salt.
Coconut milk varies widely in its make up. Some cheap brands have as little as 25% coconut. Look at the ingredients, you should not accept less than 60%, some brands go up to 85% plus... Not all coconut milks are the same, it will makes a huge difference to the taste.
Advertisement