Thai Panang Chicken Curry

Thai Panang Chicken Curry. A slightly sweeter, milder curry that is packed with wonderful Thai flavours. It is quick to make and utterly delicious.

I love Italian food and often joke that really I should have been born in Florence, I adore Tuscany! Which would suggest that I was sharing a Italian dish today wouldn't it. But I just want to keep you on your toes 😉

No, what I really wanted to say was that if Italian wasn't on the menu I would have to pick Asian food. I love them all, but I love how accessible and simple Thai food can be. Everything on the recipe list today can be bought in the local supermarket. Which is one of my benchmarks for making it family friendly. If you have to take a separate trip to the Asian supermarket then it is no longer easy! That involves getting the kids back into the car, back out of the car. Dealing with another set of treats that you have to try and avoid them seeing, but because stopping kids spying treats is like stopping a waterfall with your pinky you can't so then you have to deal with saying no a million times in a 10 minute period.

No, I love all the boutique food shops, but they are a solitary treat. Not a family friendly adventure!!!

This panang chicken curry is super simple and super quick. Don't let the ingredient list put you off, it looks super long but really all you do if place them all in the food processor. After that it is about as simple as warming up a can of soup! SUPER!!! 😉

I am not sure how authentic this recipe is. It was given to me by a friend who lives in Malaysia so I am hoping it hits the nail on the head, but I have never been there so I can only takes others word for it. Either way it tastes great. It is sweeter and milder than some Thai curries, but you can change the chilli to suit your tastes. I use two chillies and it has a medium heat. Too spicy for the kids to eat a whole bowl of it, but great to serve them a small portion as part of a meal where they can have some Thai spring rolls, Thai meatballs  (get my recipe here - it is one of the most popular recipes on my blog!), steamed asian greens, a bit of rice and some pad Thai. The recipe doesn't make tons of curry so again it is perfect as part of a meal spread. If you are just having the curry and rice then I would suggest it probably will only serve 2.

Traditionally the onion, garlic and ginger are roasted until soft and sweet, but that takes about 40 minutes. I do occasionally do it and it does add a sweet deep flavour, but my cheat shortcut adds a great touch of sweet savoury flavour and is perfect for a quick midweek meal.

You want to use coconut cream here, rather than the milk, it is thicker, richer and due to the short cooking time, it is perfect for getting the constancy that I love. Also I don't add any extra veg to my curry as I love the flavour as it is. I would rather have some asian greens on the side. But if you want to make this a more complete meal, then you can easily add some capsicum when you add the coconut milk and beansprouts right at the end.

Also this is great with seafood!!! Cook the paste, add the prawns and coconut cream together and cook until the prawns are just pink. YUM!

Have a great weekend. I will see you on Sunday for one of my favourite restaurant copy cat brunches :-). It involves salmon, eggs and avocado. And a hint of chilli and lime......how can you not love the sound of that!!! See you Sunday x

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Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Thai Penang Chicken Curry

Thai Panang Chicken Curry. A slightly sweeter, milder curry that is packed with wonderful Thai flavours. It is quick to make and utterly delicious. AND it uses supermarket ingredients!!!

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time15 mins

Total Time20 mins

Servings: 2 (4 with appetisers)

Author: Claire | Sprinkle and Sprouts

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Ingredients

For the curry paste

• 1 small onion
• 5 cm piece of ginger
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon unsalted peanuts
• 2 red chillies
• 2 kaffir lime leaves - see notes
• juice of ½ lime
• 4 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 ½ tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon shrimp paste
• 1 teaspoon palm sugar or raw sugar
• 2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• ½ teaspoon ground coriander
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves

For the Curry

• 500 g chicken breast
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 can coconut cream (400g/13oz)
• 1 handful fresh coriander

Instructions

• Start by making the curry sauce.
• Peel the onion and cut it in half. Place it cut side down in a large frying pan and place over a medium heat. Leave it for about 5 minutes until it is a dark golden brown colour.
• Peel the garlic and ginger.
• Place the onion, garlic and ginger into a food processor. Add the remaining curry paste ingredients into a food processor and whizz until you have a rough paste.
• If you are finding it hard to get the paste consistency, add two or three tablespoons of your coconut cream.
• Cut the chicken into small bite sized pieces and set to one side.
• In the frying pan you cooked the onion in, add the sesame oil and the vegetable oil and then empty in your curry paste. Fry it gently over a low heat until everything is starting to smell amazing! About 4 minutes.
• Add the chicken pieces and stir well to coat the chicken.
• Cook for 5 minutes and then pour in the coconut cream.
• Bring to the boil and then simmer for 5-10 minutes until your chicken is cooked through (the exact time will depend on how small you cut your chicken)
• Serve with jasmine rice and plenty of fresh coriander.

Notes

I buy my kaffir lime leaves in a packet in the fruit and veg section of the supermarket. They freeze amazingly well, so once I have used what I need I just freeze the packet and then grab them from frozen when I need them.

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