The word curry or kare simply means a spiced sauce, not too different from a gumbo or mole. Thais usually use coconut milk as the liquid, and we use fresh herbs as the flavor base. To make a base curry paste, grind together lemongrass, shallots, kaffir lime leaves, garlic and shrimp paste to form a smooth paste. If you finish that paste with red chilies, you make red curry paste. Green chilies make green curry. Panang is made with a combination of red chilies and dried chilies and goes great with chicken, beef or duck.
| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 40 min |
| Active: | 25 min |
| Yield: | 4 to 6 servings |
Ingredients
- Two 13.5-ounce cans full-fat coconut milk, with 3 tablespoons of the cream separated out (see Cook’s Note)
- 4 tablespoons (60 g) panang curry paste
- 1/2 cup (95 g) brown onion, sliced thin
- 4 makrut lime leaves, fine chiffonade
- 1 1/2 to 2 pounds (680 to 910 g) chicken breast, sliced thin
- 1/2 tablespoon (10 g) tamarind paste
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced
- 1 zucchini, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
- 1 cup (240 g) canned bamboo shoots, sliced
- 1/2 cup (95 g) Thai sweet basil leaves, roughly chopped
Instructions
- In a heavy bottomed pot, heat the 3 tablespoons of the thick coconut cream to high for about 1 minute. When the cream starts to sizzle, stir in the curry paste into the cream like building a roux. Add the onion and half of the makrut lime leaf chiffonade. Stir-fry the paste until the paste starts to thicken, dry out, and become fragrant, about 1 minute. If the curry starts to sputter, add a small amount of coconut milk to keep the paste moving. Cook the paste until it has the consistency of peanut butter.
- Stir in the remaining coconut milk into the curry paste. Increase the heat to high until you reach a full rolling boil. Allow the curry to boil until it reduces by about 25% or coats the back of a wooden spoon, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the chicken, tamarind paste, fish sauce and sugar. When the chicken is about halfway cooked, about 5 minutes, add the bell pepper and zucchini. Let simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the bamboo shoots and Thai basil leaves. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve immediately over jasmine rice and garnish with a few ribbons of the remaining makrut lime leaf.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 6 servings |
| Calories | 459 |
| Total Fat | 32 g |
| Saturated Fat | 25 g |
| Carbohydrates | 13 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Sugar | 5 g |
| Protein | 35 g |
| Cholesterol | 97 mg |
| Sodium | 294 mg |
Reviews
Five stars for flavour but mine was too spicy and I will half the curry paste next time. I upped the chicken to 2.5 lbs of chicken and some veggies that needed to be used, snap peas and broccoli.
This was delicious! And really quite easy to make! Jet Tila’s recipes are so flavorful and easy to follow-love him!
This was delicious! I had to change a few things because I accidently bought lite coconut milk. I added a little extra oil to make up for the lack of fat. Also, because other reviews said their dish turned out watery, I par-cooked my zucchini and pepper in the microwave first to get rid of some of their water. I bought panang curry paste but mine was red and therefore my sauce was red and not white like Jet’s. Mine was REALLY spicey. That was probably because I used the lite coconut milk and not the full fat version. To tame the spice, I added some sour cream thinned with water and that helped tone down the spice level. Finally, I used shrimp instead of chicken, adding the shrimp at the very end.
I don’t usually rate a recipe if I made changes, but the flavor was so amazing I just had to give this 5 stars.
I don’t usually rate a recipe if I made changes, but the flavor was so amazing I just had to give this 5 stars.
Phenomenal and it was my hubby’s first time eating Panang curry and he ate two platefuls.
I’m not rating the recipe and, although I know Jet probably doesn’t bother reading commentary on his recipes.
Dude, really? You don’t know your wife’s “very very very favorite recipe?” It’s panang curry, the recipe you claim brought you 2 together…
Dude, really? You don’t know your wife’s “very very very favorite recipe?” It’s panang curry, the recipe you claim brought you 2 together…
Follow the video, not the written recipe here. Jet stresses adding the flavor components-salty, sweet, sour, hot, and umami-in order – so add the fish sauce, then sugar, then tamarind past – the heat comes from the curry past – builds together to create your umami. He stressed how important this was for balance in Thai cooking.
Also, he used one can of coconut milk, not two.
He said if you can’t get the Lime leaves, use lime zest as a replacement.
Also, he used one can of coconut milk, not two.
He said if you can’t get the Lime leaves, use lime zest as a replacement.
My family loved this.
Best curry ever! Yum!
Omg,this recipe is perfection in flavor and palate!it’s heaven in your body!
So delicious!!! Follow the ready jet cook video he does with his wife and not this recipe (the recipe calls for 6 cups of coconut milk but Jet only uses one can in the video… I used two cans and I reduced it a lot). If you’re scared to try curry, definitely try this!! I can’t explain how flavorful and easy this was!!