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Peanut Chicken Curry

Peanut Chicken Curry

I’ll never forget the very first time I heard about Thai food. My mother and aunt were talking about a Thai restaurant they had gone to and my aunt said she doesn’t understand how they put peanut butter into their curries. The thought completely appalled me and I vowed to never eat Thai food in my life. Keep in mind, I was only about 12.

Fast forward a few years, and I’m addicted. Everything about Thai food works for me. When I first ate Thai food the flavours of fish sauce, soy sauce, ginger and garlic were all a bit overwhelming but my palate soon adjusted and it is now one of my favourite cuisines. Of course, when I cook it, it is not authentic and I’ve never been to Thailand to confirm this, but I think my Thai recipes are pretty good. Especially when I compare them to other Thai recipes.

Peanut Chicken Curry

As usual, I added chillies to my recipe because a curry isn’t a curry when it doesn’t leave your mouth tingling just slightly (in my opinion), but omitting them won’t do anything to the end result. I do suggest however that you use a good quality red curry paste and silky smooth peanut butter. If you would like some texture in your curry, of course you can use chunky peanut butter and if that’s all you have in the house, then please do, I just prefer a smoother curry (even though I like adding some chopped peanuts over the top of the curry).

If you’d like to bulk up this curry, feel free to do so with green vegetables or baby corn. I served this with steamed sugar snap peas on the side but they could easily be added to the sauce as well. And I would suggest you serve this curry with steamed Jasmine Rice which compliments the flavours of the curry so well (and Jasmine Rice is cheaper than Basmati Rice).

Peanut Chicken Curry

Serves 6-8

800g (28.22 ounces) skinless chicken breasts, de-boned
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1.5 tsp crushed ginger
2 heaped tbsp smooth peanut butter
2.5 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
1 tin coconut milk
1 tin chicken stock/water (using the same tin as the coconut milk)

Jasmine Rice, to serve
steamed sugar snap peas, to serve

  1. Cut the chicken into chunks and fry in a large, hot wok until browned. Remove from the wok and set aside.
  2. Briefly fry the garlic and ginger before adding back the chicken. Stir fry for a minute before adding the peanut butter, soy sauce, fish sauce,brown sugar and curry paste.
  3. Stir fry and allow the peanut butter to melt.
  4. Add the coconut milk and chicken stock /water and stir carefully to combine all the ingredients.
  5. Lower the heat and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes until the sauce has thickened slightly.
  6. If the sauce needs salt/sugar, add more brown sugar or soy sauce.
  7. Serve with jasmine rice and sugar snap peas.

The winner of the Zhoosh! Signed copy is CAREY! Congratulations! The book is on the way! :)

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Post By Alida Ryder
 
 
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  • Jen

    Hi, I love Thai food and this recipe sounds fantastic. Just one problem – I cannot stand coconut milk, I can taste if even a teaspoon is added to my food. Can you recommend a substitute for coconut milk? Thanks.

    • http://www.simply-delicious.co.za Ally_R

      Jen, You can use cream or evaporated milk instead! :)

      PinkPolkaDot : Thanx! I hope you enjoy it.

      Kitchenboy: Thanx darling! :)

  • http:/pinkpolkadotblog.wordpress.com PinkPolkaDot

    This looks delicious! I love Thai food and will definitely try this!

  • http://www.kitchen-boy.net Kitchenboy

    Alida, your photos are SO beautiful! The dish simply leaps off my screen!

  • http://rememberwhenwewereyoung.wordpress.com/ Fiona

    That looks absolutely delicious! I love Thai food and I’ll be going to Thailand in September which I cannot wait for :)

  • http://swizzleberry.blogspot.com/ Sarah @ SwizzleBerry

    I just made this for dinner and while it was nice, I think it was way, way too salty. I didn’t have any ginger, so I omitted that, and I think 800g of chicken breasts is way too much for four people in a Thai recipe, so I only used two and cut the chicken stock down to 1 cup. All of that should have reduced the amount of salt. Near the end of cooking I added an extra tablespoon of brown sugar and it was still too salty.

    I did use dark soy, though, so that might be the problem. I’ll be trying this one again and tweaking as I go. I’m in Australia, so it’s possible some of our ingredients have different salt contents.

    I also added half a bag, so about 200g, of frozen asian vegies and three spring onions.

    I might cut the fish sauce by half and use light soy instead next time and see how I go.

    It definitely has the makings of a great dish. Thanks for sharing.

    • http://www.simply-delicious.co.za Ally_R

      Sarah : I think you’re right. Our soy sauce might be slightly less salty than yours? And I also use a reduced sodium one which maybe makes a difference. I must add that I like quite a lot of soy sauce in my food so maybe that amount is too much? I’ll also rectify the serving suggestion. Perhaps 800g will be better for 6-8 people?

  • http://swizzleberry.blogspot.com/ Sarah @ SwizzleBerry

    Ally, I’d definitely reduce the amount of chicken (or any protein, really) in any asian recipe. They are usually all about the sauce and the vegies and the meat is just an extra-added bonus. Have a look on my blog at my Beef and Broccoli recipe and see what you think of that one. It’s one of my most favourite dishes, absolutely delicious and the beef melts in your mouth. Still on the salty side, but the flavours are all balanced. I’ve since modified it again by using 2 Tbs dark soy, 2 Tbs light soy and 2 Tbs water with the 4Tbs oyster sauce for the sauce element. The dark soy was too salty on its own, so I’m guessing that’s the problem I had with your recipe.

    Next time I’ll be making it with light soy and maybe a little less fish sauce. It’s still a great recipe and I’m definitely trying it again :)

    • http://www.simply-delicious.co.za Ally_R

      I did amend the quantities of soy and fish sauce in the recipe and made the serving size more. I have to say that when my husband tasted the sauce by itself he also said it’s quite strong but mixed with the Jasmine rice it was just perfect.

  • Brenda

    Many thanks for the recipe! I foodgawked ‘peanut chicken’ and your recipe popped up 1st. Our son cooked this up in less than 1/2 an hour and it was phenomenal.

 
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