Panang Curry With Coconut Rice

I love Asian food, but it’s hard to find where I live, so if I want it, I often have to make my own at home.

My brother, who has been to Thailand, is a big Thai food fan and sent me a tub of curry paste. As I experimented with ways to cook with it, I created this Panang Curry With Coconut Rice recipe.

The curry my brother gave me was really strong when I first used it, so I cut it with chicken stock to make it more palatable. Even then, it was still kind of hot over standard rice and I wanted something sweet to counterbalance it, so I used coconut rice.

What’s great about this recipe is that it has few ingredients, but they deliver bold flavor and it’s very easy to make.

Preparing the Ingredients

Prep your ingredients before you start cooking so you can just toss them in as you go.

Dice a red pepper using Cutco’s 7″ Santoku knife.

Then thinly slice a sweet onion with a 7-5/8″ Petite Chef knife.

The only cutting left to do is to cube the boneless, skinless chicken thighs. A little tip for easily cutting raw chicken is to cut it while it’s cold. The meat will be more firm, making it easier for the knife to slice through.

Cutco’s Boning Knife is a great knife for cubing the chicken.

This recipe is very versatile. You can also make it with shrimp or beef, and you can add in any veggies you want. Sometimes at home I’ll throw in frozen peas or carrots and, because my husband loves broccoli, I’ll sometimes add steamed broccoli. Note, however, that you will want to steam the broccoli, since it doesn’t work well cooking it in the curry. 

Making the Curry

Putting the dish together starts with sautéing the peppers and onions in some vegetable oil. The curry paste is added along with a bit more oil to cook for a few minutes.

Shake the coconut milk before using it because as it sits, the fat and liquid tend to separate. Shaking it will reincorporate it. Then, slowly add the coconut milk and chicken stock to the pan. I like to then rinse the can once or twice with the chicken stock to get as much out of the can as I can. 

Once the liquid starts to simmer, add the chicken and bring it back to a low boil. Continue to boil until the chicken is fully cooked.

When developing this recipe I experimented with sautéing the chicken with the vegetables, but it wasn’t as flavorful. That’s why I put the raw chicken in with the already warmed up curry mixture. It adds to the flavor, since the juice from the chicken boils right into the broth.

The curry is served over coconut rice, which will help tamp down the heat. When making it, note that you can’t just bring it to a boil, put the lid on and walk away like you can with regular rice. You really have to stir it every few minutes or it will cook to the bottom of the pan. Also know that coconut rice is a little sticky, unlike traditional rice which is flakier.

Along with the great flavor, what is nice about this Panang Curry With Coconut Rice is that it’s ready in about 20 minutes. I can come home from work, chop up the ingredients, sauté everything and put it together in no time.

At home we sometimes add sliced bananas and peanuts to the top of it. I’ll also toast some coconut to garnish it. It’s a great recipe for putting ingredients out in a bar setting, so that people can pick what they want to put in their dish.

Give this recipe a try and you may find that curry takes a permanent place in your food pantry.