Thai Yellow Curry with Chicken — Better-than-takeout yellow curry is EASY and ready in 25 minutes!! Healthy comfort food with the PERFECT amount of heat and lots of textures and flavors in every bite! Impress your friends and family and make this DELICIOUS curry at home!!
Table of Contents
No need for takeout from your local Thai restaurant when you can make an authentic-tasting curry this good in 25 minutes at home. The curry is hearty yet healthy comfort food that’s layered with Thai-inspired flavors and is naturally gluten-free.
I could drink the coconut milk broth or prepare it as a soup – it’s so good and it keeps the chicken so juicy and moist. I used full fat coconut milk but have used lite in previous curry recipes and it may not be quite as rich, but it’s still great.
There’s natural sweetness from the sweet Vidalia onions, carrots, and the coconut milk, the lime juice add the perfect acidic notes to balance the flavors.
I love all the textures and flavors in every bite from the tender carrots, wilted spinach, and of course the perfectly juicy chicken.
Recipe Ingredients
For this yellow chicken curry recipe, you’ll need:
- Boneless skinless chicken breast
- Sweet Vidalia onion
- Garlic
- Ground turmeric (essential to impart a bold yellow color)
- Ground ginger
- Coriander
- Yellow curry paste
- Coconut milk
- Shredded carrots
- Fresh spinach
- Pepper
- Cilantro
- Brown sugar
- Lime juice
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Thai Yellow Curry
Homemade Thai yellow coconut curry is so quick and easy to prepare! Here’s how the recipe is made:
- Add the onion and oil to a large skillet and sauté until softened.
- Add the diced chicken and cook until no longer pink inside (about 5 minutes.)
- Add the spices and garlic and cook until fragrant.
- Stir in the yellow curry paste, carrots, and coconut milk and let the mixture bubble away until the liquid is reduced.
- The remaining ingredients are then stirred in and the curry is ready to serve!
We enjoyed this both on it’s on as well as served over jasmine rice. Basmati rice or naan would be my other serving suggestions.
Adjusting the Spice Level of This Curry
To really deliver a punch of yellow curry flavor, I used this Mekhala Organic Yellow Curry Paste. Unlike the Thai Kitchen brand of Red Curry Paste or Green Curry Paste that I’ve used in the past for respective red and green curry recipes, the Mekhala packs way more heat per tablespoon.
With the Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste, I use a full 4-ounce jar for my typical red curry recipes and don’t sense much heat.
However, with the Mekhala Yellow Curry Paste, half of a 3.5-ounce jar was plenty to sense a fair amount of heat. We love heat and I was pleasantly surprised the kind of punch this curry paste packed. It’s not spicy if you use a teaspoon but if you use half the jar like I did, the heat creeps up on you.
If you’re heat-sensitive or don’t like your food as spicy, start with 1 to 2 teaspoons and work up from there. You can always add more, but you can’t undo it.
Recipe Variations to Try
The great thing about Thai curries is that you can add whatever vegetables or legumes you like!
Try incorporating:
- Cauliflower
- Bell peppers
- Sweet potatoes
- Chickpeas
- Edamame
- Frozen peas
- Kale rather than spinach
- Basil rather than cilantro
- Cashews
- Or whatever you have in your produce drawer or freezer
I think of curries as a stir-fry-meets-soup, and there are no rules with what to add to either those in my book. Enjoy all the wonderful flavors and dig in.
Recipe FAQs
You can use full-fat or lite coconut milk to make this recipe. Just make sure to use coconut milk that comes in a can and not the kind in a carton.
If you’d like to keep this recipe vegetarian or are short on time, you can add a can of drained chickpeas in place of the diced chicken. The curry will cook up faster but still be packed with protein.
I used this Mekhala Organic Yellow Curry Paste, but Thai Kitchen yellow curry paste will also work. Note that the Mekhala brand curry paste is much spicier than Thai Kitchen’s!
Yellow coconut curry is generally milder than either red or green curry, but this recipe still has a kick to it. To us, it was fairly mild but if your family doesn’t like spicy foods simply add less curry paste than the recipe calls for, taste the sauce after a few minutes of simmering, and add more if desired.
What to Serve with Yellow Curry
Video Tutorial
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Thai Yellow Curry with Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, (coconut oil may be substituted)
- 1 large yellow onion, diced small (a sweet Vidalia may also be used)
- 1.25 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, diced into bite-sized pieces
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
- 2 to 3 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger , finely chopped (or 1 tablespoon fresh ginger)
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 2 to 4 tablespoons Mekhala Organic Yellow Curry Paste, or as desired
- 13.5 ounces full-fat coconut milk, (lite may be substituted)
- 1 ½ cups shredded carrots
- 2 to 3 cups fresh spinach, loosely packed (2 to 3 heaping handfuls)
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 1 to 2 tablespoons lime juice, (optional but recommended)
- ¼ to ⅓ cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped for garnishing (basil may be substituted)
- 1 to 4 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed (optional and to taste)
- salt, (optional and to taste)
Instructions
- To a large skillet, add the oil, onion, and sauté over medium-high heat until the onion begins to soften about 5 minutes; stir intermittently.
- Add the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes, or until chicken is done; flip and stir often to ensure even cooking.
- Add the garlic, turmeric, ginger, coriander, and cook for about 1 minute, or until fragrant; stir frequently.
- Add the curry paste, coconut milk, carrots, and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to medium, and allow mixture to gently boil for about 5 minutes, or until liquid volume has reduced as much as desired and thickens slightly.
- Add the spinach, pepper, and stir until the spinach has wilted.
- Taste the curry and add the optional but recommended lime juice (brightens the flavor of the dish), cilantro, optional light brown sugar (balances the heat), optional salt (I did not add any because the curry paste has salt in it), and add extra of any of the spices already used or more curry paste, if desired and to taste.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Originally posted April 27, 2020 and reposted July 21, 2021 with updated text.
Thank you for this recipe! I am now addicted to making curry on chilly rainy nights. I have made this a few times now; used chicken and chickpeas tonight. Love it!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad this is your new favorite especially on chilly rainy nights! Sounds great with the chickpeas, too!
Great recipe. I’ve made a lot of online recipes – this one deserves upper 4’s rating, not sure why it doesn’t.
I added all the optional ingredients except salt (which are all pretty standard and everyone should do anyway!) with the addition of ~1-2 tsp fish sauce, which I also think is a good standard everyone should do.
Cheers
Great recipe. I’ve made a lot of online recipes – this one deserves upper 4’s rating, not sure why it doesn’t.
I added all the optional ingredients except salt (which are all pretty standard and everyone should do anyway!) with the addition of ~1-2 tsp fish sauce, which I also think is a good standard everyone should do.
Cheers
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad it was great for you!
great
Can I use curry powder as a substitute for the yellow curry paste? If so, how much powder do you suggest?
It really will not give you the flavor, at all. Curry paste (Thai) and typical curry powder (Indian) tend to be really different.
Awesome recipe. Very good. Serve it to some friend they loved it. Will definitely do it again.
Thanks.
Awesome recipe. Very good. Serve it to some friend they loved it. Will definitely do it again.
Thanks.
Glad this was awesome and that your friends loved it and will make it again!
great
Simply delicious. I used chicken fillets and froze ….so handy.
I have tried a lot of curry recipes online, your recipe is booked marked. So far it’s my favorite, thank you very much for sharing it with us! I am a flight attendant and I food prep for when I’m gone, so many FAs compliment the smell and how good it looks, they all ask me how I made this and I send them you recipe. Again, thank you!
I have tried a lot of curry recipes online, your recipe is booked marked. So far it’s my favorite, thank you very much for sharing it with us! I am a flight attendant and I food prep for when I’m gone, so many FAs compliment the smell and how good it looks, they all ask me how I made this and I send them you recipe. Again, thank you!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad this is your favorite curry recipe! Thanks for sharing my site/links with your FA friends!
Delicious! My husband already wants me to make it again!
Amazing recipe, absolutely loved it and so did the family!! I definitely will be making it again someday.
I made a few revisions to it as I went because of personal preference. I added half the amount of cilantro and I cooked the chicken for 20 minutes. I tried cooking it for 5 minutes/until cooked but it was rubbery so I let the chicken sit in the pot at medium/medium-low heat until it relaxed, became soft again, and finished cooking.
Quick question, how many cups is one serving?
Amazing recipe, absolutely loved it and so did the family!! I definitely will be making it again someday.
I made a few revisions to it as I went because of personal preference. I added half the amount of cilantro and I cooked the chicken for 20 minutes. I tried cooking it for 5 minutes/until cooked but it was rubbery so I let the chicken sit in the pot at medium/medium-low heat until it relaxed, became soft again, and finished cooking.
Quick question, how many cups is one serving?
Thanks for the five star review and glad it was amazing!
To be honest I am not sure exactly based on cups. It serves 4 people IMO so whatever 1/4th of the recipe is, that’s how many cups are in a serving.
Absolutely loved this recipe! I added half the amount of cilantro and it still tasted great! I’d recommend many to try it and it’s not hard to make. Also, I cooked the chicken for 5 minutes or until cooked and it was rubbery. I recommend cooking it in a pot on medium/medium-low heat for 20 minutes to keep it soft. If you do this, you may have to drain some of the water the chicken releases when it’s cooked.
Quick question, how many cups are in one serving?
This looks wonderful also and thanks for clarifying how spicy the yellow curry paste is. I am familiar with the red and green but didn’t even realize there was yellow!
It’s a pretty new-to-me product as well. It could just be this particular brand, not sure, but being that it ‘behaved’ so differently and dramatically spicier than any other curry paste I’ve used, I felt it was worth the mention, especially since I love spicy food and this was plenty for me.
If you can get your hands on that paste, it’s totally worth it and I think you would really enjoy this version. Very similar to many of my other ones but with the yellow (spicier) twist.