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This dish concentrates the iconic flavours of Thailand into one quick and easy stir-fry. Chicken and crunchy long beans tossed in salty-sweet red curry paste, and served with creamy salted duck egg. Try it with fried tofu for a vegetarian version!
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Gai Pad Prik King ไก่ผัดพริกขิง Red Curry Chicken & Long Beans Stir-Fry
- Yield: Serves 2-3
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast or thigh, cut into bite-sized pieces (if using breast, make sure it's at least 1 cm thick)
- 2 tsp fish sauce (for marinating chicken)
- Vegetable oil, as needed
- 3-4 tablespoon red curry paste (use more for a spicier dish)
- ¼ - ½ cup chicken stock or water, unsalted (if using salted stock, reduce amount of fish sauce)
- 2 Tbsp palm sugar, chopped, tightly packed
- 1-3 teaspoon fish sauce (see note)
- 1 ½ cup long beans, cut into 1.5” pieces
- 7 kaffir lime leaves, 5 torn into chunks, 2 finely julienned
- 1-2 salted duck eggs, cooked (optional, but highly recommended!)
- Jasmine rice for serving
Note: Some curry pastes are saltier than others, so if it's your first time making this dish, add only 1 teaspoon of fish sauce to start, then taste and adjust as needed at the end.
Instructions
- Toss chicken with 2 teaspoon of fish sauce, then add a little vegetable oil and toss to coat—this is just to help the chicken spread more easily in the wok, and it also helps keep the moisture in while you sear. Let chicken marinate while you prep other ingredients, about 15 minutes.
- Cut the salted duck eggs right through the shell in half, then use a spoon to scoop the halves out. You can cut each half into chunks and toss them into the stir-fry, or serve on the side like I did in the video. Note: If you want to toss it into the stir-fry, only use 1 egg, and you can always have more on the side.
- In a wok or a large saute pan, add just enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom and heat over high heat until the pan is very hot. Add just enough chicken so they're not crowding in the pan (I do this in 2 batches), spread the pieces apart and sear without stirring until browned, about 1 minute. Once browned, stir the chicken briefly just to cook the surface of the other side, and then remove from the pan—the chicken should only be partially cooked at this point. Repeat with the remaining chicken.
- Let the pan cool a bit, then with the heat off, add about 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil and the curry paste. Stir the curry paste in the oil until it's loosened, then turn the heat on to medium. Cook the curry paste, stirring constantly, until it is thickened.
- Stir in the palm sugar, fish sauce (start with 1 teaspoon if you're not sure how salty the curry paste is), and deglaze with ¼ cup of chicken stock. Keep stirring until the sugar is mostly dissolved, deglazing with more stock as needed if it starts to stick to the pan.
- Add the torn kaffir lime leaves and let them infuse into the sauce for about 30 seconds.
- If the sauce looks thick, add a little more chicken stock to get it into an pourable consistency. Add the partially cooked chicken and toss just to coat in the sauce. Add the long beans and cook until the chicken is fully cooked and the sauce is no longer pooling and the curry paste is coating the chicken and the beans. If you want to add the salted duck egg chunks into the stir-fry, toss them in at this point and stir just to mix.
- Remove from heat and transfer to a plate. Garnish with finely julienned kaffir lime leaves, and place the salted duck eggs on the side. Serve with jasmine rice, and enjoy!
Adele
the best! Added Serrano or Thai chilies for extra spice.
★★★★★
Tamar
I really love this recipe. It comes together so quickly with so little prep. I really wanted this for dinner but only had ground chicken so I followed steps 2, 4 (added t soy sauce) and 5 (minus sauce) of the Pad Kra Pao recipe and followed the other steps here (sautéed veg separately as well and added it and the meat back to the sauce). It worked well with the ground chicken (no slicing chicken necessary 👍🏼).
★★★★★
Stephen Chan
Great and easy dish to make for a weeknight dinner. The combination of red curry paste and magrut/kaffir lime leaves reminds me of another great dish Haw Mok, a fish red curry custard. So if you like this dish, go try that one too, Pai has a video for that.
★★★★★
Natasha
This tastes great--just like at a restaurant! I use garden produce, so usually green beans, though today it was green beans and some cubed zucchini. I usually blanch my green beans for a minute so I don't have to worry about them being completely done. Thanks for the recipe! It's a lovely dish and we've had it twice for lunch in the past week. 🙂
★★★★★
Alexandra
Made this recently. It was excellent. I enjoyed a new way to use rec curry paste. Thank you for this.
★★★★★
Jessie
Pad prik king is my favorite Thai dish, and this is just as delicious as my favorite restaurant The note about the fish sauce is pretty key. My curry paste must be must be pretty salty bc I only used 1 tsp fish sauce and it is almost too salty. Going to make my own curry paste once I use up this store bought one. This is a delicious, delicious recipe.
★★★★★
Daniel
Outstanding recipe Pae! Before I found you, I tried to make this a couple of times myself, but I always screwed it up and it was lousy because I didn't know what I was doing. But then I found you and learned how to cook Thai food correctly.
I watched your video and followed the recipe exactly, and it turned out perfect. Restaurant quality, all thanks to you! I'll be making this recipe frequently.
★★★★★
Sakuna
Delicious! Make this all the time. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.!
★★★★★
Richard
Quick, and tasty! This came together in under an hour. Will definitely make this again!!!
★★★★★