Pad ped is a Thai red curry stir fry. It's a fantastic way to get the complex flavours of a Thai curry, but with the speed and simplicity of a stir fry. This pad ped recipe uses chicken, sugar snap peas and tomatoes, but you can change up the proteins and vegetables and use whatever you like. The important takeaway here is how to stir fry with curry paste, you can even change up the paste too!
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Red Curry Stir Fry with Chicken ผัดเผ็ดไก่ (pad ped gai)
- Yield: Serves 2-3
Ingredients
- 250g boneless, skinless chicken thigh or breast, bite-sized pieces
- ½ - 2 tsp fish sauce
- 2-3 tablespoon red curry paste
- ½ cup coconut milk or chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar, finely chopped
- 1 cup sugar snap peas, string removed and cut in half on a sharp bias (see video for how to prep)
- 3 kaffir lime leaves, julienned
- ¼ cup fingerroot, julienned (optional)
- 2 stems young peppercorns (optional)
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved (see note)
- 1 cup Thai basil or holy basil
- Jasmine rice for serving
Note: This is mainly to give a pop of red colour, so you can use julienned red bell peppers instead. Traditionally we use sliced red spur chilies.
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Instructions
Combine chicken and ½ teaspoon of the fish sauce in a small bowl; set aside.
In a wok or a large saute pan, add 1-2 tablespoon vegetable oil and red curry paste, saute over medium heat for 1 minute until the curry paste starts to sizzle. Deglaze with ¼ cup coconut milk or stock and stir to combine, then add sugar and stir to dissolve. Keep stirring until the mixture is thickened and oil starts bubbling around the edges of the curry paste.
Add chicken and stir until the pieces are well separated, then add the remaining coconut milk or stock. Stir until chicken is 80% done.
Once chicken is almost done, add kaffir lime leaves, fingerroot, young peppercorns, and sugar snap peas; toss just until chicken is done. Stir in tomatoes just to heat them through, then turn off the heat and taste and adjust seasoning. Stir in Thai basil and toss just to wilt.
Serve with jasmine rice.
Daniel says
Made this and thought it was one of the best curry dishes I've ever had. My fellow diners agreed. It was hard to stop eating it. Used Thai red curry paste, and augmented that with homemade red curry paste. Instead of snap peas, I added onion and bell pepper for a quick sautee before cooking down the curry mixture.
I grilled the chicken thighs after marinating them in fish sauce and coconut milk. Sliced the grilled chicken and added it to the curry right before serving over rice.
Hendrik says
No video! I tried two browsers on my Android tablet, but to no avail.
Pailin Chongchitnant says
Video is showing up fine for me, do you have adblock enabled? If you do the videos will not show up.
Matthew says
I cooked this dish today and it was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. Just received your book and stocked up on curry paste, fish sauce, tamarind concentrate, shrimp paste, palm sugar, chili jam, oyster sauce, 3mm and 9mm rice noodles, etc... I substituted green onion, broccoli, tomato and cilantro but other wise followed the recipe. It was so easy and fast, can't believe it. This was my first adventure in Thai cooking and I am hooked. Saturday I am going to try Pad Thai and Curry Fish. Thank you very much for your wonderful work!
Tim says
This dish gave the the opportunity to find and try out two new ingredients: fingerroot, which has an unusual (to this Westerner) but not unpleasant taste, and young peppercorns, which I adore. This is a great basic stir-fry which I’ll return to often.
Robert says
This is the first of many recipes I tried and loved from Hot Thai Kitchen. Having enjoyed Thai food in restaurants, I was curious to see if I could make authentic Thai food at home. The video clearly shows, step-by-step, how to prepare the dish and the written recipe complements the video.This is one of my go to recipes as it is easy, quick to prepare and flavorful.