Thai Yellow Chicken Curry with Carrots & Potatoes

Thai Yellow Curry that is full of a homemade curry paste, chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions, and coconut milk flavor!  This yellow curry recipe makes a wonderful gluten-free and healthy dinner recipe for busy weeknights.

Do you want a few other healthy curry recipes?  Check out this Korma Curry, Chickpea Curry, Slow Cooker Chicken Curry, and this Curry Cauliflower Rice.

The inspiration for this Thai Yellow Curry Recipe:

About 4 miles from our last house was the most inconspicuous Thai restaurant.  You will find it tucked away in a far back corner of a rather popular shopping center in South Austin.

You would never guess that this “strip-center” restaurant would produce food so authentically Thai.  (Especially their Thai yellow curry!!)

For a couple of months in a row, at least one night each week Cohl and I would look at each other and no words needed to be exchanged…

We knew that tonight was going to be a Thai yellow curry recipe kind of night.

He tends to order the green curry (it’s always too spicy for me!) and I lean more towards a Thai yellow chicken curry or massaman curry (both are much tamer on the spicy scale!)

Thai Yellow Chicken Curry Intimidation

After weeks of these shenanigans I realized that I had a true fear… a fear of attempting and ultimately failing at executing a foreign cuisine’s classic recipe.

So I bucked up some courage, headed to our local Central Market, and proceeded to search for a few necessary, but somewhat hard-to-find ingredients.

Can I just offer you a little encouragement?  The hardest part of this entire yellow curry recipe… locating the ingredients.

And honestly, after you locate the Thai chili peppers and the lemongrass paste, it really isn’t all that bad!

Below you will learn what is yellow curry, how to make Thai yellow chicken curry, what ingredients you will need, how to make a yellow curry paste, and how to serve, store and reheat this chicken coconut curry recipe.

What is Yellow Curry?

Yellow curry is a milder curry that is often served at Thai restaurants in the West.  It is made from a paste full of numerous spices such as curry powder, coriander, turmeric, ginger, garlic, peppers, lemongrass, and sometimes a touch of sugar is added.  It is then cooked together with coconut milk to make a delicious yellow curry sauce.

Most yellow curries are made with either chicken, beef, or fish and then a starchy vegetables, such as potatoes, are added.  It is then served over steamed rice or with rice noodles.

How to Make Thai Yellow Curry

Making this yellow curry recipe consists of a few steps:

1. Add yellow curry paste ingredients into a food processor or high speed blender and pulse until smooth.
2. Saute onions until translucent and cook chicken until almost cooked through.
3. Add coconut milk, yellow curry paste, bell pepper, potatoes and carrots.
4. Simmer yellow curry sauce for 25-35 minutes, or until vegetables are fork tender.
5. Serve Thai curry over steamed white rice and garnish with Thai basil.  Enjoy!

How to Make Thai Yellow Curry Paste

To make a homemade Thai yellow curry paste recipe you will need a food processor (like this Cuisinart mini-prep food processor) or a high-speed blender.  Add the following ingredient and process until a smooth paste forms.

• Garlic and ginger – located in your produce section!
• Thai chili peppers – you will find these at  your more specialty grocers.  They are the little ~2-inch peppers you see in all of the photos in this post.
  • If these are difficult to find you can substitute a diced jalapeno or some cayenne pepper.
• Salt, turmeric, curry powder, and coriander – all can be easily found in the spice section.
• And lastly… lemongrass paste – this was the most difficult to locate.  I ended up finding this lemongrass paste at my larger, more specialty, grocery store.  However, if you cannot find it you can always buy this one online!

You can store this paste for your Thai yellow chicken curry for up to 2 weeks in an airtight zip-top bag in the refrigerator.  If you store it much longer it will most likely start to lose its flavor!

Other Ingredients in this Coconut Curry Recipe

Now that you have your Thai curry paste made, let’s take a deeper look into the other ingredients that go into making this recipe:

• Chicken – Both chicken breasts and boneless chicken thighs will work equally as well.  Just make sure you cut it into similarly-sized cubes so they cook at the same rate.  You can also substitute beef or shrimp.  Just make sure to adjust the cook time accordingly.
• Potatoes – Yukon gold potatoes are a great variety to use in this curry recipe.  However, if you happen to have red potatoes or another waxy potato available, feel free to use this instead.
• Carrots – These give the dish a nice texture and a natural sweetness.
• Red Bell Pepper – You can also use a green or yellow bell pepper.
• Coconut Milk – Make sure you buy the CANNED coconut milk, not the kind in the refrigerator.  Also, if you want a thicker curry, opt for the full-fat coconut milk.  If you are OK with it being a bit more watery, but less calories, a lite coconut milk works great!

How to Serve, Store, and Reheat

Yellow curry is very similar to soup in that it stores, freezes, and reheats exceptionally well.  I would almost be so bold to say that it tastes even BETTER as leftovers.

How to Store Yellow Curry: Prepare the entire recipe as outlined below, let it come to room temperature, and then store in plastic or glass containers in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.

Can I Freeze Curry?  You absolutely can freeze your leftover yellow curry for up to 3-4 months.  Let it come to room temperature, and then place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before transferring to the freezer.

Reheating Yellow Chicken Curry:  If refrigerated, you can reheat the yellow curry on the stovetop (personal preference) or quickly reheat it in the microwave.  If stored in the freezer, let it thaw naturally in the refrigerator and then reheat on the stove or in the microwave.

Other Recipes like this Yellow Curry Recipe:

• Chickpea Curry
• 15-Minute Curry Cauliflower Rice | Paleo
• Slow Cooker Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk
• Chicken Korma Curry
• More healthy dinner recipes.

4.12 from 25 votes

Thai Yellow Chicken Curry with Carrots and Potatoes

Thai Yellow Curry recipe that is full of traditional Thai flavors, chicken, coconut milk, carrots and potatoes.  A healthier and gluten-free dinner recipe for those busy weeknights!

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Thai

Keyword chicken, easy, paste, thai

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 6 servings

Calories 220 kcal

London Brazil

Ingredients

Yellow Curry Paste

• 4 cloves garlic crushed
• 2 tsp. ginger paste or grated ginger
• 2-6 Thai chili peppers finely diced
• 1 ½ tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. turmeric
• 1 Tbsp. curry powder mild
• 1 tsp. coriander ground
• 1 Tbsp. lemongrass paste

Yellow Chicken Curry

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 ½ cups sweet onions cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 lb. chicken cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 red bell pepper cut into 2-inch strips
• 1 ½ cups carrots cut into ½-inch pieces
• 1 ½ cups Yukon gold potatoes cut into ¾-inch cubes
• 2 15-oz. cans full-fat coconut milk or one can lite and one can full-fat
• 1 Tbsp. white sugar
• ½ tsp. salt

Instructions

For the Yellow Curry Paste:

1. Combine all yellow curry paste ingredients together in the bowl of a small food processor. (If you have a 6+ cup processor you may want to double the recipe.)

2. Process ingredients for 2-4 minutes, or until ingredients become a thick paste.

For the Yellow Chicken Curry:

1. Drizzle olive oil into a large pan over medium heat and add onions. Saute for 3-5 minutes.

2. Add chicken and curry paste. Saute over medium heat for 3-5 more minutes, or until chicken is almost done cooking.

3. Add red bell peppers, carrots, potatoes, milk, sugar, and salt. Stir until well combined.

4. Bring curry to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and let simmer for 25-35 minutes or until potatoes and carrots are fork tender.

5. Serve yellow chicken curry over jasmine rice and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

You can double or even triple the Yellow Curry Paste recipe.  If you would like to save the paste for later, store it in an airtight zip-top bag and keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Nutrition Facts

Thai Yellow Chicken Curry with Carrots and Potatoes

Amount Per Serving

Calories 220 Calories from Fat 63

% Daily Value*

Fat 7g11%

Saturated Fat 1g6%

Cholesterol 48mg16%

Sodium 759mg33%

Potassium 792mg23%

Carbohydrates 19g6%

Fiber 4g17%

Sugar 7g8%

Protein 18g36%

Vitamin A 6075IU122%

Vitamin C 43.5mg53%

Calcium 65mg7%

Iron 4.1mg23%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.