This Thai massaman curry recipe is easy to make and full of rich, warm, mellow flavor. Make it with your choice of chicken or tofu and potatoes in a lovely spiced curry sauce.
I love how recipes hold the secret to the past. Massaman curry is unlike any other Thai curry in that it pulls flavor from other cultures and cuisines, like India, Malaysia, and Persia.
The spice trade led merchant Sufi Muslims to settle in Southern Thailand in the 9th century, and today, Muslims and Buddhists, along with Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians, coexist peacefully. And you can literally taste this rich history within the flavors of this curry.
Massaman curry is wonderfully mellow, warm and earthy, with a subtle sweetness– a harmonious blend of several cultures in one dish. To me, Massaman exudes the feeling of harmony and peace. Infused with cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, and clove, it is warming, comforting and friendly. Think of it as the peaceful curry!
Massaman Curry Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken breast: You can also use chicken thighs (see notes), shrimp, crispy tofu, or a mixture of veggies.
- Potatoes: Use thin-skinned potatoes like Yukon gold or red potatoes.
- Thai red curry paste: For ease we use Maesari Thai red curry paste and enhance it with Massaman spices. You can use absolutely use Massaman curry paste, but it is harder to find. When enhanced with spices, red curry paste works well here!
- Coconut oil: Used to bloom the curry paste with the spices. Adds a nutty, subtly sweet taste.
- Massaman Spices: Coriander seeds and cumin seeds (toasting these seeds infuses the curry paste with their nutty, fragrant aromas) along with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg -warm and comforting spices that bring the dish to life.
- Shallot and ginger: Add punchy, aromatic flavor to the curry paste. You could use onions instead of shallots.
- Full fat coconut milk: Gives the curry a creamy texture and rich flavor.
- Fish sauce: For umami and depth. Sub vegan fish sauce or lite soy sauce if desired.
- Light brown sugar: Adds a hint of sweetness to balance all of the savory, aromatic flavors.
- Tamarind puree or paste: Balances the sweetness of the dish with a hint of sour flavor.
- Peanut butter (optional): If used, adds an even richer, nutty flavor to the curry.
- Garnish: Peanuts, fresh baby spinach, cilantro, limes, finely sliced red chilies, crispy shallots, or peanut crunch.
How to Make Massaman Curry
1. Prep all of the ingredients and arrange them by the stove. Measure the spices, keeping the seeds separate from the ground spices. Toss the chicken slices with about 1/2 teaspoon salt.
2. Parboil the potatoes. Add potatoes to a large pot and cover with cold water. Boil, then simmer 5-7 minutes before draining.
3. Bloom the curry paste. Add coconut oil to a medium pot and bring the heat to medium. Sauté coriander and cumin seeds 2 minutes while stirring, then add shallots and ginger, stirring a minute more. Add cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg, and then the curry.
4. Add coconut milk and potatoes. Mix everything together, simmer 10 minutes.
5. Add remaining ingredients. Add fish sauce, sugar, and tamarind paste. Whisk in the peanut butter. Add sliced chicken breast.
6. Simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes, until chicken is opaque. Serve immediately over jasmine rice with desired garnishes.
Massaman Curry Variations
- Use chicken thighs: If using chicken thighs instead, add them in step 4 with the potatoes.
- Make a seafood curry: Instead of chicken, shrimp makes a nice protein in this Thai curry. You could also sub any type of white fish.
- Use tofu: For a vegan or vegetarian option, simply use our Baked tofu or crispy tofu instead of the chicken.
- Try a vegetable curry: Or skip the protein and add hearty vegetables like cauliflower, winter squash, zucchini, carrots, baby corn, or peas.
- Make vegan massaman curry: Use tofu or veggies instead of the chicken, and use a vegan fish sauce or lite soy sauce instead of the fish sauce.
How to Serve Thai Massaman Curry
Serve Massaman Curry over steamed Jasmine Rice with a handful of baby spinach. Check out our 33+ Easy Thai Recipes for appetizer and salad ideas!
Chef’s Tips
- Prep all of your ingredients first. This dish comes together quickly, so it helps to have everything chopped, measured out, and ready to go.
- No need for massaman store-bought curry paste. Our method uses spices to transform the red curry into a massaman curry paste. It is fresh and full flavored!
- For red curry paste, try Maesri or Mae Ploy. These are our favorite brands!
- Adjust curry paste to your heat preference. Start with less, and work your way up depending on your spice tolerance.
- This homemade massaman curry paste is worth a go!
Storing Leftover Massaman Curry
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat on the stovetop until warm or reheat in the microwave. To freeze, store in a freezer bag for up to 3 months.
Massaman Curry Recipe FAQs
Both of these curries originate from Southern Thailand, but they differ in ingredients and flavor. Massaman curry is a fusion of Thai, Malaysian, and Indian curries and uses warm spices, like cinnamon, coriander, and cumin seeds, whereas yellow curry is slightly milder with an emphasis on turmeric.
Massaman curry is rich and aromatic with mild heat, subtle sweetness, and mellow flavor. Warming spices of cinnamon, cumin and nutmeg infuse the dish.
This curry is considered mild; however, you can adjust the heat based on your preference, adding as much or as little curry paste as you’d like.
Hope you enjoy this Thai Massaman Curry Recipe! Let us know in the comments below.
Happy cooking!
More Thai Recipes You Might Like
Massaman Curry Thai
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings
- Category: main, dinner idea, chicken recipe, Curry,
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Thai
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This Thai massaman curry recipe is easy to make and full of rich, warm, mellow flavor. Make it with your choice of chicken or tofu and potatoes in a lovely spiced curry sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes (about 4 medium) or other thin-skinned (red potatoes) cut into 1 1/2 -inch chunks.
- 1–2 teaspoons coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 medium shallot, cut into thin slices
- 2 teaspoons ginger, freshly grated
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2–6 tablespoons red curry paste, to heat preference (we used 4 tablespoons of Maesri brand for a medium spice)
- 2 cans of full-fat coconut milk, 14 ounces
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1–2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1–2 tablespoons tamarind puree or paste *see notes
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter (optional)
- 1 1/2 pounds chicken- breast, sliced into very thin strips (can also use chicken thighs- *see notes, shrimp or crispy tofu)
Garnish suggestions: 1/2 cup roasted, crushed peanuts, a handful of fresh baby spinach, cilantro, finely sliced red chilies or Thai chili flakes, crispy shallots, peanut chili crunch.
Instructions
- Have everything prepped and ready to go beside the stove. Toss the chicken slices with about 1/2 teaspoon salt. Measure the spices, keeping the whole seeds separate from the ground spices.
- Parboil the potatoes. Start with cold water just covering the potatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-7 minutes cooked to al dente. Drain the water and set aside.
- Bloom the curry paste and spices. Heat coconut oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Saute the coriander seeds and cumin seeds for 2 minutes, stirring. Add the shallots and fresh ginger, stir 1-2 minutes and add the ground cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg along with the curry paste.
- Add coconut milk and potatoes. Simmer together for 10 minutes or until potatoes are fork-tender but not overly soft.
- Season. Add fish sauce, sugar, tamarind paste, and whisk in peanut butter.
- Add the sliced chicken breast. Simmer for 5 minutes or until the chicken pieces are tender, cooked through and opaque.
- Taste the curry and adjust sweetness (sugar), fish sauce (or salt) and acid (tamarind paste) to taste. Find your perfect balance.
- Serve immediately with jasmine rice and toppings.
Notes
If using chicken thighs, add them in with the potatoes in step 4.
You can use Massaman store-bought curry paste if you prefer. But we actually like Red Curry paste, it is easier to find and when enhanced with a few spices it makes the perfect massaman curry paste. If using Massaman curry paste omit the cumin and coriander seeds, the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg.
We like Maesri or Mae ploy curry paste brands. Start with less unless you know your spice tolerance with the brand you are using.
Tamarind paste is more concentrated so you may need less. We used 2 tablespoons of GloryBee brand tamarind puree.
To make vegan: use vegan fish sauce or lite soy sauce. Replace chicken with tofu or veggies like: carrots, winter squash, cauliflower, green beans, zucchini and peas.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 ½ cups
- Calories: 423
- Sugar: 3.9 g
- Sodium: 574.7 mg
- Fat: 22.9 g
- Saturated Fat: 16.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 25.7 g
- Fiber: 3.6 g
- Protein: 30.9 g
- Cholesterol: 82.7 mg
This is a new.family favourite. Thank you!
Great to hear Lynell!
This turned out great. Will be making this again!
Glad to hear Kristen!
Where are the measurements of the ingredients ?
Scroll down to the bottom of the post or use the jump to recipe button at the top of the post.
Love this recipe. The flavors are stunning. Substituted kabocha squash for potatoes and added the baby spinach in at the end to wilt in the sauce. Divine.
Love it Lara! Thanks for taking time to review!
Hi! If I have massaman curry paste, what should I omit?
If using Massaman curry paste omit the cumin and coriander seeds, the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg.
Love your recipes. However, I had an issue with this one. I really liked the flavor but every few bites, I’d bite into something and get the strong taste of perfume. It’s quite overpowering. I have a hunch it was either the cumin or coriander seeds. I’m assuming I did something wrong with the blooming process although I don’t know what. Could you give me any suggestions?
Hi Julie, Sounds like it was the seeds. I would say either give them more toasting time in the pan or use ground cumin and coriander added in with the other dry spices.
Just delicious! I used butternut squash instead of potatoes and it worked out fab! A nice wintery curry, really!
Thanks sounds yummy. So glad you enjoyed!
Oops 5 stars!
Thank you Angeli!
Oh so luscious! Lovely with the spices and I absolutely love the potatoes in this. I used tofu for mine. Thank you so much for a beautiful meal!
Hi Angeli! Thanks so much, happy you enjoyed. ❤️
100% legit! As good as many Thai restaurants and better than many. I couldn’t find any tamarind paste so googled it found a substitute. My husband loved it!!
Oh great! What did you substitute for tamarind?
I read lime made a decent substitute when trying to keep pantry ingredients minimal…
That’s what I would do.
I’m really excited to try this recipe but struggle with laziness. If I were to purchase
Maesri massaman curry paste from Amazon (overnight delivery!) Will it taste as good? Or should I suck it up and buy all the spices and red curry paste?
Hi Deanna, a big reason I didn’t use the massaman curry paste is because it contains soybean oil. And it tasted fresher with the added spices. But I did find out that the MaePloy Massaman curry paste has no added oil- (if that matters to you :)). All that said, feel free to use the curry paste!
Another fabulous recipe! Warm, yummy spice combo. Served with rice and a dollop of mashed sweet potato
Great to hear this Marsha! Really appreciate you taking the time to review!
I’m not very familiar with the different types of curry paste. I have a Penang curry paste- could I substitute that for the red curry?
They are a different flavor profile. I would suggest sticking with red curry paste for this recipe, it is pretty easy to find.
Can’t wait to make this. What substitutions do you recommend for the potatoes? I’m allergic to nightshades (can tolerate the small amount of peppers in the curry pastes). Thank you.
Sweet potatoes, squash, parsnips, green plantains may all be fun to play with.
Thanks!
Sure!
Looks delicious seems like a lot of coco milk with no acid component such as lime juice and stock to balance all that rich milk.Will give it a go.
The tamarind is the tangy balance. Massaman is rich and luxurious! Feel free to use broth for some of the coconut milk. 🙂