Want Thai food in a hurry? This Thai green curry fried rice is for you. It’s loaded with tender chicken, veggies, and the bold kick of green curry paste. Combining two favourites – fried rice and Thai green curry – this recipe gives you all the comfort of a takeaway favourite, but made at home in just 20 minutes.
Not only that, it’s a one-pan wonder so it’s perfect for busy weeknights. It’s also extremely easy to change up with what you have on hand. Don’t have chicken but you have some shrimp or tofu? Swap them in. No beans – just use peas. It’s easy, delicious comfort in a pan.
Try my prawn fried rice too!
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Why you’ll love it
Want some Thai takeout at home? Here’s why it’s the perfect weeknight Thai dinner;
- Flavour-packed: With green curry paste, fish sauce, oyster sauce and Thai basil, this spicy Thai fried rice is loaded with umami and just the right amount of spice.
- Quick and easy: It can be on the table in just 20 minutes!
- Just one-pan: It’s all cooked in one pan, so there’s less washing up.
Ingredients & substitutions
Most of the flavour in this Thai curry rice comes from the green curry paste. But it has a small cast of delicious supporting flavours too.
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Thai green curry paste: Either a good quality store-bought green curry paste or a homemade green curry paste will work. There are a number of good brands but they have quite different flavours. The brand I love is Ayam. Maesri is another popular brand. It’s saltier and has less sweetness than Ayam to my taste. Try a different brand each time you make it and see which you prefer.
- Coconut milk adds a creaminess and slight coconut flavour typical in a Thai green curry.
- Makrut lime leaves, sometimes known as kaffir lime leaves, add a classic lime zing. They can be quite fibrous so I like to use frozen and thawed makrut lime leaves as they’re softer.
- Fish sauce and oyster sauce give the right amount of umami and flavour.
- Jasmine rice: For an authentic Thai fried rice you want to use Jasmine rice. That said, other rices will work but may taste slightly different or have a slightly different texture. Cook your rice the day before for best results – it’s a great way to use up leftover fried rice from the previous day or that you’ve frozen from leftovers another time.
- Add-ins: I keep the add-ins simple in this recipe with frozen green beans (green beans are often used in Thai cooking) and bamboo shoots (fairly traditional). The chicken is just pre-cooked chicken or rotisserie chicken that I chop into small pieces.
- Thai basil has a distinctive aromatic flavour. It’s a little like Italian basil with a hint of anise and pepper. It’s delicious and adds a great complexity to Thai dishes. If you don’t like the flavour, you can leave it out or swap it for coriander/cilantro.
Other vegetable option
Capsicum/bell peppers, snap peas, broccoli, sliced carrots, baby corn or zucchini are all great swaps, based on availability. Firmer vegetables may need a little cooking prior to adding it the mix so that the liquid in the coconut milk doesn’t completely evaporate.
How to make Thai green curry fried rice with chicken
This weeknight-worthy Thai fried rice is seriously simple to make. Just like a stir-fry, it moves quickly so it’s best to have all your ingredients ready to go at the start. This way you aren’t overcooking anything while you’re prepping the next ingredient.
1. Fry the onion
Start by frying chopped onion in some oil until soft. Easy!
2. Fry the curry paste
To get the best flavour from curry paste, you should always fry it first. Add the green curry paste to the onion and cook for a further 1-2 minutes until it’s smelling beautifully fragrant.
3. Add the sauce and veggies
Now, add the coconut milk, sauces, sugar, pepper and vegetables. Cook for a minute or so until the veggies are soft and the sauce has thickened slightly.
4. Add the rice and chicken
Add in the chicken and rice and give it a good mix to combine everything properly. Cook that for another minute or so until it’s heated through.
Stir in the Thai basil leaves, reserving a few to garnish with on serving, then serve it up in dishes to devour immediately.
Tips and tricks
- Day-old rice will always give you the best texture. Rice cooked on the same day will be much softer and, if it’s not at least cold prior to frying, it will turn mushy. Fried rice is a great way to use up leftover rice. I always freeze any small amounts of leftover rice until I have enough to make a batch of fried rice.
- Always cook out the curry paste before adding other ingredients. Doing this activates the spices and flavor in the curry paste and will give you a better flavour in your curry or fried rice. It’s a little like comparing meat that’s been browned to meat that hasn’t been browned.
- Break up the rice as it cooks so the flavour gets around every grain.
- Be careful if you plan on adding more of any of the wet ingredients as it can turn the rice mushy.
What to serve with green curry fried rice
This Thai green curry rice has chicken and vegetables added and is perfectly acceptable to eat on it’s own but you could also serve it as a side dish to other dishes.
- Egg: Try keeping it simple and top your Thai green curry fried rice with egg or add some egg in like I do in my prawn fried rice.
- Prawns/shrimp: Some simply grilled prawns or shrimp with a Thai sauce for dipping would be lovely. Try these nam jim prawns.
- Add some Thai satay skewers for extra protein and deliciousness.
- These Thai fish cakes are great with a side of fried rice.
- Or serve it as a side for this ever popular coconut lime chicken.
Storage
Store any leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
If you’re saving up leftover rice to make this fried rice recipe, just store it in a freezer safe bag in the freezer for up to 3 months, until you have enough to make a batch.
Food safety tip: With rice, it’s very important to cool it quickly so make sure you get it into the fridge immediately – don’t let it cool before placing it into the fridge. Don’t worry fridge technology has come a long way and modern fridges can handle this – just don’t place a hot container directly onto a container of salad or meat.
FAQ’s
Absolutely. Pork is delicious. Either use pre-cooked and chopped pork, or cook some pork mince with the onion. Shrimp/prawn is also really lovely, either whole or cut into pieces and cooked after cooking the curry paste out. Tofu is a great vegetarian option.
You need to use jasmine rice for the best flavour and texture. Also, you should always use day-old rice.
To make it vegan or vegetarian, you will need to leave out the chicken, find a curry paste that contains no animal products (many contain dried shrimp and fish sauce), swap the fish sauce and oyster sauce. It is doable but there are a few swaps required. Fish sauce and oyster sauce could be swapped for soy sauce to taste – it will give a different flavour but still be delicious.
Spice level is very personal. What I find to be medium might be someone elses mild. I personally think this is a medium level heat and I’m someone who is happy to eat spicy food but I don’t have it daily either.
Yes, you can use red curry paste in this Thai-style fried rice.
You can swap the Thai sweet basil for other herbs like coriander/cilantro, mint or Italian basil. You can also just leave it out completely but it really does add a wonderful unique flavour.
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Try these Asian inspired recipes too!
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Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ½ small onion , diced
- 2-3 tablespoons green curry paste (notes 1&2)
- ¼ cup coconut milk
- 1 ½ tablespoons fish sauce (6 tsp, notes 1)
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce (4 tsp, notes 1)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- ¾ cup frozen green beans , roughly chopped (85g/3oz) (notes 3)
- 1 cup tinned bamboo shoots , drained and roughly chopped (1 can/130g/4 ½oz) (notes 3)
- 4 cups cooked jasmine rice , refrigerated overnight (585g/20 ½oz)
- 1 ½ cups cooked chicken (185g/6 ½oz)
- 2 kaffir lime leaves (makrut lime leaves) , deveined and finely chopped (about ½ teaspoon chopped)
- ½ cup Thai basil leaves , not packed
TO SERVE, optional
- green chilli , sliced, to serve
- fried shallots
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Wok or large deep skillet
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat for a minute.
- Add the onion and cook, stirring regularly for 2 minutes.
- Add the curry paste and cook for a further 1-2 minutes, stirring, until fragrant.
- Stir in the coconut milk, fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, white pepper, green beans and bamboo shoots. Simmer for 1 minute until the vegetables are tender and heated through and the sauce has thickened slightly.
- Add the rice, chicken and chopped lime leaves. Toss well and cook for a couple of minutes, constantly tossing and stirring, until heated through.
- Stir through the Thai basil leaves and serve.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- Curry paste: You can use store-bought green curry paste or homemade green curry paste. You can also swap it for other curry pastes to change up the flavour. Red curry paste is an easy swap. If you like a good spicy kick use the full 3 tablespoons (¼ cup)
- Vegetables: You can use a variety of vegetables – roughly 1 ¾ cups prepared. Most commonly used in green curry fried rice are green beans (or Chinese long beans), bamboo shoots, Thai eggplant and/or pea egg plant. Make sure they’re all cut to about ½ inch in size. Egg plant or fresh beans will take longer to cook than the frozen green beans and bamboo shoots that I use so make sure you take the time to cook them until softened. You may need to add a little water or a little more coconut milk as it will evaporate more the longer you cook it.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
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4 Comments on “Thai Green Curry Fried Rice”
Hubby and I loved this dish, and so easy to make.
I didn’t have any cooked chicken so diced chicken breast and cooked with 2 tsp of Thai 7 spice before starting your recipe.
Couldn’t get any lime leaves so added zest of a lime, no Thai basil either so ordinary basil and half tsp of mint. It still tasted good.
Will definitely be making it again :0)
So happy you love it, Lynne. Great substitutions too!
I tried this and it was awesome! The Thai basil really is a game changer
So happy to hear this, Scott. Thanks so much for dropping back to leave a review.