If you love Thai food, you’ll love this easy Red Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp, the perfect balance of sweet, spicy and savory flavors!
Red Curry Shrimp
When I go out for Thai, I love getting coconut curry shrimp! Red Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp is a flavorful dish made with a blend of Thai red curry paste, coconut milk, and fish sauce. It’s delicious served over jasmine rice but you can also serve it over cauliflower rice. It is known for its balance of sweet, spicy and savory flavors and the creamy texture from the coconut milk. For more Thai inspired recipes you may also like these Drunken Noodles with Shrimp, and this Thai Shrimp Pineapple Stir Fry.
Here’s a great dish for those of you who love Thai-inspired flavors. If you’ve never used fish sauce before, don’t let the smell fool you. It blends with the other flavors and really adds to this dish.
Red Thai curry paste is a key ingredient in the red curry sauce. It is made from a blend of chili peppers, lemongrass, shallots, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, and other spices. The paste is readily available at most supermarkets in the Asian section.
Thai Shrimp Curry Variations
- Add vegetables: Try a variety of vegetables such as bell peppers, spinach, mushrooms, snap peas, onions, and/or carrots.
- Aromatics and citrus: Some recipes may also include other ingredients like ginger, and fresh lime juice to add additional flavor.
- Green curry: Swap the green curry paste instead of red.
- Fresh Herbs: Top it with fresh cilantro, basil, chives or more scallions.
How To Serve
This dish is often served over steamed jasmine rice, but you can also serve it with noodles like rice noodles or even over quinoa or cauliflower rice as a low-carb option.
Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container and leave in the refrigerator up to 3 days.
How To Cook Shrimp
Shrimp can be cooked in a variety of ways, including grilling, sautéing, broiling, and boiling. For this recipe we are sautéing the shrimp in a skillet. To sauté, heat oil in a pan and add the shrimp, cooking for 2-3 minutes per side or until pink and cooked through. You’ll know it’s done when the shrimp is pink.
More Thai-Inspired Recipes
- Drunken Noodles with Shrimp
- Broiled Tilapia with Thai Coconut Curry Sauce
- Spicy Thai Shrimp Salad
- Thai Basil Chicken
- Thai Chicken and Pineapple Stir Fry
Red Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 4 medium scallions, whites and greens separated, chopped
- 1 tbsp Thai red curry paste, or more to taste
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 6 ounces canned light coconut milk
- 2 teaspoons Asian fish sauce
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro or scallions, chopped
- salt to taste
- extra lime wedges, optional for serving
Instructions
- In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil on medium-high.
- Add scallion whites and curry paste and sauté 1 minute until fragrant.
- Add the shrimp and garlic, season with a few pinches of salt and cook about 2 minutes, to brown.
- Add coconut milk and fish sauce and mix well.
- Let the shrimp simmer about 2-3 more minutes, until the shrimp is cooked through.
- Remove from heat, mix in scallion greens and cilantro.
- Serve over rice or cauliflower rice and enjoy!
Super easy and my whole family loved this!
This was restaurant quality in 15 minutes!
Excellent and quick to prepare. Because I like all things easy, I made 10 minute Jasmine rice and steam veggies (broccoli, peas, carrots and water chestnuts from birdseye). I added a dash of Sriracha for some heat. LOVED this!
So delicious! Made with shrimp & chicken breast – was wonderful!
I thought it was a little too runny compared to curries I usually eat. Also was not very spicy. I added some red pepper flakes to give it more of a kick. Next time might try green curry paste. It was quick to make though, which is a big plus and the overall flavor was good.
Loved how quick and easy this recipe is BUT I did tweak it a bit by adding some cremimi mushrooms, carrots and red pepper. Do not like cilantro but used curly parsley and seemed to be just as good. Added a bit more Red Curry paste as I wanted more heat to the dish. Turned out wonderful! My husband had seconds! A pretty colourful Valentine’s Day Dinner for two❣
Just wondering, does the calorie content include the rice this is served over?
No, rice is optional. 🙂
I made this for dinner and it was delicious! I served over jasmine rice and the flavors were wonderful. Thank you! I can’t wait to make this again.
My son doesn’t even like shrimp and he asked for more! I served it with broccoli and Thai sticky rice. So easy and good!
This was quick to prepare and delicious! I doubled the sauce and added red & green bell pepper, mushrooms, and shelled edamame while sauteing the scallions and served over jasmine rice. I’ll definitely add this to my meal rotation!
Wow! Another one out of the park! My husband is not a shrimp fan so I used chicken and added some veggies. This was delish! I actually have some of the sauce reserved and I’ll be adding shrimp to it for my lunch tomorrow! Thank you!
Awesome recipe – added peppers, onions and baby kale at the end – so delicious!! Served it with brown rice.
I made this tonight and I added mushrooms and a red bell pepper before I put the shrimp in. It was delicious! We like heat so next time I’ll increase the red curry paste but it’s a great recipe- quick and delicious. Thanks, Gina!