Thai Coconut Ground Chicken Curry

This ground chicken curry combines extra lean ground chicken breast with Thai yellow curry paste, chicken bone broth, light coconut milk, onion, a secret ingredient, and a few extra spices and herbs to make a deliciously thick and creamy dish that’s low calorie and packed with protein. Each serving has 33 grams of protein with just 6 grams of carbs, 11 grams of fat, and 245 calories. That leaves a ton of room for rice, noodles, and all the crunchy toppings even on a low calorie diet.

Ingredients and Recipe Modifications

I know you’re chomping at the bit to discover the secret ingredient so let’s tackle that first. The secret ingredient is powdered peanut butter, and it’s in the curry to make it thick and creamy as well as compliment the coconut curry flavors. It allows you to use reduced fat coconut milk and have a low calorie curry that’s thick and creamy instead of watery.

Aside from powdered peanut butter, light coconut milk, and bone broth, you will need some ground chicken, onion, Thai yellow curry paste, and a couple extras like cilantro, limes, and optional fish sauce.

Not every curry paste is created equally. I used a paste from a brand called Mekhala. I recommend tasting the curry and adjusting as needed to fit your flavor preferences. The curry is mild as-written, but if you’re spice sensitive, you may want to start with less curry paste and add towards the end if you like.

You can also add ingredients to the curry if you find typical curry pastes are lacking for your palate. Consider a sprinkle or ground turmeric, coriander, or cumin. Or feel free to add more aromatics like fresh garlic, ginger, or lemongrass paste in with the ground chicken and onion.

As for the ground chicken, I used lean ground chicken breast. If you have trouble finding it in stores, ground turkey would work in a pinch. It’s also easy to make your own in a food processor. I’ll also plug my Thai basil chicken and dan dan noodles recipes here in case you want to stock up on ground chicken or make a big batch of homemade.

What to Serve with Ground Chicken Curry

My wife loves khao soi and the crunchy fried noodles that come with it. Since we don’t do much frying around here, I opted for wonton strips to replicate the crunchy topping. You will also see onion strings, chili roasted peanuts, chili crisp, and fresh cilantro in photographs of my coconut curry.

Like I mentioned in the intro, this is a very macro friendly curry as-written. Which means you can get creative with your pairings and toppings. I typically recommend my infamous half calorie rice (a 60/40 blend of jasmine and cauliflower rice), but you can probably get away without the reviled cauliflower here. Noodles, or the rice ramen from my Thai curry soup, would also work great.

To brighten the dish further, you might look at some kind of greens salad or a cucumber crunch. Check out my Thai sweet chili chicken bowls for a crunch salad recipe.

Okie doke, that about covers it. If you have a question about ingredients or preparation, leave a comment at the bottom of this post. I hope you enjoy this ground chicken curry! If you do, I always appreciate recipe reviews.