Red Curry with Ground Turkey

5 from 1 vote

Red Curry with Ground Turkey

This richly flavored red curry with ground turkey is so easy to make! It's packed with vegetables and flavor, and is ideal for a quick weeknight meal.

Prep Time15

Cook Time20

Total Time30

Course: Entrees

Cuisine: Thai

Keyword: Curry Recipes, Ground Turkey Recipes

Servings: Servings

Calories: 264kcal

Author: Dara Michalski | Cookin' Canuck

Ingredients

1 pound lean (93%) ground turkey (See Note 1)
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon coconut oil or neutral oil, such as avocado oil
2 to 3 tablespoons red curry paste or to taste (See Note 2)
1 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves minced
⅔ cup chicken broth
1 (14 ounce) can lite coconut milk
1 ½ teaspoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 red bell pepper thinly sliced
8 ounces green beans trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons minced cilantro
4 basil leaves thinly sliced (Thai basil, if you have it)

Instructions

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. An enameled cast iron skillet is perfect for this! Lightly coat with cooking spray and cook the ground turkey, breaking up with a wooden spatula or spoon. Transfer the cooked turkey to a bowl.
Melt the coconut oil in the skillet, then add the curry paste, ginger and garlic. Sauté until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the chicken broth and coconut milk, stirring to combine. Turn the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the fish sauce, lime juice and brown sugar, and add the cooked ground turkey.
Add the red bell pepper strips and green beans, and partially cover the skillet with a lid. Cook until the green beans are tender-crisp, about 3 minutes (depending on the thickness of the beans).
Taste the curry gravy and adjust the seasonings (fish sauce, brown sugar, lime juice), if needed. Serve over rice.

Notes

Note 1: I suggest lean (93%) ground turkey. It has a lower fat content than 80% lean turkey, but doesn't have the tendency to dry out like 99% lean turkey.

Note 2: There are quite a few store-bought Thai curry pastes available and I've tried several of them. My favorite are the Mae Ploy pastes, which can be purchased alone (red curry paste only) or in a variety pack of green, yellow and red.

Adjusting the spice level:
In this recipe, I used 3 tablespoons of red curry paste, which produced a curry with a good amount of zip. If you prefer less spice, here are two options:

Use less curry paste (1 to 2 tablespoons) to start. Before adding the veggies (at the end), taste the curry. If you prefer more spice, sauté an additional tablespoon of curry paste in a little coconut oil for 1 to 2 minutes. Then stir it into the curry.
Alternatively, use the yellow or green curry paste, which have significantly less spice than the red version.

Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I provide nutritional information for my recipes as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using the built-in recipe card calculator. While I attempt to provide information that is as accurate as possible, you should calculate the nutritional information independently before relying on it.

Nutrition