A GREEN CHICKEN CURRY THAT IS ACTUALLY GREEN.

A fresh, bright update to a very old favourite.

Cannot remember the last time I made a Thai green chicken curry. Mind you, I got so excited about them in the 1990’s, it was probably wise to give it a rest.

Back then, I loved pounding curry pastes, cracking coconut milk, bashing lemongrass and discovering what to do with Thai pea eggplants and galangal. But familiarity soon bred a yawn, and suddenly everyone was doing Thai green chicken curry. I moved on to the next exciting thing.

Then last week, I came across a dish called green curry coconut cod on the Bon Appetit site, and was smitten once again.

Bon Appetit credits: Recipe Alaina Chou; Pic Elliot Jerome Brown Jr, Prop styling Emma Ringness, Food styling Mieko Takahashi.

A green curry that’s ACTUALLY green is much more inviting than one that is pale and grey, and feels like the fresher, brighter update we need right now.

I looked at it and thought - well, I’ll just fry my curry paste and then whiz it in the blender with coconut milk and a bag of baby spinach, and bingo: I’ll get a vibrant green curry sauce that will look and taste amazing. It’s a trick I often use with vegetable soups and sauces.

Which is also how Alaina Chou does it in her recipe; achieving a gorgeous green curry sauce in which to poach the fish.

I’ve kept the base curry as simple as possible, using bought green curry paste – both Maesri and Mr Chen brands work well for this –  and filled it out with shallots or onion and ginger. I figure lemongrass and the rest of the gang are all in the paste already, so there’s no real need to run around the shops.

Made with chicken thigh meat, it was riotously good; then I made it again with coral trout, which was just so nice. Same process, less cooking. Submerging a gentle, delicate fish in a coconut milk curry is a clever way to keep the integrity of such a fine fish without over-cooking it.

More greens were needed, so I threw in some broccolini, but green beans would also be great. As always, save the fish sauce and lime juice until the end, or they mellow out too much. You want it to sparkle in your mouth.

A word on soupiness: I can’t handle the cloying richness of a thick, all-coconut-milk curry, so I add stock to it. Which also gives you more curry sauce for your rice to play with.

Thanks to Bon Appetit for bringing Thai green curry back into our orbit, and I’m pleased I faced up to my “I can’t do Thai green chicken curry, that’s so Nineties, what will people think” fears. Let’s face it, curry pastes have been around since the thirteenth century, so it would be silly to lose something just because it was popular in the 1990s. Welcome back, old friend. I’m not the same as I was in the Nineties, and neither are you.

VERY GREEN THAI CHICKEN CURRY.

• 4 good-sized chicken thighs (use bones to make stock)

• 1 bunch broccolini, cut into finger lengths

• 2 shallots or half white onion, finely sliced

• Small knob of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

• 2 to 3 tbsp green Thai curry paste

• 250 ml coconut milk (eg Ayam)

• 150 ml chicken or veggie stock

• 2 tsp brown sugar

• Half tsp sea salt

• Half bunch coriander

• 150 g baby spinach

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 1 tbsp lime juice plus 1 lime, cut into wedges

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and lightly salt.

Cook the broccolini for 3 minutes in simmering salted water, then drain and cool under running water to stop the cooking. Set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a frypan, and cook the onion and ginger until softened, without browning.

Add a touch more oil and then the curry paste, and fry for 2 minutes until fragrant.

Transfer to a food processor, and add the coconut milk, chicken stock, sugar, salt,  half the coriander, and 100 grams  (two-thirds) of the baby spinach.

Blend to a smooth green sauce, then pour back into the frying pan and heat through (without boiling).

When hot, add the chicken, pushing it down into the sauce.

Simmer for 4 to 5 minutes then add the cooked broccolini and heat through.

Add the fish sauce and 1 tbsp lime juice, give it a good stir, and chuck the remaining baby spinach and coriander on top, allowing it to wilt down for a minute.

Serve with steamed rice and more wedges of lime for squeezing. Serves 3-4.

# Push that mesmerising balance of sweet, sour, salty and spicy as much as you can; the coconut milk and stock will help tone it down.

# Add spears of finely sliced green chilli towards the end for a bigger hit. Makrut lime leaves are fabulous in this if you have them –  finely snip lengthwise with scissors. Thai basil leaves – fabulous, of course.

# As per my recent turmeric-spiked chicken stew – use the bones if you have them. I cut the meat for the curry off chicken thighs, and just those four little chicken thigh bones made a great chicken stock that went back in to the sauce. Just place in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Rummage through the crisper and find anything that will give it flavour – half an onion, a stalk of celery, a stray carrot, anything – and bring to the boil, skimming. Simmer for 20 minutes, then strain, cool and keep, or use in the curry recipe.

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Thanks for dropping by! And as always, thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Terry for scrubbing up nicely in his favourite (and twenty-year-old!) Paul Smith suit for the launch of the 40th anniversary of the 2025 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide.

It was a generous and celebratory evening at the Sydney Opera House, and a great platform for so many new conversations important to the health and well-being of the hospitality industry.

As for the Guide itself, edited by Callan Boys and David Matthews, it’s a cracker, with dozens of new and different places to explore. Terry and I have been involved with the GFG for many years (even co-editing it for six years), and this fortieth edition is, I think, the most in tune - and the one that will, ultimately, serve both restaurants and diners, the best. Congratulations to all involved.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to Elders past and present, and to the continuing strength and resilience of First Nations people, communities and cultures.