Lamb Massaman Curry: Easy Thai Curry Recipe

Massaman curry is a traditional Thai dish. It is described as a dry curry as there is minimal sauce simply to coat the other ingredients. Traditionally, the dish is made with beef, potatoes, peanuts, and various spices. However, replacing beef with other meats or vegetables is possible, like we did to create our lamb massaman curry recipe.

Our recipe for the curry uses the same ingredients as the traditional beef massaman version. However, we have just switched the meat. The other principal ingredients are potatoes, crushed peanuts, coconut milk, and spices for aromatic, heat, and flavouring purposes. People use various spices to make the curry, although lemongrass, galangal, and chillies appear in most recipes, including ours.

We use our own massaman curry paste recipe to make the curry, as this is the best way to achieve a flavoursome and authentic curry. However, if you want to save time and effort, or if you cannot get all the ingredients to make the paste yourself, you can buy readymade paste. If you choose this option, you will reduce the preparation time for this recipe.

Here is our recipe for lamb massaman curry, including useful information, a full list of ingredients, step-by-step instructions for how to make lamb massaman curry, and some additional cooking tips to help you adapt the recipe if you wish.

Lamb Massaman Curry: Easy Thai Curry Recipe

Recipe by Liz FlynnCourse: International Recipes, Recipes, Recipes with MeatCuisine: ThaiDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

2

hours 

Vegan

NO

Vegetarian

NO

Gluten-free

YES

Dairy-free

YES

Massaman curry is one of the best-known dishes from Thailand, and it is usually made with beef. However, lamb is a flavoursome alternative. So, here is our recipe for lamb massaman curry.

Ingredients for the Lamb Massaman Curry

• 2.25 lbs/ 900g diced lamb leg or shoulder

• 12 baby potatoes, quartered

• 5 tablespoons of massaman curry paste

• 2 cans of coconut milk

• 1 large onion finely diced

• 6 tbsp salted roasted peanuts

• 2 cinnamon sticks (or 2 tsp cinnamon powder)

• 4 star anise

• Seeds from 2 cardamom pods

• 3 tablespoons of fish sauce

• 2 tbsp tamarind paste

• 1 cup of water

• 3 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar

• Thai basil leaves

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• Chopped spring onions, slices of chilli, and crushed peanuts to garnish

Directions: How to Make Lamb Massaman Curry

• Prep all the ingredients first (dice the lamb, make the paste if you are making your own, chop the onions and peanuts, and measure out all the spices).
• Put the diced lamb into a bowl with the massaman paste and one tablespoon of oil and stir together to coat the beef.
• Add the rest of the oil to a large pot, then put over medium heat.
• Put the cinnamon sticks, cardamom, and star anise into the oil and stir fry for a minute.
• Then, add the diced onions to the pan and fry until turning golden brown.
• Next, return the beef to the pan to cook for a further five minutes. Stir the meat and onions occasionally so the lamb begins to brown.
• Add one can of coconut milk to the pan with the fish sauce and enough water to cover the beef.
• Give the ingredients a good stir before bringing them to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and cover the pan.
• Simmer for one hour.
• Next, add the second can of coconut milk to the lamb massaman curry.
• At the same time, add the potatoes, peanuts, and half the Thai basil leaves.
• Turn the heat up a little to medium-low and recover the pan. Cook the lamb massaman curry for another 30 minutes.
• Check that both the lamb and potatoes are tender. If not, cook for a little longer until you can easily slide a fork into the potatoes.
• Remove the lamb massaman curry from the heat.
• Stir in the remaining Thai basil leaves, the tamarind paste, and the palm/ brown sugar.
• Serve with your choice of rice or bread, and garnish the lamb massaman curry with chopped spring onions, sliced chillies, and crushed peanuts.

Additional Tips

• Usually, we serve the curry with steamed jasmine or basmati rice. However, you can eat it with any type of rice, with bread such as flatbreads or rotis, or on its own. You may prefer to serve an accompaniment using fresh-tasting ingredients, such as a dressed salad, dips, and chutneys.
• Our hot tip if you do not have tamarind paste is to use some brown sauce as an. We discovered this intriguing food hack while watching an episode of Great British Menu. One of the professional chefs talked about the simple switch during a conversation with the series presenter, Andi Oliver, and it was an idea loved by judges Nisha Katona and Tom Kerridge.
• It is possible you may not be able to get hold of some of the traditional ingredients to make the massaman curry if your local stores do not stock them. However, there are some alternatives you can use. Soy sauce or fish sauce are fantastic alternatives for shrimp paste. Although they will not give you the exact flavour, they are close enough. Another possible switch is to use ginger instead of galangal, although the latter has a milder taste.
• Occasionally, I add the juice and zest of a small lime at the end of cooking for a little extra zing.
• You can slow-cook a lamb joint while you are out for the day and make the curry sauce separately before adding the shredded meat. I find this saves me time in the evening.

Similar Dishes to Thai Lamb Massaman Curry

If you enjoy our recipe for lamb massaman curry recipe, you might also like some of our other recipes. You might like to try our Bombay potatoes, vegetable Thai red curry, Kashmiri lamb rogan josh, spinach and cauliflower curry, saag bhaji, Thai beef lettuce boats, spicy lamb burgers with chilli sauce, and sweet potato saag aloo.

Have you tried our recipe for lamb massaman curry? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.