Recipe · Chicken
Samlar Kari – Khmer Red Curry
About this recipe
This recipe comes from a regional cooking tradition that draws on its own pantry, technique, and culinary history. The full editorial context for this cuisine is something we're still developing; the scaling and conversion tools above work the same regardless of origin.
As a chicken dish, Samlar Kari – Khmer Red Curry is forgiving enough to roast whole, braise in pieces, or quick-cook for a weeknight dinner — chicken accepts most techniques without losing its character.
Set your servings in the scaler above and every line of the recipe rewrites itself with smart fractions and unit promotion. Open Cook Mode to step through it hands-free with timers running.
Recipe data is sourced from TheMealDB's open community database; ScaleRecipe handles the curation, the scaling math, the editorial commentary, and the conversion utilities woven into each page.
Translate this recipe
Reading in English
Listen to this recipe
No matching voice on this device
Method
- 1. Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until it shimmers, about 2 minutes.
- 2. Add 1 lb chicken pieces to the pot and cook until browned on all sides, approximately 5–7 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
- 3. Remove the chicken from the pot and set it aside on a plate, leaving any oil and juices in the pot.
- 4. Reduce the heat to medium and add 1 sliced onion to the pot, cooking until softened and translucent, about 4 minutes.
- 5. Stir in 3 cloves minced garlic and 1 tbsp grated ginger, cooking for 1 minute until fragrant to avoid burning.
- 6. Add 2 tbsp red curry paste to the pot and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly to toast the spices and deepen the flavor.
- 7. Pour in 1 can coconut milk and 1 cup chicken broth, scraping the bottom of the pot to incorporate any browned bits for extra richness.
- 8. Stir in 1 tbsp fish sauce and 1 tbsp palm sugar until fully dissolved, then return the browned chicken to the pot.
- 9. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.
- 10. Add 1 cup bamboo shoots and 1 sliced red bell pepper to the pot, simmering uncovered for an additional 5 minutes until the vegetables are tender-crisp.
- 11. Remove the pot from the heat and stir in 1 cup Thai basil leaves until just wilted, about 1 minute, to preserve their fresh aroma.
- 12. Serve the curry hot, garnished with lime wedges for a bright, acidic finish.
Cooking notes
When scaling protein-led dishes, weigh the meat rather than counting pieces, and remember that the pan size limits how much you can sear at once.
For volume-to-weight conversions of any ingredient — flour, sugar, butter, salts — use the ingredient converter. To translate the recipe's oven temperature between °C, °F and gas mark, see the temperature converter.
When you scale this recipe up or down, remember that cooking time does not scale linearly. A doubled cake takes longer, but not twice as long; a doubled soup takes roughly twice as long. The cooking-time guide gives sensible starting estimates by dish geometry.
Scaling notes
Scaling Samlar Kari – Khmer Red Curry
Samlar Kari – Khmer Red Curry is written for around four servings as it stands on this page — scaling it up for a party or down for a meal-for-one is the small math problem most home cooks face every week. Here's how this particular dish responds to scaling, what changes linearly, and what doesn't.
Samlar Kari – Khmer Red Curry scales gracefully because chicken is forgiving — both the cooking method and the timing apply per piece rather than per total weight. The non-linear rule still applies to seasoning: at 2× volume use 1.5× the salt and spices, not full double, because flavour concentration intensifies as batch size grows.
Skip the math entirely — ScaleRecipe's scaler rewrites every ingredient line above with proper culinary fractions and smart unit promotion the moment you change the serving count. Open the scaler →
Beyond the recipe
Substitutions & make-ahead — Samlar Kari – Khmer Red Curry
Two things home cooks ask about most when they're outside the recipe's exact assumptions: what swaps work for which ingredients, and how the dish behaves when you make it ahead. Both depend on what Samlar Kari – Khmer Red Curry is doing structurally — here's the practical version.
Substitution ideas
Brown sugar
Brown sugar = white sugar + molasses. For 1 cup light brown sugar, use 1 cup granulated sugar + 1 tbsp molasses; for dark brown, 2 tbsp molasses. Coconut sugar is a near-1:1 swap with slightly less caramel depth — works for both light and dark.
For weight-based swaps and arbitrary quantities, the ingredient density converter and the cup-to-grams chart cover most pantry staples.
Make-ahead and storage
Samlar Kari – Khmer Red Curry tolerates make-ahead better than most home cooks expect. Cooked chicken keeps 3-4 days refrigerated and freezes well for up to 3 months. Reheat in a low oven (around 300 °F / 150 °C) covered, with a splash of broth — microwave reheating dries out lean breast meat especially. If the sauce is dairy-based (cream, yogurt), warm gently over low heat and stir as it comes back together; high heat breaks the emulsion.
Cooking aids
Tools to use while you cook this.
Each opens in a new tab so the timer keeps running. The math is auditable on the guide page below each converter, with worked examples and where the numbers come from.
Volume
Tablespoons, teaspoons, cups, ml, fluid ounces — every culinary volume unit, with US/metric/imperial cups handled distinctly.
OpenWeight
Grams, ounces, pounds, kilograms — exact for any ingredient, plus the volume-to-weight conversions for ~40 pantry staples.
OpenTemperature
Fahrenheit, Celsius, gas mark — translate any oven temperature, with notes on conventional vs convection.
OpenCooking time
The cube-root rule for scaling up, the differences between meat / cake / soup geometry, and sensible starting estimates.
OpenPan size
9-inch round vs 8-inch square vs 13×9. The math is surface area, not diameter — and the converter shows you both.
OpenLength
Inches and centimetres — for when a recipe says “cut into 1-inch pieces” and your ruler is metric.
OpenIngredient density
A cup of flour weighs 120 g; a cup of honey weighs 340. The full table of ~40 staples, with sources.
OpenOpen in main scaler
Edit the recipe text, scale by serving count, and copy the result. Same parser as the in-page scaler, more room to work.
OpenFrom the journal
Original essays on the small details.
The why behind the technique — original writing on the ingredient and equipment choices that separate a good cook from a frustrated one.
Reading a recipe like a chef
The 30-or-so recipe terms that show up most often, decoded
Read essayMay 4, 2026
Cooking for one — scaling principles
The math, the practical realities, and the recipes designed for one from the start
Read essayMay 4, 2026
How long do leftovers actually last?
Beyond the USDA's 3–4 days: the variables that actually determine the safe window
Read essayMay 4, 2026
Go deeper
Where this recipe sits in the wider tradition.
Each guide below is a real essay on the cuisine or the category — pillars, staples, techniques worth learning — paired with a curated grid of recipes filed under it.
Ready to cook?
Scale it to your table, then get into the kitchen.
Send this recipe to the main scaler for further editing, or jump straight into Cook Mode for a hands-free walk-through with timers running.