29 Best Thai Recipes

Everybody loves to get takeout, and Thai food is right up there with the most desirable options. The cuisine, as a whole, is dominated by herbal flavors and ingredients like lemongrass, galangal leaves, makrut lime leaves, ginger, and garlic, along with spicy elements from Thai chili peppers. You'll notice a lot of stir-fries (like pad Thai and drunken noodles), along with warming curries that will leave your belly full and your tastebuds happy. Although Thai food often revolves around savory ingredients, you'll also find sweet staples like mango sticky rice and refreshing Thai iced tea embraced within the cuisine. 

With a little bit of time and a trip to your local Asian ethnic grocery store, you can whip up a delicious dinner at home, bursting at the seams with the flavors of Thailand. Below, a round-up of some of the best Thai recipes to try and make in your kitchen. 

Larb is a Thai meat salad often made with lamb, poultry, or mushrooms. This variation, which is made with a pork mince, features umami ingredients like fish sauce paired with classic Thai seasonings like lemongrass, ginger, and lime. The red cabbage and lettuce leaves in this recipe also lend it elements of a traditional salad, while the rice bulks it up into a full meal. 

It's the perfect recipe for when you want to feel like you're eating at a Thai restaurant from the comfort of your home. 

Recipe: Thai Pork Larb

Curries are staple dishes in Thai cuisine. This recipe is made with sliced chicken breasts or thighs, but it can be substituted with other types of meats or tofu, too. The curry paste base for this recipe is also store-bought, which ensures you get a profound spicy flavor with minimal hassle. 

Serve your curry over rice; leftover rice is recommended, because it better soaks in the flavor of the curry. 

Recipe: Thai Chicken Curry

If you want a filling meal during the cooler months, Thai red curry should be on your list. It's made with store-bought red curry paste (which is super easy to drop into the pot), full-fat coconut milk for creaminess, and aromatics like garlic and ground coriander for some added warmth. It's also a great recipe to use up the leftover baked chicken you have lurking in your refrigerator. 

When served over rice, this curry dish is a complete meal, filled with nutrients and Thai flavor. 

Recipe: Thai Red Curry Chicken

Thai tea is a beverage of choice at any Thai restaurant. The tea base is flavored with notes of cardamom and cinnamon, while the sweetened condensed milk adds both sweetness and a decadent creaminess not found in other beverages. 

It's incredibly refreshing when paired with spicy Thai dishes like curry and pad Thai, or when served with a light appetizer like dumplings and spring rolls. Just be sure to drink it before the ice melts, because that tends to dilute the flavor. 

Recipe: Refreshing Thai Tea

No Thai takeout is complete without mango sticky rice for dessert. This dish is made with glutenous rice, which is not the same white rice you'd find at a grocery store. Its chewy texture, seasoned with coconut milk and sugar, is an essential textural and flavor component of the dish. 

Champagne mangos are the best variety to use for this recipe, because they are sweeter and softer than the conventional variety. It's essential to buy your mangos at peak ripeness, so they are easy to slice through with a spoon when you go to eat your dessert. 

Recipe: Classic Thai Mango Sticky Rice

One of the major differences between Indian and Thai curries is that the Thai versions are typically thinner and involve more staple ingredients like fish paste and soy sauce. You'll find sweeter, spicier undertones infused with Thai flavors. 

Massaman curry differs from other standard types of Thai red or green curry because it has cinnamon, coconut, and a subdued heat rather than spicy chili peppers. It's warmer and slightly thinner than other types, but much starchier since it includes hunks of potatoes. 

Recipe: Chicken Massaman Curry

Tom yum soup is a sweet-and-sour concoction that can easily be made vegetarian with some extra firm tofu and flavorful mushrooms. This recipe is ideal because it is filling without being too rich and over-the-top. 

It includes galangal (a citrusy and piney flavor), lemongrass, ginger, garlic, chilis, and coconut milk. The flavor of the soup will improve if it's left in a container for five days, which is perfect for lunches during the week. 

Recipe: Tofu Tom Yum Soup

This Thai rendition of an American French toast recipe features the same bread-and-batter process but instead cooks the bread in a wok and finishes it with a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk before serving. 

The bread gets super toasty with this process because of the heat distribution of the wok, while the sweetened condensed milk is the perfect confectionary topping to make this breakfast classic a little more dessert-like. 

Recipe: Thai French Toast

Not only is this panang curry vibrant in color, but it's also fresh and bright in flavor. Unlike other Thai curry varieties, this one is thicker and sweeter, plus it includes nutty peanuts that add a distinctly crunchy consistency to the stir-fry. Plus, panang curry isn't particularly spicy; it contains warming elements like cardamom, coriander, star anise, and cinnamon instead. 

This curry is delicious when served with rice or noodles. Like other Thai recipes, it's always better on the second (or third) day, because the flavors can meld a little bit more. 

Recipe: Beef Panang Curry

Green curry paste is the base for some Thai recipes, but it can also be used to add an additional spicy element to your non-Thai staples, like grilled chicken. 

To make this paste, combine galangal, garlic cloves, makrut lime leaves, ginger, coriander, cumin, lemongrass, and Thai chili peppers in a food processor. This paste will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to a week, but you can also store it in your freezer for up to six months for whenever the curry mood strikes.

Recipe: Thai Green Curry Paste 

Nam prik ong is a northern Thai dip made with dried chilis, ground pork, and tomatoes. It's best served with a side of dipping veggies, like cabbage and cucumber, which can easily diffuse some of the heat from the bird's eye chili peppers. 

You'll also need to stock up on aromatics like garlic and shallots, as well as shrimp paste to give your nam prik ong a fishy, savory undercurrent. 

Recipe: Nam Prik Ong

Khao soi is a dish straight out of Northern Thailand. It features familiar ingredients like cardamom, curry powder, shrimp paste, lemongrass, Thai chili peppers, and makrut lime leaves, as well as a hefty boost of protein from the chicken drumsticks and thighs. It almost crosses the line into a curry, but has the warming properties of a filling winter soup. 

The dish is best served with cilantro, pickled mustard greens, shallots, chili oil, and lime wedges. 

Recipe: Khao Soi

Although hot and sour soup is often considered a dish exclusive to Chinese restaurants and cuisine, it has roots in the Thai culinary tradition as well. 

This soup is made with homemade roasted pork stock — which should be cooked down with roasted pork bones to add a more meaty, aromatic flavor. You'll also need to take a trip to your local Asian ethnic market to find wood ear mushrooms, lily buds, Shaoxing wine, and bamboo shoots. 

Recipe: Hot and Sour Soup

Sticky rice is an important food to know how to make for many different Thai dishes. Unlike other types of rice, sticky rice (or Thai rice) has a very chewy texture and can easily hold onto different sauces better than a standard short or long grain. 

Once you've sufficiently steamed your rice, you can use it for your mango sticky rice, as a base for curry, or keep it in your refrigerator for up to three days. 

Recipe: Bamboo Steamer Sticky Rice