Authentic Thai Recipes – Dry Chili Pork Ribs Curry (แกงคั่วพริกซี่โครงหมู)
In this authentic Thai recipe from my Thai mother-in-law, you’ll learn how make Southern Thai dry chili curry with pork ribs.
You’re going to pound the curry paste from scratch, boil it with bite sized pieces of pork ribs, and it’s going to be one of the most massively flavorful Thai curries you’ve ever tasted!
Let’s get cooking…
First, watch the video:
If you have a few minutes, first press play to watch the video below so you can see how to make this recipe and the exact method of cooking.
(If you can’t see the video, watch it on YouTube here)
Southern Thai dry chili curry with pork ribs (แกงคั่วพริก)
Southern Thai dry chili curry (แกงคั่วพริก)
My mother in-law is one of the best Thai cooks I know. She cooks a lot of Southern Thai dishes especially (because my wife’s family is originally from Southern Thailand), and this happens to be one of the Thai curries she cooks for me on a regular basis.
The name of this curry in Thai is gaeng khua prik (แกงคั่วพริก), and we’ll be making it with pork ribs (ซี่โครงหมู seekong moo), but you can make it with chicken or beef, or any meat you choose.
This Thai curry is known for being spicy, and it really makes amazing use of dry chilies, which not only provide some heat, but incredible chili fragrance. Some Thai curries, like green curry for example, use coconut milk. But this dry chili curry uses no coconut milk, so all the spices and chilies are powerfully flavorful.
Ingredients you’ll need to make this dish
Ingredient you’ll need for this recipe:
For the curry:
- 1 kg. pork ribs, or meat of choice (ซี่โครงหมู)
- 6 – 8 tbsp. curry paste – ingredients below (เครื่องแกงเผ็ด)
- 10 kaffir lime leaves (ใบมะกรูด)
- 2 – 4 cups of water (น้ำเปล่า) – start with 2 cups and add more as needed
- About 1 tsp. salt, or salt to taste (เกลือ)
For the curry paste:
- 50 grams Thai dry bird’s eye chilies – that’s about 1 big handful (พริกชี้ฟ้าแห้ง)
- 7 cloves garlic (กระเทียม)
- 3 shallots (หอมแดง)
- 1 coriander root (รากผักชี)
- 2 thumbs sized chunks of turmeric (ขมิ้น)
- 1 stalk lemongrass (ตะไคร้)
- 1 thumb sized chunk of old galangal (ข่า)
- 1 tbsp. black peppercorns (พริกไทยดำ)
- 1 tsp. cumin seeds (ยี่หร่า)
- 1 tsp. coriander seeds (ลูกผักชี)
- 1 tsp. salt (เกลือ)
- 1.5 tbsp shrimp paste (กะปิ)
NOTE: If you want to get straight to the recipe cooking instructions, you can scroll down to the recipe box below. But if you want a more in-depth explanation of this curry and more photos, keep reading.
Soak the dry chilies in water
Making the curry paste
Like with all Thai curries, the secret of making authentic Thai food is in the curry paste. This is where all the spices and herbs are pounded together to create magical tastes, and the paste is where just about all the flavor resides.
Since this is a Southern Thai dry chili curry, Thai dry bird’s eye chilies are a mandatory ingredient.
Soak the chilies in water for about 5 – 10 minutes. My mother in-law told me this will help with the pounding process, so they’ll break down easier.
First, prepare all your curry paste ingredients
For the cumin seeds and coriander seeds, in order to maximize their fragrance, stir fry them in a dry pan or wok for about 30 seconds. This is just going to toast them and bring out their fragrance.
Then basically just slice and dice up all the fresh herbs and curry paste recipe ingredients so they are small sized and easier to pound into a paste.
Pounding Thai curry paste by hand
Do I have to pound by hand?
I’ve probably said this quite a few times…
When you pound Thai curry paste by hand using a stone mortar and pestle, you will have the best tasting Thai curry ever. The reason is because it’s a slow process, and all the oils of the spices have time to fully be released and maximize their flavor potential.
That being said, pounding your curry paste by hand is time consuming (about 1 hour). So rather than buying curry paste in a can, the next best option would be to blend all the fresh ingredients in a blender or food processor, with a tiny bit of water to get them going. So if you have to do this, I understand!
Congratulations when you finish!
To pound the curry paste by hand, first add in a tsp. of salt, then pound all the ingredients, no specific order, just pound them all (everything apart from the shrimp paste which you’ll add at the very end).
It will take 45 minutes – 1.5 hours to pound your curry paste. One of the indicators that your curry paste is ready is that you should barely see any chili seeds left, they should nearly all be pounded out.
Once you think your curry paste is done, then add the shrimp paste, and mash and pound for another minute until it’s fully mixed in. Congratulations, your authentic Thai dry chili curry paste is ready.
Cutting the pork ribs
For the ribs
Again, we’ll be making this Thai curry recipe with pork ribs. But feel free to substitute chicken or beef or any other meat of your choice. My mother in-law often makes this recipe with free range chicken, which I love as well.
In Thailand, the ribs from the market usually are cut down the center and come in thin strands so that they can be cooked bite-sized. I’m not sure if you can get your butcher to cut them like this for you, but also whole bone ribs would work fine too. Then just cut your ribs into single bone bite sized pieces.
Dissolve the curry paste into water
For the curry
When you reach this stage, most of the hard work is done, and it’s very easy to cook this curry. Again, I can’t emphasize enough that the flavor of this dish and the work comes from the curry paste preparation.
To begin with, first add 2 – 3 cups of water to a medium pot. Then dissolve in about 6 or so tbsp. of the curry paste you just made, into the water (NOTE: If you’re worried about spice levels, you can reduce the amount of curry paste, and you can always come back to add more paste later).
Add the pork ribs and kaffir lime leaves and simmer
Bring the curry paste water mixture to a boil, and then toss in your pork ribs.
At that same time, get about 10 kaffir lime leaves, roughly tear them with your hand, and sprinkle them into the curry.
On a medium high heat, bring the curry to a boil, and then simmer it.
My mother in-law boiled this curry for about 1 hour, but she specified that it needed to mainly boil so long in order for the pork ribs to get nice and tender. So 1 hour is a good time-frame guide, but it’s really not a big deal how long you boil it as long as your meat is tender.
Add more water if it gets dry, and keep boiling
While you’re boiling the curry, if it get’s too dry and you still need to boil it longer, add some more water.
The main goal is when you’re done cooking this curry, you should have a nice thick curry consistency. But you can keep on adding water, and boiling it away.
Make sure you taste test and add salt as needed. But be careful with the salt, because remember that you’re already getting some saltiness from the curry paste. We added about an extra 1 tsp. of salt when we were making this recipe. Also, at this stage you can add more curry paste if your curry isn’t strong enough or spicy enough.
You want a nice thick curry and tender meat when you’re done
After about an hour of simmering, your Thai dry chili curry (gaeng khua prik seekong moo แกงคั่วพริกซี่โครงหมู) should look something like this. A nice thick curry sauce, and tender pieces of meat.
Thai dry chili pork ribs curry recipe (แกงคั่วพริกซี่โครงหมู)
And that’s it. The next step is to dish the dry chili ribs curry into a bowl, and eat it while it’s hot along with rice.
You’re about to experience a flavor explosion you’ll never forget!
Thai dry chili pork ribs curry recipe (วิธีทำ แกงคั่วพริกซี่โครงหมู)
Time: 2 – 3 hours, about an hour to pound the curry paste and an hour to boil the curry
Recipe size: 1 kg. of meat, serves 2 – 4
Cooking utensils: medium sized pot, for knives I use Kiwi knives
- 1 kg. pork ribs (ซี่โครงหมู), or chicken or any meat of choice
- 6 - 8 tbsp. curry paste - ingredients below (เครื่องแกงเผ็ด)
- 10 kaffir lime leaves (ใบมะกรูด)
- 2 - 4 cups of water (น้ำเปล่า) - begin with 2 cups, and you can add more as needed
- About 1 tsp. salt (เกลือ), salt to taste
- 50 grams Thai dry bird's eye chilies (พริกชี้ฟ้าแห้ง)
- 7 cloves garlic (กระเทียม)
- 3 shallots (หอมแดง)
- 1 coriander root (รากผักชี)
- 2 thumbs sized chunks of turmeric (ขมิ้น)
- 1 stalk lemongrass (ตะไคร้)
- 1 thumb sized chunk of old galangal (ข่า)
- 1 tbsp. black peppercorns (พริกไทยดำ)
- 1 tsp. cumin seeds (ยี่หร่า)
- 1 tsp. coriander seeds (ลูกผักชี)
- 1 tsp. salt (เกลือ)
- 1.5 tbsp shrimp paste (กะปิ)
- The first step is to prepare your ingredients for the curry paste. Put the dry chilies into a bowl of water for about 5 minutes to rehydrate them. Peel the garlic and shallots, remove the outer skin of the turmeric, and peel off the very outer layer of the lemongrass. Slice the garlic, shallots, coriander root, turmeric, lemongrass, and galangal into smaller pieces to make them easier to pound.
- For the cumin seed and coriander seeds, toast them in a hot dry frying pan for 30 seconds until fragrant. Set all the curry paste ingredients aside.
- Using a stone mortar and pestle, add 1 tsp. of salt, then apart from the shrimp paste, pound all the curry paste ingredients together. Pound for about 1 hour to get a smooth paste consistency.
- When you think your curry paste in done, add the shrimp paste at the very end, and mix and mash for a minute until it's fully mixed in.
- In a medium pot, boil about 2 cups of water and dissolve in 6 tbsp. of the fresh curry paste (Note: you can start with less curry paste if you'd like, and add more if needed).
- Cut the pork ribs into bite sized pieces, and add them to the curry.
- Take 10 kaffir lime leaves, tear them lightly with your hand, and add them to the curry.
- Slow boil for about 1 hour until the meat is very tender, stirring occasionally. You may need to add more water if your curry starts to get dry. Keep boiling and adding water as needed. The important thing is that when you're done cooking the curry, the water should mostly be evaporated leaving you a nice thick curry sauce consistency (you don't want watery).
- Taste test and add salt as needed. You can also add more curry paste if you want to bump up the spice and flavor.
- Once the pork ribs are tender and you have a nice curry sauce, turn off the heat, and you're done.
You'll want to dish it out into a bowl, and serve it hot with fresh steamed rice. If you loves spicy curry, this will be a dish you're going to love. Also, if you're worried about the spice, you can reduce the amount curry paste you use.
Enjoy this authentic Thai recipe by my mother in-law!
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- Thai dry chili pork ribs curry (แกงคั่วพริกซี่โครงหมู)
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- Authentic Thai recipes!
Don’t get me wrong:
I love Thai curries with coconut milk.
However, I do think that coconut milk kind of mellows out spices and flavor (not a bad thing at all, just mentioning).
But with this Thai dry chili pork ribs curry (แกงคั่วพริกซี่โครงหมู) there’s nothing to mellow out the flavor of those dry chilies and spices, so you get the full on taste of all those curry paste ingredients combined with tender bites of pork ribs. It’s just a sensational Southern Thailand dish!
How to make authentic Thai dry chili pork ribs curry (แกงคั่วพริกซี่โครงหมู)
Conclusion
This Thai dry chili pork ribs curry recipe (วิธีทำ แกงคั่วพริกซี่โครงหมู) is a Southern Thai dish that my mother in-law loves to make; So today I’m happy to share this authentic Thai recipe with you.
All of the work is in the curry paste, so once you’re pounded the curry paste, all you need to do is boil it with pork ribs, or your meat of choice, and you’ll have a Southern Thai curry that will blow your mind with flavor!
Hope you enjoy this recipe, and I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below what you think.
