Pad Prik King
For a fast, intense burst of Thai flavour, Pad Prik King is just the ticket. Rich in the four quintessential flavour profiles of sweet, salt, sour and spice, the chilli stir fry with beef delivers it all in abundance. Learn how…
Pad Prik King (often called Pad Prik Khing) is one of my most favourite Thai dishes. A quick, stir-fried dish that brings all the essence of Thailand into every delicious mouthful. Unlike many Thai preparations, Prik King doesn't feature coconut milk – instead of being a creamy, rich sauce, the liquid is mostly minimal and the dish is typically (but not exclusively) a dry one. Personally, for my Prik King recipe, I like a little sauce to flavour the rice, so will add as much water as I'd like sauce (about 1 cup).
Usually, a Prik King recipe includes the long beans called 'snake beans' (also known as yardlong beans, pea beans, long-podded cowpeas, Chinese long beans and bodi!). They are wonderful endless green beans that look just like vines – they have a similar taste to regular French beans, so substituting for those is perfectly acceptable. A Prik Khing is spicy (as spicy as you like) and intense and accompanied by a variety of proteins.
My recipe uses beef, but I'll make it with whatever I have on hand - pork, chicken, duck, shrimp and squid all make a great prik king. Indeed, a vegetarian version is often on my menu, I'll add double the amount of beans or include some fried tofu (or both) and it's pretty insanely tasty!
A Thai Prik King Curry Paste
There's no shame whatsoever in buying a re-made curry paste for Thai food. While it's incredibly satisfying creating your own Thai curry pastes, buying shop bought is just fine, so long as you find a good quality paste. As you can see below, I ALWAYS have about 5-6 pastes in my store cupboard.
To find a good paste, you should visit a South East Asian food store and buy a good quality red curry paste for this Pad Prik King Recipe. My favourite brand by far is Maesri (I'm not even being sponsored to say this!) - their pastes (and there are many) are top notch, and will help you create the most authentic Pad Prik King.
In fact, Maesri also create a special Prik Khing paste that will give you the 'just like Thailand' flavour. If you can't find that, just buy any good red curry paste.
I have a homemade red curry paste recipe here if you're into the thought of making your own, and there are even more from-scratch curry recipes below if you're interested.
Pad Prink King - Step by Step
Once you're all set with a paste, the cooking of this is simple. The 'Pad' part of Pad Prik King means to fry, so all you need is a big, deep frying pan or wok and you're good to go. Pop the rice on and when that's cooked - you can start the Prik King.
- Fry the meat in a hot pan - or whatever protein you're using until it's charred and just a bit under cooked, then remove it from the pan.
- Fry the shallots with the curry paste and then add the beans, kaffir lime leaves, chillies and a bit of water.
- Simmer for 3 minutes to cook the beans
- Return the meat to the pan with the fish sauce and sugar and cook briefly
- That's it!
So! As you can see, once you have to key ingredients, the rest is super easy and super fast. You'll have your dinner on the plate in 20 minutes! That's much faster, and much tastier than a take out, right!?
Be the Khing of Thai food with this amazing Pad Prik Khing recipe. I hope you enjoy!
My favourite Thai and South East Asian recipes
- Thai Red Curry Chicken
- Thai Curry Noodle Soup with Salmon
- Thai Crying Tiger Beef with Nam Jim Jaew Sauce
- Thai Omelette (Kai Jeow)
- Thai-Style Grilled Chicken (Gai Yang)
- Thai Yellow Curry with Minced Pork
- Beef Massaman Curry
- Thai Panang Chicken Curry
- Satay Chicken Curry
- Cha Kroeung Sach Moan (Cambodian Lemongrass Chicken Stir-Fry)
- Laotian Chicken Larb (Larb Gai)
- Laotian Chicken Curry with Bamboo Shoots
- Laotian Nam Khao (Crispy Rice Salad)
How to make Pad Prik King
Video Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 350 g beef steak (12oz) (cut into thin slices) (you can also use chicken or duck breast, pork or shrimp
- salt & pepper
- 4 tbsp Maesri Prik Khing curry paste (or any Thai red curry paste)
- 1 shallot (thinly sliced)
- 200 g snake beans (7oz)(or green beans) Cut into 8cm/3" batons
- 5 kaffir lime leaves
- 2 fresh Thai red chillies (left whole, slit lengthways OR 2 dried Thai chillies) (optional)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp palm sugar (or regular sugar)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a wok or large, deep frying pan until hot and just smoking. Add the steak, together with a pinch of both salt and pepper. Let this fry over a high heat for 2-3 minutes until charred. Remove from the pan and set aside.
- In the same pan, add the shallot and fry for 30 seconds before adding the curry paste - stir about 30 seconds before adding the beans, kaffir lime leaves and Thai chillies (if using). Splash in around 1 cup of water too.
- Stir everything and let the beans simmer in the pan for 3 minutes until just cooked through. The sauce should also have reduced a little.
- Return the beef to the pan with any juices along with the fish sauce and sugar. Stir fry for 30 seconds then remove from the heat, and you’re done!
- Serve with fluffy jasmine rice.
Nutrition
Did you make my Pad Prik King
How did you go? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to tag @cookeatworld at Instagram.
Pad prik king is what I order from our local Thai restaurant 90% (or more) of the time when we order Thai. I have searched recipes for it but have not found one that I thought sounded “right”. Yours caught my attention so, after reading it, I did a little more research. This recipe is absolutely delicious but I made a few changes/additions that enhanced it. I rarely embellish a recipe the first time I make it but I’m glad I did. I (1) blanched the green beans. (2) Seared one side of the chicken in the wok in batches. (3) Sauteed the shallot until softened, then added the red curry and sugar and stirred it around for 2-3 minutes. (4) Then I added the beans, lime leaves, and Thai chilis for a couple of minutes before adding 1C of chicken stock and 3 stems of Thai basil with the leaves and let it all simmer for a few (5?) minutes. Added the chicken, fish sauce snf 1T oyster sauce and let simmer for 3-5 minutes. Absolutely restaurant quality!
So glad you enjoyed. Interested in your amendments too – I might give the oyster sauce a try, the beans I used were snake beans so cook a little quicker than regular green beans, but pre blanching is another good idea. Thanks for sharing!
Lee
Great recipe Lee! I’m an avid cook (also chef in another life) and love every kind of curry under the sun! I agree, the Maesri pastes re awesome, use them all the time and our fave is the Kaeng Par (Jungle Curry) with fish stock and pieces of galangal cooked in with it. Keep up the good work! Dave – Babinda, Qld, AUST.
Thank you so much.
I love the jungle curry paste too, although I ALWAYS add a tonne of coconut milk, which is not allowed apparently! Thanks for your comment and glad you’re enjoying all the curies as much as me!
Making it for the second time tonight at the special request of my husband and daughter, who both LOVED it last time (as did I). My son complained of “not enough sauce for the rice,” so I’ll be adding a little extra water as recommended. I’m writing this as my pork strips “marinade” in cornstarch, water, s/p, sesame oil, and garlic powder, and my stomach is growling!
Yes! The sauce… :( technically it’s a stir fry, so sauce can be annoyingly scarce. A bit of water will help! Failing that make one of my delicious sauce-abundant curries! Try the chicken curry with bamboo shoots…
https://www.cookeatworld.com/laotian-chicken-curry-bamboo-shoots
Thanks
Lee
I made this dish last night! OMG, it was HOT HOT HOT! I thought my other Thai dishes were HOT (we love it hot!), but this one: WOW!
My husband LOVED it! He had two helpings and finished my plate too! And, for me, (well I did add five Bird’s eye chillis and I think I’ll stick to 2 next time), it was very good, just took some getting used to. Maesri is a very different chili paste than what I’ve used before. Very complex.
Thanks for this blog and recipe!
Those birds eye chillies can make the difference, right!? I had some recently that blew my head off! Maesri pastes are really great – I use them ALL the time! Glad you enjoyed, and thanks!
Thanks Lee!
Is there another rice wine for drinking or drinking and cooking that you would also recommend?
New to Chinese cooking and eating.
Thanks!
Your recipes look very inviting and am planning on trying some as I stock up my cupboards with these exotic ingredients!
I’m not that sure if many Chinese would drink rice wine that they also cook with, it’s brewed predominantly for cooking. Japanese Sake is probably what I’d go for if you wanted to drink.
There’s a great article from one of my favourite blogs ‘The Woks of Life’ about rice wine… https://thewoksoflife.com/rice-wine/
Hope this helps.
I have a question about Chinese cooking: What kind of Rice wine (recipes sometimes call for Shaozing) should I use in recipes that call for it? For cooking or drinking?Can you recommend any brands? Thanks!
Shaoxing/Shaohsing wine is a cooking wine only (not for drinking!). It’s widely available in Asian supermarkets. I use this brand: https://amzn.to/3CfD7lA, which is one of the most common.
Failing that, you can also substitute with a little dry sherry if you have it.
Hope this helps.
Lee