This Thai Swimming Rama Chicken has the rich flavors of red curry, peanut butter, and coconut with chicken and spinach. Ready in under an hour.
When I was a young adult (think early 20's, circa 2002-2003ish), I visited Thailand with my family. We went to Bangkok and Phuket, and did a 2 or 3 night boat tour around some of the islands. It remains the furthest place I have ever visited, and it was a great trip (aside from the fact that it was during SARS, but I like to conveniently forget that part).
Following that, my family went out for Thai food together often. There was one particular restaurant in Calgary we always visited, and while I was writing this post, I decided to look it up and was pleasantly surprised to see that it's still there.
I loved all of the dishes at that restaurant, but one of my favorites was Thai Swimming Rama Chicken. It was a stew-like curry dish with peanut sauce and spinach. It was just so good served with coconut rice.
We don't go for Thai food much anymore, so I decided to learn how to make that dish myself, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is.
How to make Swimming Rama Chicken:
Making Thai Swimming Rama Chicken is fairly quick and easy, and all of the ingredients are relatively easy to find in most well-stocked grocery stores.
Start by slicing the chicken thin, then marinating it with a mixture of water, soy sauce, and cornstarch. This is called "velveting", and helps to tenderize the chicken.
Now prepare whatever you plan to serve with your chicken, especially if it's something that takes awhile to cook. Get that rice cooker going.
Next prepare the remaining ingredients and get ready to start cooking. This might include mincing the garlic, grating the ginger, chopping the peanuts, and washing the spinach (if needed).
By this time, the chicken is done marinating and it's time to start cooking. Heat some oil in a skillet or saute pan. Cook the chicken until it's no longer pink, then transfer the chicken to a plate or bowl. Wipe the skillet clean, then add a bit more oil.
Cook the garlic, ginger, and red curry paste until they're fragrant, then stir in the coconut milk, brown sugar, peanut butter, and fish sauce. Simmer until it thickens, then stir in the chicken and some of the chopped peanuts. Stir in the spinach and cook just until it's wilted.
Serve the Swimming Rama over rice, or with noodles, topped with more of the chopped peanuts.
Swimming Rama Chicken Ingredients:
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- Water: Use whatever water you normally drink. Tap water is fine here.
- Reduced-sodium Soy sauce: Use tamari or gluten-free soy sauce to make this recipe gluten-free. Regular sodium soy sauce will also work here.
- Cornstarch
- Canola oil or other neutral-flavored cooking oil
- Grated fresh ginger: Pro tip - always keep ginger in your freezer and grate straight from frozen, so you always have fresh ginger on hand.
- Garlic
- Red curry paste: Find this in the International aisle of well-stocked grocery stores.
- Light Coconut milk: Regular coconut milk will work too
- Brown sugar: You can substitute palm sugar, coconut sugar, or even granulated sugar if needed.
- Peanut butter: Any type will work here
- Fish sauce
- Unsalted peanuts: Salted peanuts will work too, just make sure they don't have any additional flavors or seasonings added.
- Baby spinach
Swimming Rama Variations:
Thai Swimming Rama is also sometimes made with shrimp instead of chicken. To make a shrimp version, replace the chicken with an equal amount of peeled shrimp. Preferably, you'll want to look for large or jumbo shrimp (make sure they're not pre-cooked).
Skip the marinating step, and instead season the shrimp with ½ teaspoon of salt. Shrimp also cook very quickly, so make sure you remove them from the skillet as soon they turn from grey to pink in step 2. From there, follow the rest of the recipe as written.
Want more chicken entrée recipes?
Swimming Rama Chicken Nutrition Notes:
To make this recipe gluten-free, make sure to use tamari or gluten-free soy sauce.
To make this a complete meal, serve your Swimming Rama Chicken with rice, noodles, quinoa, or another cooked grain (note that this is not included in the nutrition information you see in the recipe below.)
Thai Swimming Rama Chicken (Chicken and Spinach in Peanut Sauce)
Equipment
- Large skillet or saute pan
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs thinly sliced
- 3 Tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons reduced sodium soy sauce (use tamari or gluten-free soy sauce to make this recipe gluten-free)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 Tablespoons canola oil or other neutral-flavored cooking oil
- 1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 Tablespoons red curry paste
- 1 can light coconut milk either regular or light will do
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons peanut butter
- 2 Tablespoons fish sauce
- ½ cup finely chopped unsalted roasted peanuts
- 8 ounces baby spinach
Instructions
- Add the sliced chicken to a medium bowl and toss it together with 3 Tablespoons (45 ml) water, 2 teaspoons (10 ml) reduced sodium soy sauce, and 2 teaspoons (4 g) cornstarch. Let sit for 10 minutes.
- Add 1 Tablespoon of the oil to a saute pan or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken (leave excess liquid behind in the bowl) and cook until lightly browned, and no more pink remains. Remove the chicken and any juices from the pan and set it aside in a clean bowl.
- Wipe the pan clean with a paper towel and return it to medium-high heat. Add the remaining 1 Tablespoon of canola oil. Add 1 Tablespoon (7 g) grated fresh ginger, minced garlic, and 2 Tablespoons red curry paste to the pan and cook until fragrant, and just barely beginning to brown, about 30-60 seconds. Stir in 1 can (354 ml) light coconut milk, ¼ cup (55 g) brown sugar, 2 Tablespoons (32 g) peanut butter, and 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) fish sauce.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes, until slightly thickened, stirring often. Stir in the cooked chicken and any accumulated juices, and one-half to three-quarters of the chopped peanuts and cook for another minute or two. Stir in 8 ounces (227 g) baby spinach (you may need to do this in batches depending how big your pan is) and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes.
- Serve with rice (plain or coconut) or noodles.
Nutrition
Tracy says
We made this for supper last night, it was delicious! We stuck pretty close to the recipe as written - using regular coconut milk & natural/unsweetened peanut butter. I did add a small, julienned red bell pepper; half of a sweet onion, sliced; and a bit of Sambal Oelek for heat. We’ll definitely be making it again, highly recommend!
Carissa says
Thanks for the review, I'm glad you liked it!