Vietnamese chicken curry (cà ri gà) is a hot bowl of comfort packed with FLAVOR. Although there is some wait time involved with the marinade to season the chicken, and frying the potato and carrot so they hold their shape, this aromatic and comforting curry recipe is hard to mess up.
This is yet another of my mom’s recipes I’ve been lucky to have very often as a child. I’d love dipping the curry with freshly toasted baguette, and sometimes finishing off the last bits by adding rice instead too.
Whether its lemongrass and chile heavy Thai, aromatic and thick Indian, or the homogenous gravy-like Japanese curry, you can be sure that curry is going to punch you in the mouth with flavor, and have an aroma that envelops the whole room.
Cuts of chicken to use
Any cut of chicken will work for this Vietnamese curry recipe, but more fat, skin, and bones will make the curry taste better. I prefer darker meat chicken for more fat like thighs or drumsticks, and cuts with bones to make the broth more flavorful. If you prefer leaner, chicken breast will work, but I’d still opt for half dark meat if you can.
If you use a whole or half chicken, make sure to break it up to help with more even marinading and shorter cook times. Use a cleaver to split large pieces into about 3″ ones so they are uniform and finish cooking at the same time.
My mom often made this curry in massive batches for 20+ people and gave a great tip regarding cut selection: use chicken wings for parties. There’s more skin and fat, so it tastes better. And the amount of meat and skin on each piece is relatively uniform, so each person taking a portion of curry gets a predictable amount of meat. With other cuts, size varies greatly: some people may not get enough or get way more meat than they intended. To prepare, just cut off the wing tip, and split the other two wing segments apart before using.
The curry powder
For this recipe, I use the D&D Gold Product “madras curry powder” found in Vietnamese grocery stores and seemingly no longer on Amazon as of 2025. You can try other Asian markets like 99 Ranch, H Mart, or other non chain Asian supermarkets too. Note that on the bottle or packaging they don’t really make the brand name clear so it’s easy to miss. It’s the one with the three bells logo, although there are some competitors that look deceptively similar.
If you can’t find this brand, you can go with other Vietnamese or even other Indian brands. In fact the label on the recommended brand says in Vietnamese “Indian curry”. If you’re trying to find something similar you can try to match the ingredients for a similar flavor profile.
Remember, ingredients appear in the order of weight in the package, so the order is important if you’re trying to find a similar curry powder from a different brand. D&D Gold Product has these ingredients: curry, tumeric, chili, coriander, cumin seeds, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, allspice and salt.
The curry paste
I like to use Mae Ploy brand red curry paste for this. The yellow and green pastes, although they taste good, just don’t look as good or bright in the final result. Other brands will have slightly different flavor profiles, but I’ve tried some others and liked the taste too. So feel free to experiment with other brands.
The curry paste has some overlapping ingredients with the curry powder we use, but it adds a different dimension and complexity to the broth, so we need to use both. The powder adds more of a bright pop of color from turmeric that we don’t get from paste. And the paste usually adds a nice red color from spices and oil we don’t get from the powder.
Since the paste is pretty thick, it’s not really worth the effort to thin it out to marinade the chicken in. We can easily use the curry powder for that.
Carrots and potatoes
We’ll be deep frying the potatoes and the carrots, so that they form a skin on the outside and don’t disintegrate as easily in the pot of curry. Deep frying them also par-cooks it so they don’t need to stew as long in the broth.
For an easier method, I’ve tried air frying and it works well. Just cut up the potatoes and carrots similarly, then spray or toss in a light coat of neutral oil then air fry in a pre-heated oven at 400F. I air-fried for about 15 minutes and it formed a decent skin, cooking the veggies about 75% of the way through.
Lemongrass
Lemongrass is super tough and woody, and it’s fairly cheap to buy in bunches. If you’re forced to buy these in bunches, just cut these down to keep in the freezer bags. They store quite well.
Otherwise if you can buy these by the stalk, just buy as much as you need. Cut them down to about ~5 inches long. The roots are very dense so to extract more flavor, we want to split those with a knife, then pound them (I use a plastic mallet, but a can of beans works well.) This exposes more leaves that we can saute with oil later.
Coconut cream / milk
The vibrant yellow color from this curry is enhanced with coconut! Coconut cream adds a nice flavor, and richness to the broth. I like Savoy brand coconut cream, but if you can’t find coconut cream you can use coconut milk. Don’t add this until the end though, to keep the color from getting too murky.
If you are allergic to coconut or can’t find coconut products, you can substitute this with half & half or even heavy cream for this. The fat of heavy cream makes for a great tasting, rich curry, and the color is actually bright and quite nice with heavy cream.
For a more Asian or Vietnamese taste though, I like to stick with coconut.
How I serve Vietnamese curry
This curry goes well with a fresh loaf of bread. Those french style baguettes you find at Vietnamese bakeries are perfect for this–kind of airy but still crusty. If you don’t happen to be around any Vietnamese baguette shops, any crusty baguette will do.
I love eating this with rice too (also see: how to cook rice in a rice cooker), although if I rarely find Vietnamese restaurants serving it that way. It’s more of a Japanese or Thai practice in that sense. I like about 1/4 cup of rice or so, because there’s a lot of carbs from the potatoes and carrots already.
I find that the flavor in the curry typically tastes even better the day after cooking it, after it has sat in the fridge and melded its flavors together, but of course I will still have a bowl of the freshly made pot too.
For other types of curries make sure to try my recipes for butter chicken or beef Penang.
Do Vietnamese eat curry?
While curry originated from South Asia, curry has made its way to a lot of Southeast Asian cuisine. In Vietnamese culture, curry is made with variants of coconut milk, chicken and served with a baguette that marks the historical influence of French cuisine in Vietnam.
Vietnamese Chicken Curry Recipe (Cà Ri Gà)
Ingredients
Marinade
- 2 lb (907.2 g) chicken any cut, chopped into large 2-3″ pieces
- 2 tbsp Vietnamese curry powder D&D Gold Product brand preferred
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp salt
Veggies & Aromatics
- 1 lb (680.4 g) potatoes
- 1 lb (226.8 g) carrots
- neutral oil
- 1 medium-sized onion
- 2 stalks lemongrass cut into 5″ pieces then split lengthwise, smashed to expose more leaves
- 4 cloves chopped garlic
- 2 tsp red curry paste I use Mae Ploy brand, others ok too
- 1/2 tsp paprika
Curry Broth
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp chicken bouillon or MSG
- 16-24 fl oz water
- 16-24 fl oz chicken broth
- 4 fl oz coconut cream see note below
Optional flavor accents
- 1 lemon sliced
- 1/4 tsp sambal / vinegary chile paste
Instructions
Marinade
- Cut 2 lb chicken into large 2-3" chunks if using large pieces. Or leaving uncut drumsticks, wings, thighs is fine too.
- Mix the 2 tbsp Vietnamese curry powder, 2 tsp onion powder & 2 tsp salt in a small bowl. Then in a larger mixing bowl toss to evenly coat chicken. Marinate for 2-4 hours in the refrigerator.
Veggies
- Cut 1 lb potatoes, 1 lb carrots and 1 medium-sized onion into 1.5-2" chunks.
- Par cook to create a skin on the potatoes and carrots by deep frying OR air frying.Method A: Using a neutral oil, deep fry potatoes and carrots until lightly browned.Method B: Lightly coat with neutral oil and air fry at 400°F for ~13 minutes. Make sure not to cook it beyond 80% doneness-test by piercing with a fork.
- Brown the chicken. This adds color and tightens the meat up a bit so it doesn't soften too much in the curry. Do not cook for too long, or fully cook the chicken at this stage.Method A: Add neutral oil to a large pot on medium-high heat and brown chicken on all sides in small batches. The curry powder may burn so remove any that burns from the pot as you're searing. Method B: Place on a baking sheet and broil in an oven, rotating often to lightly brown all around.
- If you're using the same pot as the one you browned chicken in, make sure to clean off any burned residue, or use a different pot. Add some oil to the pot on medium-high or high heat to lightly brown 1 medium-sized onion and the 2 stalks lemongrass (5-10 min). Then add 4 cloves chopped garlic, 2 tsp red curry paste1/2 tsp paprika until aromatic and lightly brown (~3 min). If you find the curry paste is too thick to fry, add a bit of water or coconut milk to make it easier. Keep the heat at medium, and add oil if needed to make sure not to burn these aromatics.
Curry Broth
- When done browning the aromatics, add the 3 bay leaves, and 2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp chicken bouillon.
- Add 50/50 ratio of liquids: 16-24 fl oz water, 16-24 fl oz chicken broth to the pot. I like to pour just enough so the liquid is about 1/2" below the ingredients. I've found that when adding to fully submerge, the broth can get too watery.
- Cover with a lid, and turn the heat to high until boiling, then reduce to medium-high heat to maintain a low boil.
- After 5 minutes of low boil, taste the broth and adjust with salt, sugar, curry powder, or curry paste to suit your taste. I typically will add a bit of salt and curry paste here.
- Add the potatoes and carrots, and if needed add more water and chicken broth as needed to maintain similar broth coverage (still using the 50/50 ratio).
- Return the heat to high until the pot hits a boil, then reduce to a low simmer until the chicken is fully cooked (165°F), and the potatoes and carrots reach desired doneness.
- Add 4 fl oz coconut cream, stir then raise to high heat until boiling, then turn off the heat.
- Serve with bread or rice, accent with a squeeze of lemon and sambal for heat.
Notes
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Yay, you’re back!!!!! It’s great to know that you have not disappeared from your blog altogether and I have hopes of some fun new recipes from you!
Have fun cooking again, Guten Appetit, as we say here in Germany, and please keep your fans in mind!
Yup, I’m back. More recipes to come, for sure, so I hope to see you around!
Yeah. Thank you. Love your chicken recipe, it looks good in pictures I will follow yours today
Wondering why I haven’t found your website earlier.. Thank you for the great work and keep it up! (fyi, I’m digging up all the recipes now)
I’m wondering the same as well… :). Glad you’re enjoying it!
i wondered where you had gone off to.
my fave viet restaurant in the city only serves this with rice, i had completely forgotten that this can be served with bread. either way, it’s one of my fave home-y viet dishes, one that i don’t make often enough.
Yup, I’m back though! Which city is that?
Yeah this goes great with rice–baguette is more rare of a treat around here :).
Made this today! It was delicious! Thank you for sharing your recipes, please continue doing what you do 🙂 FIVE STARS since the button below didn’t work
Jade, awesome and thanks so much for sharing! To many more bubbling cauldrons of curry!
thanks so much for your recipes!! So far I’ve made egg rolls, Vietnamese grilled pork, and am currently making the carmelized chicken. The pictures make me drool!
Right on Samantha, lots more recipes here for you to try and lots more on the way. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Just cooked this for my wife, absolutely gorggggeous – I am going to check out some of your other recipes. 5 Stars all the way 🙂
Glad you liked it and thanks for sharing Sean! 🙂
VN baguette is 100% Yay! No fish sauce… really?
Hi,
What brand curry powder do you use?
Thanks,
Dena
I use D&D Gold Product brand from the Vietnamese market!
I don’t like Vietnamese Curry too be like soup. How much Chicken broth and coconut water should I use?
I cook something similar at home and have stocked up on a ridiculous amount of Vietnamese curry powder on this trip and the last !!
Hi, this recipe looks exactly like what I get from my local restaurant. Can you please speak a bit about the type of curry powder you use, as I find Vietnamese curry tastes quite different from Indian curry. Thanks!
Hey Connie! It’s the D&D brand, which has three golden bells as the logo. Interestingly enough, the description in Vietnamese says it’s Indian curry powder.
Hi, I wanted to make this dish and was wondering if you can tell me the brand/ type of curry powder you use for this dish. There are so many kinds and I have tried several and have not yet found one I liked as much as the restaurant dishes. Thanks.
Vietnamese curry with no fish sauce?
Hey Jesse! Yep some like to add fish sauce, but there’s none in this recipe because it leaves a sour taste in the potatoes.
Hi Huy,
Item 3 of the instructions. Should it be potatoes instead of onion? My husband does not like coconut milk. I’ll try half and half.
How could I do a vegetarian version of this?
Hi, Thanks for posting this favorite dish. Btw, what do you mean by “After marinating, brown chicken on all sides in small batches in a pot, skin side down first.” Do you mean brown as in frying the chicken? Thanks!
Hey Layla, yup! Brown as in just the chicken and some oil in a pot over high heat.
My German family loves this!!! Now it’s part of our family recipe! Thanks for sharing your recipe!!!
Wow! What a cool recipe. All the better for a tasty chicken treat with the spicy tangy flavor to go with it. Cooking is such a delight and gastronomy is just a gigantic form of astronomy.
This is a family favourite, our go-to recipe! Try cooking it in the crockpot all day, and add a package of ‘Asian Home Gourmet’ Vietnamese chicken curry paste. The best.
Hi, Your post mentions deep frying the potatoes and carrots, but Step 3 of the recipe says to deep fry the onions and carrots. Which is correct?
Thanks for pointing that out Candice! I updated the recipe: fry the potatoes and carrots so they hold their shape better.
Your website makes me so nostalgic of my mom’s own home Vietnamese cooking! Thanks for the recipe – will definitely try this!
I had never attempted to make curry before, but this recipe made it sound doable — and it was! The curry turned out delicious and the chicken moist and packed with flavor. I love the bright notes of lemongrass with the earthy root vegetables. Thank you so much for sharing!
Can you use boxed chicken broth?
Yes, of course!
I made this recipe tonight- my husband is a picky eater, so after cooking everything, I removed the bay leaves, lemongrass and chicken from the broth. I deboned the chicken and tossed it back in. Then added in the coconut milk. The taste of this was AMAZING!!! It had so much flavor! I have never cooked with lemongrass before; it adds so much to the flavor of the broth. I look forward to trying more of your recipes. Thank you for posting the most delicious meal!!
Ya know some days, I wish someone would ‘clean up’ food for me like that too haha. Thanks so much for sharing and I’m glad you liked the recipe Tina!
This looks wonderful. Put me on your list for more recipes!
I have a form for a mailing list you can sign up for on the sidebar of the site! Thanks Judy.
I have made this and it is delicious. Thank you for the recipe!
Glad you liked it Sally, thank you for sharing!
Absolutely incredible and tasted exactly like the restaurants version I love! This was super easy to make and absolutely delicious! The Vietnamese curry is my favorite of them all!
So cool–glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe Ro! 🙂 Maybe I’m biased, but eat Viet curry more than any others too
My asian store doesn’t have lemongrass. Can I use anything else?
There’s not realllly a replacement for this, you could just omit it Julie.
chicken curry also goes down well with noodle :), but not with steamed rice + lemon salt as a dipping sauce for the meat (lightly dip). if one doesn’t have coconut milk, he could use regular milk instead. or if one likes sweet potatoe, then replace potatoe with sweet potatoe.
the trick is cut them into small enough chunks, so they can be cooked well. I think chicken meat would marinade well with fish sauce.
Thanks for the tips Viet!
Do you have the recipe before this was updated by chance?
Hey Caitlin, I haven’t changed the recipe for this, only updated some body copy recently 🙂
The original one never said anything about deep frying the potatoes or marinating the chicken😕
Welcome back! We were craving ca ri, so this recipe came in the nick of time.
Thanks Molly! Glad you liked it 🙂
Great recipe. I toasted some curry in oil and poured it on top at the end. Delicious. Thanks, I plan on trying more of your recipes.
Oh great tip, thanks Diem!
I really want to do this recipe exactly but I cannot find the 3 Bells D&D brand. I followed your link to Amazon and bought a 3 bottle pack for $45 yet they sent me a different brand. Reading through the comments it appears that the company was bought and the new company’s Curry powder is much spicier. Thought you might like to know.
Yikes that’s not cheap, and being sent a different brand is not cool… Thanks for letting us know Dan.
Made this curry with a few different recipes. This is so much better than the rest. I’ve finally found the one!
Thanks Allan!
I have been searching for this recipe for a long time! Your recipes is like my mom’s because it does not have any sweet potato/taro/yam. Just the way I remember eating this spicy stew over rice with cucumbers. Thanks for sharing!
Nga I’m glad you like it :). I’m no stranger to those other types of potatoes, however have never had them in Viet curry!
Never thought to deep fry the potatos and carrots. I’ll have to try it out. I always wondered why they would disintegrate in my ca ri.
Cooked this recipe yesterday. Last week, I cooked a curry pot from another recipe, then I found this recipe also interesting to try.
The curry was prepared with few modifications due to either personal preference or unavailable of some ingredients. I didn’t fry potatoes because we preferred creamy curry sauce. I omitted lemon grass, bay leaves, garlic and sambal vinegar because they were unavailable. I used palm sugar instead of regular sugar. I used Mc Cormick curry powder, because it was easy to find in my local supermarket. Chopped fresh chili and sliced lime/lemon served as a side dish.
The curry dish received many compliments. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Way to make it your own Kim! Nice job on pleasing your guests 🙂
I made this chicken curries soup for my family today and it was a HUGE hit!!! The flavours are delicious and it’s just like the soup served in our favourite Vietnamese restaurant!!!! Thank you for the delicious recipe!!!
Soo happy your family enjoyed it Narmin, thanks for sharing!
Huy,
thanks for the delicious recipe and tips. Made it yesterday and I found browning the potatoes and carrots really was very helpful in keeping it from falling apart in the soup.
To make the soup more hearty I added the following ingredients: sweet potatoes, quartered mushrooms, fried tofu, and butternut squash. These veggies also would make a great vegetarian version of this soup also. I ate it with gf french bread and will make cauliflower rice to eat it for the second day.
This is definitely going to be my go to recipe for Vietnamese Chicken Curry
Thanks for the veg variation Thuy–always love vegetarian takes!
I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole sifting through all your recipes! Sorry if I’m missing the obvious, but for how long do you simmer the chicken with the root veggies? I plan to use drumsticks so they can bully the carrots and potatoes 😉
Hey Heidi, the goal at that point is to just cook the chicken through. It will vary depending on if you scaled the recipe up/down, pot, liquid, etc so just simmer until when sliced juices in the thickest piece of chicken you have runs clear. Cheers!
This was absolutely delicious! It was my first time using lemongrass but I am not a fan. It really infused such a unique flavor into this dish. This will become one of my “go-tos”.
Thank you
I love this recipe, tasted just like my mums. I used mild Indian curry powder because that’s what I had in my pantry, and used chicken drumsticks. My fussy daughter mopped it all up with her baguette. I have made a few of your recipes and they always turn out on point! Thank you for sharing
Love to hear you won over your fussy daughter with it! 🙂