The simple lemongrass curry stir fry with coconut milk will have a lovely flavour – giving a feeling of a lovely holiday in the sunshine in Sri Lanka.
Itโs easy to make and ideal for a:
- Delicious, โquick & easyโ mid week meal
- Lactose free and Gluten free.
Lemongrass is key to making a great tasting curry.
In addition adding a fresh coriander at the end will boost the flavour with a very distinctive lemon & lime taste.

How to make lemongrass curry stir fry
Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 2 pods garlic โ crushed
- 2 cm ginger
- 1 stem lemongrass
- 2 tsp mild curry powder
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 onion
- 1 tbsp coriander – chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Equipment
- Large frying pan or wok
- Grater
- Chopping board and knife
Instructions
- Cut the chicken breasts into cubes.
- Combine with the soy sauce, curry powder and rice vinegar, salt & pepper and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour
- Crush the garlic, peel & grate the ginger and lemongrass and combine to make a curry paste.
- Add some oil in the frying pan or wok and fry the marinated chicken until lovely and brown and then remove from the pan.
- Add the onion into the pan and fry the onion until soft for about 2 to 3 minutes. At the end add the curry paste (garlic, ginger and lemongrass) and fry for another minute.
- Then put the chicken back in the pan and add the coconut milk. Leave to simmer for about 15 minutes. At the end add the chopped coriander and serve.
How to serve
Lovely with either noodles or rice.
Popular questions
1. Can I grow lemongrass at home?
Yes, and it’s a lovely and easy herb to grow.
Lemongrass is essential in many South Easy Asian dishes and will add a bright, lemony, and aromatic flavour to meals.
However it can get quite big โ which is why itโs best to plant it in individual pots.
It loves full sunlight or high levels of artificial light and the optimal growing temperature is 22 to 35 ยบC
More details in How to grow lemongrass at home

2. Can I use ground coriander?
If shopping please note that ground Coriander is different and has a different taste than the fresh coriander sold in the fresh vegetable section.
Ground Coriander is made from Coriander seeds (not the leaves) and has a different flavour. Which is why itโs often used in different types of recipes.
When cooking recipes try to use fresh coriander โ home grown is the best but alternatively try to use a fresh โlivingโ coriander from shops as that will taste better than even the โfreshโ leaves sold in packets.
Fresh coriander has much more taste then dried coriander and is easy to grow at home.

3. What’s the best coconut milk to use?
Coconut milk is a key ingredient in many recipes, like the chicken curry.
Yes, it is claimed it has many health benefits (For example according to medical news today it helps lower cholesterol, etc.
Similarly it has a lovely flavour and is a great ingredient.
Howeverโฆ it does tend to have a lot of calories. Which is why we used the light option in this recipe โ the flavour is the same but it has half the amount of calories. (Available from Amazon)

Lemongrass curry stir fry
Equipment
- 1 Large frying plan Or wok
- 1 Grater
- 1 Knife and chopping board
Ingredients
- 2 Chicken breasts
- 200 ml Coconut milk
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1 stem Lemongrass
- 2 cm Ginger
- 2 tsp Mild Curry Powder
- 1 tbsp Soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Rice wine vinegar
- 1 Onion
- 1 tbsp Chopped Coriander (Cilantro)
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- Salt and Pepper
- Noodles or rice See note on how to serve
Instructions
Prepare the chicken
- Cut the chicken breasts into cubes.
- Combine with the soy sauce, curry powder and rice vinegar, salt & pepper and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour
Make the curry paste and noodles or rice
- Crush the garlic, peel & grate the ginger and lemongrass and combine to make a curry paste. Chop the onion into small bits.
Fry the ingredients
- Add some oil in the frying pan or wok and fry the marinated chicken until lovely and brown and then remove from the pan.
- Add the onion into the pan and fry the onion until soft for about 2 to 3 minutes.. At the end add the curry paste (garlic, ginger and lemongrass) and fry for another minute.
Finalise the lemongrass curry
- Then put the chicken back in the pan and add the coconut milk. Leave to simmer for about 15 minutes.
- Then add the chopped coriander and serve with noodles or rice.
Video
Nutrition
The country recipe challenge.
This recipe is part of my country recipe challenge, where I am trying to find 1 recipe from each country in the world.
The easiest way to keep updated is to follow me on either my Instagram or Facebook page.
Sri Lankan cuisine
I was delighted when the random country generator selected Sri Lanka – as the cuisine and recipes are absolutely lovely.
There are lots of lovely curry recipes, but in addition I can’t wait to cook a Kottu or Hopper (a bit like a savoury pancake). But especially (being Dutch) the concept of a Lampraise appeals – which is complete meal served in a Banana leaf, often containing a frikkadel (a Dutch-style meatball)
Have you made the recipe?
Would love to hear what you thought of it


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