Thai Curry Meatballs with Curry Sauce

Thai curry meatballs with curry sauce is perfect for a quick and delicious midweek dinner. You can use just about any flavor of curry paste—red, green, yellow or Panang—and this dish will turn out great.

I suppose there are a number of different ways you can make something like these, so I just grabbed my favorite ingredients and mixed them up.

What you’ll need for the meatballs:

• 1 lb ground pork or ground chicken*
• 0.5 cup panko
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 2t garlic paste or 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1t ginger—grated works best, but powdered works in a pinch
• 0.5t salt
• 0.25t cayenne pepper
• 1T chopped cilantro (I would have added if I had some on hand)

*If you use chicken, like I did here, make sure you cook the meatballs to 165 degrees to kill any dangerous bacteria. Also make sure to thoroughly wash everything that touches the raw chicken. When you read about people being sickened from cooking tainted chicken at home, it’s often because they didn’t follow these basic precautions.

What you’ll need for the curry sauce:

• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 to 2T of your favorite curry paste—I used Panang (also called Phanaeng) paste this time.
• 1 14-oz can of good-quality coconut milk or coconut cream
• 1-2t fish sauce
• Asian-style fried shallots as an optional topping

What to do for the meatballs:

Heat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Oil a baking sheet with oil (not olive). Use plenty, because I was light with it, and some of the meatballs stuck.

Put all of the ingredients in a large bowl and combine. Using your hands works best, but make sure not to over mix. Over-mixing will make the meatballs tough, and so will compacting them too much when forming them.

When properly mixed, roll out about 1- to 2-inch balls and place them on the oiled baking sheet. Using nitrile gloves for this makes for easy cleanup.

Cook the meatballs for 15-20 minutes. They’re done when the center of the meatballs reach 165 degrees F with an instant read thermometer.

What to do for the curry sauce:

Heat a bit of high-heat oil in a medium-sauce pan and sauté the minced shallots over medium heat until softened.

When the shallots are done, take the pan off the heat and let it cool for a minute before adding the coconut cream/milk. Return to heat and bring to a low simmer. Do not let the coconut cream get to a boil, as it will break it.

When the coconut cream has begun to simmer, add the curry paste and stir well until the paste dissolves into the cream. Add the fish sauce and let the mixture simmer until it thickens to your preference.

When the meatballs are done, put them in a serving dish and pour the curry sauce over them. Sprinkling fried shallots over the top makes a nice garnish.

Serve hot with rice or fried noodles.