Slow Cooker Coconut Thai Beef Curry is a rich and comforting dish that is wonderfully easy to prepare in the slow cooker. This easy dinner recipe makes a tender, flavourful curry with minimal effort.
Made with beef, coconut milk, vegetables and green curry paste, this recipe is perfect for relaxed family meals or when you want something warm and satisfying at the end of the day.
Originally published April 25, 2020. Updated March 18, 2026.
A Tried And Tested Family Recipe
One of my favourite ways to add content to my website is to have much loved recipes passed on by readers, as they are tried and trusted.
This recipe was passed on by Jake, and it is wonderful! Of course I made a few tweaks as I cannot help myself, but it is such a lovely comforting dish and so easy.
Choosing And Adjusting Green Curry Paste
This recipe uses green curry paste, which is very easy to find at the supermarket.
It can vary quite a bit between brands in both flavour and heat, so it’s worth trying a few to find one you like.
When it comes to how much to use, you can adjust it to suit your taste:
- Use 2 tablespoons for a balanced flavour and gentle heat
- Increase to 3 tablespoons if you prefer a stronger curry
- Use less if you would like a milder flavour
- Keep in mind that different brands vary in strength, so adjust as needed
It’s a lovely, flexible recipe that can easily be adapted to suit your family.
What Is Green Curry Paste?
Green curry is a very flavoursome, slightly sweet curry with a beautiful blend of ingredients such as green chillies, lemongrass, garlic and kaffir lime. These flavours really develop as it cooks, creating a rich and aromatic dish.
You can of course make it from scratch, but I find buying a jar of your favourite is the easiest option. It’s so versatile and can be used in many different recipes.
Choosing Ingredients For The Best Curry Flavour
The ingredients are quite simple, this is the beauty of slow cookers.
You can use simple ingredients which with slow and low cooking infuse into each other in such a lovely way. Coconut cream and Thai flavours go together perfectly.
The key for choosing a good quality coconut milk is to look for a high solids content and to shake the can well before opening. There are a few other ingredients not shown above but that can really enhance the flavour that I have added to the recipe below.
Cooking The Curry In The Slow Cooker
You will need to add flour or cornflour to thicken the gravy after the bulk of the cooking time is done but this is common when cooking with a slow cooker.
If your sauce turns out thinner than you’d like, my guide on How to Thicken Slow Cooker Sauce shares several easy ways to achieve a richer consistency.
Long and slow is what slow cookers were designed for. If you need you can cook this on high for just over half the time, but you may not find the beef as fall apart as if cooked on low for longer.
I always cut my veges reasonably chunky for slow cooker cooking, especially the mushrooms as my kids don’t like them so we always have to pick them out – the bigger they are the easier they are to find!
But also I find that once the potatoes are cooked and the beef is easily able to be pulled apart its ready.
Slow cooker timings can vary slightly depending on the cut of meat or vegetables used, so my Slow Cooker Cooking Times Chart is a great guide to check.
More Slow Cooker Dinner Ideas
If you are a fan of slow cooker dinners then be sure to check out these easy ones below, simply click on the title to see the recipe:
- Slow Cooker Devilled Sausages
- Slow Cooker Easy Lasagne
- Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
- Slow Cooker Corned Beef Silverside
Slow Cooker Coconut Thai Beef Curry Recipe
The full ingredient list and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
Slow Cooker Coconut Thai Beef Curry
Slow Cooker Coconut Thai Beef Curry is an easy, flavourful dinner made with beef, coconut milk, vegetables and green curry paste, perfect for a comforting meal.
Ingredients
- 700-900 grams Beef, blade, gravy or chuck steak, cut into bite sized chunks
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Pepper
- Four Potatoes, large, cut into bite sized chunks
- 400 grams Mushrooms, quartered
- 1 Carrot, diced into bite sized chunks
- 1 Onion, finely diced
- 2 Tablespoons of Green Curry Paste
- 3 teaspoons Garlic, crushed
- 1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
- 400 ml can of Coconut Milk, good quality, high solids variety
- 1 Tablespoon Cornflour
Optional
- 4 Kaffir Lime Leaves
- Lime Juice to Serve
- Blanched Green Beans
Instructions
- Begin by preparing the slow cooker with oil or cooking spray
- Dice the beef into bite sized pieces, remove and discard any large amounts of fat.
- Add the beef to the slow cooker and season well with the salt & pepper.
- Peel and prepare the vegetables, dice the carrots and potatoes into bite sized chunks, quarter the mushrooms and finely dice the onion.
- Add these vegetables to the slow cooker
- Add to this the green curry paste, garlic, brown sugar and finally pour over the coconut milk (if using kaffir leaves add these now also)
- Stir to combine and cook on LOW for 8 hours
- Stir gently a few times during cooking
- At 8 hours take out 1/3 of a cup of the cooking liquid and add the cornflour to this and stir until no lumps remain then pour back into the slow cooker and stir gently to combine
- If adding green beans add them now
- Cook for a further 45 minutes to an hour to allow sauce to thicken and everything to become tender
- Remove Kaffir leaves and discard
- Serve with a fragrant rice or on its own (if using squeeze a little lime juice over the curry before serving)
- This will freeze well, allow to cool before adding portions in airtight containers to the refrigerator or freezer.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 131Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 7gUnsaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 534mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 2gSugar: 5gProtein: 3g
This nutrition calculation for Just Slow Cooker Recipes has been automated, please use your discretion with the calculation and use your own if unsure.
I Hope You Love This Recipe
I hope you love this Slow Cooker Coconut Thai Beef Curry as much as we do. It’s such a lovely comforting dinner and one I come back to again and again. Thanks so much Jake for sharing it with me.
If you try it, I’d love to hear how it turned out for you in the comments below.
Also, if you enjoy this recipe, please leave a ⭐ rating in the recipe card above. Your feedback helps other readers and really supports my recipes.
Thank you so much for visiting and taking the time to try this recipe. I hope you find plenty of slow cooker inspiration here on my blog.
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Happy cooking!
Anna
I made this curry and it was absolutely delicious, I did substitute green for red (cos that’s what I had in the fridge) and added some extra veggies but it was so easy and so tasty, thank you!
Wonderful! I’m so pleased you enjoyed it ☺️
I’m making this tomorrow and like you have red curry paste in the fridge and wondered about supplementing the green for the red, so good to hear it works well with that too.
Let me know how it goes Kelly ☺️
Wow, this was so easy and delicious. I forgot about the Kaffir leaves. I used the Red curry paste, next time I’ll try it with the green. Thanks for this recipe!
Awesome ☺️