Panang curry paste substitutes

The nearest paste on the shelf, thickened and sweetened toward panang.

Best for

panang chicken, beef or duck, the swap most people can assemble tonight, thick, clingy curries

Red paste is hotter, sharper and much thinner in the finished sauce. The peanut butter is doing real work here: it restores both the body and the roasted note that define panang, and without it you have simply made a red curry. The remaining gap is aroma, so shred two kaffir lime leaves as finely as you can and stir them in at the end, or use a wide strip of lime zest sliced into threads.

The mild, warm-spiced Thai paste, and the closest single jar to panang.

Best for

when you have one jar and it is massaman, chicken and beef curries, cooking for people who do not want heat

Massaman shares panang's richness, sweetness and mildness, which is why it substitutes better than red does on texture. What it adds is warm dry spice, so the curry picks up a cinnamon and clove character that reads more like a spiced stew than panang. Use less than the recipe says, since massaman is also sweeter, and add a teaspoon of chili paste if you miss panang's gentle bite.

The mildest paste, given panang's body and roasted note.

Best for

children and heat-sensitive eaters, chicken panang, when red paste would be too hot

Considerably milder than panang and turmeric-yellow rather than deep brick red, so the curry looks wrong even when it tastes decent. A teaspoon of sweet paprika restores the colour without adding heat, and a teaspoon of chili garlic paste restores the edge if you want it. The peanut butter is what makes this work at all.

The real paste, and the only version that tastes properly of panang.

Best for

getting it right, cooks with an Asian grocer nearby, making a batch to freeze

Toast 2 teaspoons coriander seed and 1 teaspoon cumin seed, then grind. Blend with 8 dried red chilies soaked in hot water and seeded, 1 shallot, 4 garlic cloves, the tender part of 1 lemongrass stalk, 1 tablespoon grated galangal, 3 tablespoons roasted unsalted peanuts, 2 kaffir lime leaves with the centre rib removed, 1 teaspoon shrimp paste and half a teaspoon salt, adding a little of the chili soaking water. The roasted peanuts and the coriander seed are the two things that make it panang and not red.

A shortcut using a finished satay sauce for the nutty base.

Best for

when there is peanut sauce in the fridge and no curry paste, quick chicken curries, noodle bowls

Be honest about what this gives you: a peanut curry, not panang. Peanut sauce is already sweet and salty, so skip any sugar the recipe calls for and taste before adding fish sauce, or it will turn cloying and heavy. It also has no lemongrass or galangal, so the curry lacks the fresh aromatic backbone. A strip of lime zest and a squeeze of lime at the end helps a lot.

The bare pantry version.

Best for

no paste of any kind in the house, a mild peanut coconut curry, weeknight improvisation

This is the weakest option on the page. With no lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime or roasted chili it tastes flat and a little dusty, and the paprika is only there for colour. Fry the powders in oil for 45 seconds before liquid goes in so they do not taste raw, and finish with lime and plenty of Thai basil. It makes a pleasant dinner that nobody would call panang.