Brimming with melt-in-the-mouth beef, topped up with soft potatoes and crunchy peanuts, warm with almost every spice under the sun, and lashings of creamy coconut milk, make beef short rib Massaman curry the undisputed king of curries. Slow cooked over 3 hours and tantalisingly tender, it’s surprisingly simple to achieve and an absolute legend.
More widely known Thai curries tend to be lighter, vibrant with vegetable greens and fresh-chili red, and make use of chicken or seafood. Thai red curry with prawns and snow peas or vegetarian Thai green curry are classic examples. What’s your favourite?

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Massaman beef curry
Thai Massaman curry is a literal melting pot of cultures and cuisines. Originating in Persia and crossing the Indian Subcontinent to arrive in Thailand via the Malay Archipelago, meant picking up a lot of ingredients along the way.
Typical curries from further to the West are brooding and potent with ground spices: cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, cardamom. While curries from the East, other Thai curry recipes especially, are alive with fresh herbs and chili: lemongrass, galangal, holy basil. Massaman brings all of these together in a unique and unlikely flavour combination that is both cosy and vibrant.
Besides a rich herbs and spices foundation, the Massaman curry recipe is characterised by uniting the potatoes used in North Indian curries, and peanuts favoured in Thai and Chinese cooking. An uncommon pairing, and bathed in coconut milk, but it makes for a hearty and nutritious dish.

Beef short rib recipes
Due to its global adventures, Massaman curry can also be found made with lamb or chicken, perhaps even duck or goat, but almost never pork. Which stands to reason as Massaman is a loose translation of ‘Muslim’. And anyway, in my opinion, it is best suited to beef.
I’ve used short rib. Short ribs come on-the-bone, so you get a high fat content and plenty of marrow. This makes a big impact on the curry! The fat and marrow will both melt into the gravy while slow cooking giving that gorgeously unctuous texture on the tongue.

It’s this appeal, and the fact that they are a comparably economical cut, that make stubby short ribs the perfect meat for a filling meal that won’t bust your budget. Give them a try in gochujang shot ribs, a rich and spicy Korean recipe, or more traditionally British flavoured braised beef short ribs.

Recipe tips and notes
- This beef curry is exceptional thanks to its succulence and complex flavours. Beef short ribs are the absolute best meat for this dish.
- I have tried topside (top round (US)) and silverside with disappointing results. So, you don’t have to!
- Alternatives are beef shin, aka beef shank, or chuck roast. These marbled meats contain ample fat which is what keeps joints tender.
- Having mentioned how great fat is, I’m now telling you to trim any excess. We want fat to keep the beef moist and juicy, but we don’t want a slick of it floating on top of the gravy.
- I cooked my ribs for 3 hours. At that point, the meat started to fall from the bone- the holy grail of slow cooking! Check yours at 1.5 hours, with varying quality, cuts and sizes, it could be ready by then.
- If so, add the potatoes.
- Many Massaman curry recipes will suggest adding peanuts at the very beginning. Through my own cooking trials, I find them to become too mealy, so I add them at the end. This retains their crunchy texture.
- Serve with piles of steaming jasmine rice to soak up every last drop of gravy.

Serving suggestions
A mega Massaman curry is a standalone kind of dish, excepting rice, of course. However impressive it may be, this meat-heavy dish is not a vegetarian diner’s dream. But with roots spanning half the globe, there is a wealth of options for meat-free mains and simple sides to accompany it. Mix and match the following for an invitingly multi-cultural table.
Vegetarian-friendly mains that double as meat-eater sides:
- Coconut, lentil and butternut squash curry
- Cauliflower and potato curry
- Roasted butternut squash with lentils and feta
- Nepalese red lentil dal
Vegetarian sides:
And if you think you have room for more carbs, serve naan-style flatbreads or chapatti.
Storage and leftovers
Beef curry is a gut-buster at the best of times, throw in a bunch of potatoes and peanuts and you are likely to have leftovers. Massaman curry will quite contentedly keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days, all the while percolating to new intensities.
It’s an equally good freezer. Keep for up to 6 months then defrost in the fridge overnight before reheating on the hob.
More curry recipes to try
- Paneer Tikka Masala
- Mango Chicken Curry
- Easy Egg Curry with Peas and Potatoes
- Braised Coconut Curry Chicken Thighs

Beef Short Rib Massaman Curry
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 100g / ½ cup This is an affiliate link.massaman curry paste (see notes)
- 1 onion sliced
- 3 lbs beef short ribs trimmed of visible fat
- 800ml or 2 x 14 oz cans This is an affiliate link.coconut milk
- 250 ml / 1 cup water
- 4-5 small potatoes peeled and quartered
- 2 tsp This is an affiliate link.tamarind paste
- 50g/1/3 cup peanuts roasted
- 3 tbsp brown sugar or coconut sugar
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large and deep pan that could go in the oven, add the sliced onion and fry for 5-7 minutes over low heat, then add the curry paste and a splash (½ cup) of coconut milk and stir fry for a couple of minutes until it starts to smell fragrant. Then add the rest of the coconut milk, water and stir to combine.
- Add the beef short ribs to the pan, cover with a lid and place in the preheated to 160C/325F oven for 2 hours. See Notes
- After 2 hours take it out of the oven and see if you can pull the bones easily from the meat. Remove the bones, add the potatoes, cover with a lid and put back in the oven for 30 minutes. ( If the bones couldn’t be pulled out, leave them)
- After 30 minutes, take the pan out of the oven, add the tamarind paste, sugar and peanuts and put it back in the oven uncovered for 20-30 minutes longer.
- At the end of the cooking time the meat should be very tender and fall apart if pulled with a fork. Remove the pieces from the liquid to a large bowl and pull apart with two forks, then add back to the pan and mix with the curry. Serve with rice.
Notes
- One of the best and most authentic pastes you can use is by Mae Ploy. It is made in Thailand.
- I cooked my ribs for 3 hours. At that point, the meat started to fall from the bone- the holy grail of slow cooking! Check yours at 1.5 hours, with varying quality, cuts and sizes, it could be ready by then. If so, add the potatoes and proceed with the recipe.