This fragrant and flavorful Thai Instant Pot Massaman Curry recipe has creamy coconut, tender beef, potatoes, and crunchy peanuts that combine to make this a highly satisfying dish that can be put together quickly for a delicious weeknight meal.
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I love Thai coconut curries! One of my favorite Thai curries is Massaman (pronounced muss-uh-maan) curry, which is a mild curry and doesn’t taste as spicy as Instant Pot red curry, green curry, panang curry, or yellow curry.
This curry is typically made with beef or chicken in Thai restaurants. The taste reminds me so much of Indian coconut-based curries because the curry paste has cumin, coriander, and some of the essential ingredients of the Indian spice garam masala: cardamom, cinnamon, cloves.
Find out the difference between panang curry vs massaman curry.
I only eat this pressure cooker beef massaman curry with Instant Pot Jasmine Rice!
For another delicious coconut-based beef curry, try Indian Instant Pot beef curry.
Ingredients and Tips
🧂 Ingredients You’ll Need for Instant Pot Massaman Beef Curry
💡 Recipe and Ingredient Tips
Here are some tips for getting the best results when making this pressure cooker massaman curry:
🍋 Tamarind Paste: Make fresh tamarind paste from slabs of tamarind pulp, available at East or South Asian stores. If using store-bought, start with one teaspoon mixed with hot water for Indian brands like Tamicon. For Thai concentrate, begin with one tablespoon and adjust to taste.
🌶️ Thai Curry Paste: I recommend Maesri or Mae Ploy for massaman curry paste. Maesri is great because you can use the whole can. If using Mae Ploy, reduce the amount of fish sauce since it’s saltier.
🍶 Fish Sauce: Red Boat fish sauce is my favorite for its rich flavor, but it’s pricier. Tiparos is a more affordable option. There’s no substitute for fish sauce, but soy sauce can work in a pinch—expect a different flavor. Vegetarian readers have recommended the Fysh brand of sauce
🥥 Coconut Milk: Use full-fat coconut milk for creaminess. Aroy-D and Chaokoh are my top brands, and some readers like Trader Joe’s coconut milk. For a thicker gravy, omit the water.
🍬 Palm Sugar: Palm sugar is more authentic than brown sugar, but brown sugar works well.
🥩 Beef: Use beef chuck or stew meat for the Instant Pot. Beef stew meat is convenient since it’s already cut into bite-sized pieces. Beef short ribs are also an option.
🍗 Chicken Variation: Substitute chicken for beef by cutting thighs or breasts into bite-sized pieces. Pressure cook everything together for 4 minutes on high pressure and do a quick release—no need to cook in stages!
🌱 Tofu Massaman Curry: For a vegetarian version, use extra-firm tofu, cubed, and pressure cook it with vegetables for just 2 minutes before a quick release.
🥔 Potatoes: Yukon Gold potatoes work well. For softer potatoes, use the 5-minute pressure cook time; reduce it to 3 minutes for firmer ones.
💦 Splatter Screen: To avoid splatters while sautéing in the Instant Pot, use a splatter screen to cover the inner pot.
❓ FAQS
Yes, you can double the recipe. Keep the cooking time the same.
Slow cook the curry for 4 to 6 hours on high or 6 to 8 hours on low.
If you want to use a leaner cut of beef, I suggest making the curry on the stovetop. The pressure cooker will make the beef tough.
Thai Massaman curry is not a spicy dish, so people who don’t like spicy foods will probably be okay with using a whole can of Thai Massaman curry paste.
If you’re concerned about spice, reduce the quantity of the curry paste. Start with just 3 or 4 tablespoons of the massaman curry paste; next time, you can adjust the heat as needed.
How to Make Thai Massaman Curry
⏲️ Instant Pot Method
- Saute spices, add coconut milk, beef or chicken.
- Pressure cook
- Release pressure, add vegetables, pressure cook again.
- Set the Instant Pot to Saute mode. Add curry paste and ½ can of coconut milk. Saute until mixture is bubbly, a minute or two.
- Press Cancel to turn off Instant Pot.
- Stir in remaining coconut milk, water, tamarind paste, fish sauce, and brown sugar.
- Add the beef, give it a quick stir, close the lid. *
* If using bite-size chicken, add the vegetables with the chicken.
- Close the lid.
- Select Pressure Cook mode and pressure cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. *
- The display will go from On to 15:00. The float valve will go up after a few minutes. The display will count down to 00:00.
- Do a quick pressure release.
* If using bite-size chicken, pressure cook chicken and vegetables for 4 minutes.
- Once the float valve goes down, you can open the pot.
- Stir in potatoes and onions.
- Stir in roasted peanuts and close the lid.
- Pressure cook for 5 minutes at high pressure and release the pressure using the quick release method. Serve with white rice.
Note: If using chicken pieces, the second cooking stage is unnecessary.
Learn more about your Instant Pot…
- Start Cooking Later: If you want to have dinner piping hot, set your Instant Pot Delay Start.
- Deglaze and avoid food burn message: Learn how to deglaze Instant Pot and avoid the burn message.
- Symbols on Display: What do all those Instant Pot symbols mean on your Instant Pot display panel?
- Elevate Your Food: What is a trivet and why should you use it?
- Cook Two Dishes at Once: The Instant Pot Pot in Pot method allows you to cook multiple dishes at once, make cheesecakes, casseroles, lasagna, and hard boiled eggs in your Instant Pot.
- Soak Dry Beans Hack: If you forget to soak dry beans ahead of time, this Instant Pot hack allows you to quick soak beans in no time!
♨️ Stovetop Method
- Heat beef and broth or water in a large pot over high heat. There should be enough liquid to cover the beef.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 2 hours until beef is tender.
- Remove beef. Set aside 1.5 cups of liquid.
- Heat ½ can of coconut milk and curry paste over medium heat in a large pot.
- Let the mixture bubble and thicken until the oil separates from the mixture, stirring frequently.
- Stir in the remaining coconut milk, tamarind paste, fish sauce, and brown sugar.
- Add the reserved liquid, beef, potatoes, onions, and peanuts. If there’s not enough liquid to cover the potatoes, add some more coconut milk.
- Cook the curry sauce over medium-low heat for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.
- Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.
Detailed instructions are in the recipe card below.
Thai Instant Pot Massaman Curry with Beef
Ingredients
- 4 oz. Thai massaman curry paste (114 grams) preferably Maesri or Mae Ploy brand
- 13.5 oz. coconut milk (1 can), preferably Aroy D or Chaokoh brand – 400 ml
- 2 lb beef stew meat (1 kg) 1-inch cubes
- ¼ cup water or beef broth (about 2 cups for stovetop version)
- 1 tablespoon tamarind paste or Thai tamarind concentrate [See Note 1]
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce or to taste
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar or palm sugar, to taste
- 2 cups potatoes 1-inch cubes [See Note 2]
- ½ cup onion 1-inch cubes
- ½ cup roasted peanuts
Instructions
Instant Pot Instructions
- Stir together massaman curry paste and ½ can of coconut milk and cook in Saute mode until mixture is bubbly, about two minutes.
- Press Cancel to turn off Instant Pot. Stir in beef, remaining coconut milk, water, tamarind paste, fish sauce, and brown sugar. [See Note 3].
- Close Instant Pot and pressure cook on High Pressure for 15 minutes.
- Do a quick release of pressure (You can also choose to do a natural release). [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods].
- Open Instant Pot and stir in potatoes, onions, and peanuts.
- Close Instant Pot and pressure cook on high pressure for 5 minutes.
- Do a quick release of pressure.
- Open the Instant Pot and carefully stir Instant Pot Massaman Curry.
- Taste, and adjust seasonings as needed.
- Transfer Instant Pot Beef Massaman Curry to a serving dish. Serve with Instant Pot Jasmine Rice.
Stovetop Instructions
- Heat beef and broth or water in a large pot over high heat. There should be enough liquid to cover the beef. [See Note 3].
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 2 hours or until beef is very tender.
- Transfer beef pieces to a dish, and set aside 1½ cups of liquid.
- Heat ½ can of coconut milk and curry paste over medium heat in a large pot. Let the mixture bubble and thicken until the oil separates from the mixture, stirring frequently.
- Stir in the remaining coconut milk, tamarind paste, fish sauce, and brown sugar.
- Add the reserved liquid, beef, potatoes, onions, and peanuts. If there’s not enough liquid to cover the beef and potatoes, add some more coconut milk or broth.
- Cook the curry over medium-low heat for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.
- Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. minced garlic, cut vegetables, etc.
- Use a splatter screen if necessary, in the first step, to guard against coconut milk bubbling up.
- Thai curries are generally eaten with rice. If you’re not planning on eating the curry with rice, you might need to adjust the salt by reducing the quantity of fish sauce.
- You may substitute chicken for the beef. Be sure to adjust the cooking time.
- Note 1: If using purchased tamarind paste, the quantity required may vary. If using Tamicon brand, start with 1 tsp; if using Thai tamarind concentrate, start with 1 Tbsp. Adjust for more at the end.
- Note 2: I prefer to use Yukon Gold potatoes.
- Note 3: Browning the beef first in some oil adds even more flavor to the curry. Brown it in batches to keep the meat from steaming.
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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Sharyn Green says
This recipe was so easy and quick and sooo delicious. Thank you, this will definitely be a keeper. Hubby loved it too. We’re in Australia so brands are different. I might try coconut cream next time for a thicker sauce.
Neena Panicker says
Hi Sharyn, thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I’m so glad it worked for you. And yes, coconut cream will give you a much thicker sauce.
Steve says
If I want to use pork instead of beef for this recipe, would the high pressure cook time in step 3 be more like 4-5 minutes, similar to your other recipes that have chicken in it? I’m assuming the 15 min is because it’s beef stew meat and you wanted more time to tenderize it?
Thanks!
Neena Panicker says
That’s exactly right, Steve. If you’re using a fatty cut of pork (pork shoulder) and cut into the same size, you would do 12 to 15 minutes cooking time. Lean cuts don’t do great in the pressure cooker. I would just cook on Saute mode. But you could give it a try at least one time and see how it turns out. I would try about 4 to 5 minutes.
G says
Thanks for the recipe effort, but this was definitely disappointing. Insufficient liquid in recipe for 8 litre version of Instant Pot. Overcooked beef, disappointing sauce consistency after adding necessary water. Should have used my slow cooker.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Oh shoot! I’m sorry you were disappointed by the recipe. I hope you’ll give it another try with some extra coconut milk and broth (maybe 1/4 to 1/3 cup). In that case, you can add more curry paste.
Steve says
If I wanted to make this without the meat…how would I alter Step 3? I’m assuming the 15 min at pressure is primarily for the beef, so wondering what you recommend?
Thanks!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Steve, you’re exactly right. You can skip the first pressure cook step and go to the second (5 minute) pressure cook step. Hope that helps.
Kirstyn says
A great tasting recipe. Almost as good as the local restaurant. I may need to adjust the tamarind down a little. It is a great one for simplicity. Thank you
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Kirstyn, thank you for the lovely review. Glad you enjoyed it.
Allison says
I just wanted to say I love love your curry recipes! You’re right the coconut milk and paste make a HUGE difference! I got my instapot and was looking for recipes and found this site. I haven’t made this one yet but I am tomorrow. I love your red and green curries so much. My only question is regarding the Tamicon you said mix it with some hot water first. How much water and do I put that mix into the pit, 1tsp of the mix or 1tsp straight of the Tamicon? Sorry for the long post!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Allison, the consistency would be like ketchup, but it doesn’t matter really. 1 tsp of tamicon mixed with an equal quantity of water should work.
Penny says
Hi Neena- you said that if using chicken (thighs, I assume as in your other recipes) that you should cook for 4 minutes. Is that total time, so that I could add the potatoes in at the same time, or is that 4 minutes, and then add the potatoes and cook another 4 minutes? I’m new to your site, so haven’t tried anything yet. Thanks.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Penny, yes I like to use thighs and I highly recommend using them. Yes, you can do both together for 4 minutes. Potatoes cook really quick, so cut them a bit bigger if you don’t want them too well done. Hope you like the recipes – I think you will.
Mary says
This is my absolute favourite massaman recipe. After trying massaman all over the world, I became a bit of a critic. I moved to Kentucky and couldn’t find a curry that matched my high standards so I attempted to make it. This recipe is perfection and tastes like the best of the curries that I’ve had at restaurants.
I will say, COCONUT MILK MATTERS! Follow her recommendations. It’s almost better to wait to make this until you can find good, thick coconut milk than to make it with super watery milk and ruin the curry.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
OMG, that’s the nicest compliment – thank you so much for commenting. You’ve made my Friday!
Alice says
Missing flavor. It tasted watered down and the potatoes were too cooked. I suggest omitting the water and reducing the last cook time to 3 minutes.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Alice, the first question I always ask when I get comments such as yours is whether you used the paste and coconut milk that I recommend. If so, then it sounds like you need to use more curry paste and omit the water. With the potatoes, you can reduce cook time as you suggested.
Angela says
This is my go to recipe for Massaman. Thank you for sharing!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Yay! Thanks, Angela.
Gaana says
This is our go to Massaman recipe. Never disappoints. Easy and super delicious.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thank you, Gaana! I’m so happy that you like the recipe 🙂
John says
Hello,
I’m running into an issue where my coconut milk separates from the curry once pressure cooked. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.
The final product looks like coconut solids suspended in oil and water. It still tastes delicious though, but just not appealing. Could it be the acidity of my tamarind paste?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
John, the first question I always ask in these cases is what brand of coconut milk did you use? If you use the brands I recommend you shouldn’t have an issue with a curdled appearance once you stir everything up after cooking. If you have used the recommended brands, then your theory is a possibility.
Kunal says
So easy to make, and so delicious!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Glad to hear you liked the recipe, Kunal!
Blake says
Really enjoyed the recipe. I added broccoli, bell pepper, and cauliflower with the potatoes and onions. I also added an extra tablespoon of red curry for a kick and to compensate for extra veggies. Turned out amazing! Thanks will make again.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Blake, thank you very much – glad you enjoyed it.
Virginia says
We had this for dinner tonight and even my fussiest kids enjoyed it.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Wonderful to hear! Thanks for your comment, Virginia.
Jesse says
This looks great – I can’t wait to try it out this week!
Couple of questions – how does the beef turn out on this? I’ve always loved the ‘pull-apart’ effect that the authentic beef massaman curries get from hours of stewing. Does this happen with your recipe?
Finally, is there a reason you opted for coconut milk instead of coconut cream? I’ve always seen massaman made with the latter, so just wondered how this works out in comparison..
Thanks!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Jesse, I find it to be quite tender because I use chuck roast. If you use a leaner beef, you wouldn’t get that. You can cook for the stated time, and if it’s not tender enough for you, just pressure cook it for another 2 minutes. Hope you like it. Do let me know.
Ceri says
Unfortunately for us this recipe was very underwhelming! I used mae ploy massaman sauce, tamarind from the Asian supermarket etc.. it was quite thin which in itself wasn’t that much of an issue, but it had no flavour at all really.. I think it needs a lot more massaman paste and some salt in there. It barely even had a mild Thai flavour to it. It looked like a massaman but unfortunately tasted like a very bland stew. Such a shame! Won’t be making this one again.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Ceri, I’m sorry the recipe didn’t meet your expectations. I write the recipes as I make them and they suit my family’s tastes. But it’s possible that you need to have a very strong massaman curry flavor, so I’d suggest you add 1 more tablespoon of curry paste to suit your tastes.
Molly says
Massaman Curry is my most favorite thing to get from Thai restaurants, and I was so excited to try this! While it was cooking, my whole kitchen smelled EXACTLY like it does at the restaurant! I was so excited to try it, but when we actually started eating it, the flavors were extremely muted. My husband and I could barely taste any of the delicious flavor we smelled. Did I do something wrong?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Molly, I’m sorry the recipe didn’t meet your expectations. Did you use the Maesri or Mae Ploy brand paste? If so, then I think your palate requires about 25 to 50% more spice paste. Pressure cooking does mute spices (in my experience). I like the spice level as is, but I would be open to increasing the quantity. Thanks for your feedback.
Jen says
We loved this recipe, especially my kid who doesn’t do spicy food. I forgot to get tamarind paste, so substituted lime juice instead. (Will try with tamarind next time!) I had bigger chunks of beef (frozen and cut previously), so I increased cooking time to 25 minutes. It was perfect. Thanks!!
Yolie says
Hi – I’ve never cooked with Tamarind before, is the taste similar to lime juice if I were to substitute it as you mentioned or will the curry taste “different” without tamarind? also would tamarind sauce be ok too or is paste better?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Yolie, tamarind is very different from lime. It has a sour sweet flavor, but you could substitute lime if you can’t get your hands on tamarind.