Thai Mango Sticky Rice Recipe: Authentic Thai Street Food Style! (2024)

In this Thai mango sticky rice recipe, you’ll learn how to make authentic Thai street food style coconut sticky rice with mango.

Let’s get startedmaking this recipe!

What is Thai mango sticky rice?

NOTE: If you want to get straight into the recipe as fast as possible, scroll down to the video and recipe box below. But for a more in-depth explanation about this Thai dessert, keep reading this entire post.

In Thai it’s called khao neow mamuang (ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง), khao neow (ข้าวเหนียว) means glutinous sticky rice, while mamuang (มะม่วง) means mango in Thai.

Within Thai cooking, sticky rice is the staple starch of northern and northeastern Thai cuisine (Isaan), and it’s also commonly used in all sorts of Thai desserts.

For Thai mango sticky rice, the sticky rice is steamed, mixed with thick coconut cream and sugar, paired with perfectly ripe yellow sweet mango, served with some extra coconut cream on the top to make it even better, and finally often some crispy yellow mung beans are sprinkled on the very top.

Ingredients you’ll need:

For the sticky rice

• 1 kg. Thai sticky rice (ข้าวเหนียว)
• 800 ml. coconut cream (หัวกะทิ) – If you can’t get fresh coconut milk, this is my favorite type in the box.
• 150 g. sugar (น้ำตาลทราย)
• 1 tsp. salt (เกลือ)

For the mango

• Sweet yellow mangoes (มะม่วงนำ้ดอกไม้)
• 100 g. yellow mung beans (ถั่วเหลือง) – optional

For the coconut cream topping

• 200 ml. coconut cream (หัวกะทิ)
• 1/3 tsp. salt (เกลือ)

Really good quality coconut cream (or canned or box coconut milk) and really juicy sweet mangoes are the key to making this Thai mango sticky rice recipe.

Sticky rice

Thai sticky rice sweetenedwith sugar and coconut cream is a popular base for many different Thai desserts, and it’s highly important for this mango sticky rice recipe.

If you have anAsiansupermarket available, look for Thai sticky rice, or Thai glutinous rice, or sometimes it’s called Thai sweet rice (it’s much different from regular jasmine rice, and different from Chinese sweetrice).

To make sticky rice, you can use myThai sticky rice recipe. Howeveryou’ll want to pre-rinse it even more thoroughly to remove all the outer starch on each grain of rice before steaming it.

I washed the rice about 6 times to begin with, lightly rubbing the rice together to scratch off most of the starch. And then I allowed the rice to soakin water for 6 hours. This is the one stepwhere it’s best to think ahead before you start this mango sticky rice recipe so you have time to soak the rice.

Once you’ve rinsed the rice six times, when you add water again, the water shouldbe clear, not milky from the starch. If it’s milky, rinse it a few more times.

Once your sticky rice has soaked for about 6 hours, drain it, and it’s time to steam it.

You can use any kind of steaming method you’d like, but just make sure the sticky rice is placed somewhere above steam in a pot, and covered.

I used the Thai / Laos traditional basket steamer and steamed the sticky rice for about 15 minutes.

While your sticky rice is steaming, you can get started on the coconut cream sugar mixture.

For this recipe you’re only going to want to usecoconut cream, which in Thai is called hua kati(หัวกะทิ). It’s the richest and mostbutter thick coconut milk, so it’s higher in fat and just an amazing thing.

In a medium sized sauce pan, add 800 ml. of the coconut cream, and stir it in circular motions, just in one direction (make sure you just stir in one direction or the coconut cream could start to curdle).

Immediately add 150 g. sugar, and 1 tsp. of salt, and keep stirring gently on the heat, making sure the sugar completely dissolves.

As soon as the coconut cream comes to a boil and the sugar is fully dissolved, turn off the heat.

Your sticky rice should still be steaming hot, and dump the whole lump of sticky rice into a heat proof mixing bowl.

Take the coconut cream sugar mixture, and start by first adding a couple spoons and delicately mixing it into the sticky rice.

Keep adding more spoons (spoon by spoon) and stirring, but you want to gradually add the coconut cream so that it remains sticky but doesn’t get mushy.

You’ll use all the coconut cream, but add it little by little and mix, until it’s all soaked up by the sticky rice.

When you’re finished, you should almost have a sticky grain pudding like texture, and the rice should be shining and glistening because of all that healthy coconut fat.

At thispoint the sticky rice is already to be eaten, make sure you taste test it, it should be a bit sweet, and very rich and coconut-y tasting, with just a hint of a saltiness to bring out the taste of everything.

When you make this mango sticky rice recipe, if you’re not planning to eat the sticky rice immediately, it’s best to cover it in a plastic bag or plasticwrap so that it doesn’t get dried out or crusty.

Normally in Thailand this type of sticky rice is not refrigerated or it willdamage the texture and taste, so it’s usually eaten within a few hours of being prepared. It will still work to refrigerate it, but it won’t be nearly as good.

Toppings

Finally, these are both optional, but they are commonly accompanied with mango sticky rice in Thailand: extra coconut cream and crispy mung beans.

For the extra coconut cream, take the remaining 200 ml. of coconut cream, put in a pot on medium heat, add a pinch of salt, and stir gently until it boils. Then put into a bowl to serve alongside your sticky rice mango.

For the yellow mung beans (you buy yellow mung daal), put a wok or frying pan on the stove on low heat, and dry fry the mung beans for a few minutes, stirring them continuously until they start to turn slightly golden and get more crispy.

Mangoes

Mango sticky rice wouldn’t be complete without mango, and for this mango sticky rice recipe you’ll need perfectly ripemangoes that are silky in texture (not the stringy mangoes).

In Thailand there are a number of varieties of mango used for khao neow mamuang (ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง), but one of the most common is called mamuang nam dokmai(มะม่วงนำ้ดอกไม้) – literally translated to flower water mango.

When it comes to Thai food and specifically Thai desserts, presentation and beauty are hugely important.

And so vendors that sell mangoes or serve mango sticky rice take ultimate care in their mangoes, making sure they are not bruised, but are beautiful and yellow.

Most of the time in Thailand, the mango is peeled from the stem side, slicing off long strands of the skin towards the pointy end. Once the first half is peeled, it’s then sliced off the seed, so you’re left with a mango steak from one side of the mango, and that’s then cut into big bite sizes slices (might be easier explained in the video below).

Combining it all

Once you have all your components for this Thai mango sticky rice recipe ready, it’s time to dish out a plate.

Put some coconut sticky rice down on the base of a plate or bowl, slice on a fresh mango, sprinkle on some crispy mung beans, and finally serve the extra coconut cream on the side.

The recipe for sticky rice might make in total about 10 – 15 portions, and you can really add as much or little mango to each plate as you have, or as you like.

Mango sticky rice recipe (วิธีทำ ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง)

If you have a few minutes, first watch the video below:

(Or watch it on YouTube here:https://youtu.be/H_R108b6ZQg)

Time:The sticky rice is best soaked in water for about 6 hours, but after that, this recipe only takes about 30 minutes to make.
Recipe size:The rice makes about 10 – 15 portions, and it would probably be best to use about 1/2 mango per portion
Cooking utensils:Steamer, pot, wok / frying pan
Flavors: Sweet

Conclusion

Khao neow mamuang (ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง), yellow juicy mango with sweet coconut sticky rice, is one of the most incredible Thai desserts.

When it’s mango season in Thailand, you’ll find delicious ripe mangoes all over Bangkok, and you’ll discover countless street food carts and stalls at markets that sell sticky rice and mango.

If you can get some ripe yellow mangoes, sticky rice, and coconut cream, you can make this authentic Thai mango sticky rice recipe at home!

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.

Also, be sure to check out more authentic recipes here.