Coconut chicken curry, chicken slow-cooked in sauteed onion, ginger garlic, spices, and coconut milk until juicy and tender. Perfect to pair with rice or roti/naan.
Chicken Coconut Curry is made with Boneless chicken breast sauteed in onion, ginger garlic paste, tomato, spices, and slow-cooked. Adding coconut milk makes the gravy silky smooth and rich. Slow cooking the chicken ensures the Chicken pieces remain Juicy and tender.
Chicken Curry appears very often on our menu. This Chicken Curry is one of my go-to recipes. It is not very spicy. The gravy is creamy and rich with a subtle flavour from coconut milk.
If you ask me to pick rice or naan, my answer would be rice. Because I am a little biased when it comes to choosing between rice and roti. But this curry goes very well with roti/Indian Flatbreads.
Slow cooker chicken curry is my go-to Indian Chicken Curry recipe made in a slow cooker. You can certainly make this on the stovetop. But I am going to share a few tips to make the best Indian curry in the slow cooker.
Slow cooker recipes are supposed to be the 'Dump & Forget' method of cooking. While this method might work for most of the recipes but for a delicious Indian curry you need to follow certain steps.
These steps might seem like extra work, but believe me, it is worth the effort.
Tips For Making Curry
- Chicken breast or chicken thighs can be used in this curry. I also use bone-in chicken sometimes for more flavour.
- Use fresh curry powder for maximum flavour. The quality of curry powder you use makes a lot of difference. Every curry powder has different ingredients in varied proportion. The one I have used had coriander, cumin, fennel, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and turmeric powder in it. It is had a nice strong flavour. You can also substitute curry powder with 1 tablespoon coriander powder,1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon garam masala and ½ teaspoon turmeric powder.
- Instead of dumping everything directly to the slow cooker, first, we are going to cook onion, ginger and garlic in a pan. Once it has cooked add curry powder to the mixture. By cooking the aromatics in oil we are developing some flavour.
To Make On Stovetop
Making Chicken Curry With Coconut on the stovetop is petty much similar to any other chicken curry. Once the Onion tomato curry base is cooked, add chicken pieces to the pan. Cook on high for 5 minutes. Then add coconut milk and cook on low covered for 12-15 minutes more.
Serve with
This curry can be had with roti (Indian flatbread), plain white or brown rice, Jeera rice, Vegetable pulao, or Paneer pulao.
Related recipes
Few more Indian Curries You might like
Creamy Cauliflower Curry With Coconut
One-Pot Chickpea Curry With Potato
Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken Curry
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 500 grams Boneless Chicken Breast cut into cubes
- 2 tbspn Vegetable Oil
- 2 Medium Onion Finely Chopped
- 1 tablespoon Garlic finely minced
- ½ tablespoon grated Ginger
- 2 tablespoon Curry Powder (ref note 1)
- ¼ cup Tomato paste Cut into small pieces
- 2 tspn Kashmiri Red chili powder (ref note 2)
- 400 ml coconut milk
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Start with the curry base. To make the curry base heat oil in a pan.
- Add finely chopped Onion to the pan. Cook on medium flame until the onion starts to soften and brown.
- Then add minced garlic and ginger. Saute for a minute so that the raw smell of garlic and ginger is gone.
- Add curry powder to the pan and saute for 30 seconds until aromatic. Keep stirring to avoid burning.
- Add Chicken cubes to the crockpot, onion ginger garlic mixture (made above), tomato paste, Kashmiri Chilli powder, salt and coconut milk.
- Mix well and cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 5 hours.
- While serving sprinkle fresh coriander.
Video
Notes
- The curry powder that I have used was a mixture of coriander powder, cumin powder, fennel powder, cardamom powder, cloves, cinnamon, and turmeric powder. I have seen a few brands of curry powder, that contains only coriander, cumin, fennel, and turmeric powder. In that case, use 1.5 tablespoons of curry powder and 1 teaspoon garam masala to it.
- Kashmiri red chilli powder is a less spicy chilli powder used in Indian Cuisine for giving deep red colour to curries. You can use paprika instead. I also add ½ teaspoon of chilli powder to the curry because we love it spicy.
Lynsey says
Delicious, and easy!! Will definitely make it again!
Bianca says
Thank for the recipe.
Very easy and very likely to always have all the ingredients on hand- making it even more ideal.
It was however very runny like water and thus the chicken taste was quite bland and plain, as the soupy juices just ran straight off. I did 5 hrs on low.
Flavour wasn’t much to rave about, but my children toddler and 5 yr old didn’t complain- and they can often be fussy.
It certainly has potential- i will use this recipe as a base and tweak it to thicken and enhance flavours.
Karen Smorowski says
If the curry powder you use is available on Amazon can you please tell the brand. I’ve searched for hours for the same list of ingredients and I can’t find it.
Mary Jacobs says
Do you use coconut milk or coconut cream in your curry? This will be my first time making a curry of any kind. I bought both. Please advise. Thanks
Subhasmita says
I have used coconut milk. You can use coconut cream by diluting it with water since you need a curry-like gravy.
Suzanne Ness says
This recipe is amazing. I will be making it again today for my son’s 20th birthday dinner and will try it using boneless thighs for a bit more fat and flavour. I have been making extra and freezing it so when we want Indain take out I have it in my freezer!! Yay. I make garlic naan and Indian basmati to go with it. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. Super easy, super delish and cheaper than take out.
Subhasmita says
I am so happy that you loved it. Hope it turned out great again.
Jannine says
I don’t understand the comment about 2 Green Cardamom. I don’t see it in the list of ingredients. Should cardamom be part of this recipe and if so, how much?
Subhasmita says
Hi Jannine,
That was an old comment. The recipe has been improvised later. So no cardamom in the recipe.
Samantha says
I have made this recipe multiple times, I love it! So easy to make and so flavorful.
Susan A. says
This coconut chicken curry recipe is absolutely delicious! I will definitely be making this again.
Amanda raki says
I’ve made this recipe loads of my times, I’m making this in slow cooker tonight I can’t wait to wake up to the beautiful aroma
Marjorie says
If I have curry paste, not powder, could you substitute and how much? And would I still use tomato paste? Thanks,
Subhasmita says
You can use curry paste instead but I am sorry I can't tell you how much. If can add tomato paste with curry paste as well.
Whitespyre says
Great recipe. And I’m a novice cook.
Sophia says
Best home made curry! Super easy to make and delicious . Brought some
Over to my mom and she loved it too! Plus it makes your house smell amazinggg
Sandy says
Great recipe... thank you so much for sharing it with all of us! I've just made this for the 2nd time so thought it only right to take the time to show my appreciation. I'm sure this curry will be an ongoing family favourite of ours.
Subhasmita says
So glad that you liked it. This one is one of our favourites. If you don't mind, can you please give a rating?
KT says
Trying this now with a twist! Added cubed sweet potatoes and galangal root to the slow cooker. Will serve with cauliflower rice and cilantro topping. So excited! Thanks for the inspiration. 🙂
Stephanie Soulos says
Made sure to read the authors notes and I took the advice of combining garam masala to the curry powder and I also combined chilli powder and paprika. Unused full fat coconut milk and made sure to pre-cook my onions and spices as noted Absolutely divine! Anyone who hasn't given this recipe 5 stars is not cooking it to the instructions & notes. Thank you for sharing. I loved this dish and will make again.
Jaye says
I added blended mango to add depth of flavour and some mango pieces and my toddler and hubby loved it
Odette says
I did this recipe today, but my coconut milk had separated due to low temperatures. I poured it all and after a while it blended fine, but at the end the food was not creamy like yours, it was rather watery and the chicken not as tender... 😞 was it the milk's fault or did I overcook?
subhasmita says
I am sorry you had trouble while making the recipe. I use coconut milk quite frequently and never faced such a problem. Was the coconut milk low on fat? And ideally, the chicken comes out nice and tender in the slow cooker, but looks like yours got definitely overcooked.
Jamie says
I had this issue too! With mine I thought that it seemed like the sauce hadn't cooked quite long enough..
Mary says
Hiya is it tinned coconut milk or fresh coconut milk that u use or would it matter I'm gonna make this tomorrow using a tin but was wondering if u could use fresh would it matter ?
subhasmita says
Hi Mary,
I had used Tinned Coconut milk. You can also use fresh coconut milk.
Thanks
Jenny says
Hi,
Where can I purchase the curry powder that you used in this recipe?
subhasmita says
Any Indian/Asian stored should have curry powder. It is also available on amazon.
chris Decke says
While looking at this recipe I noticed in the ingredients there is 2 Green Card I think this might be green chili leave. a possible typing error.
subhasmita says
Yes, it is 2 Green Cardamom. Corrected the typo. Thanks a lot for pointing it out, Chris 👍