Slow Cooker Chicken Curry
on Sep 17, 2018, Updated Oct 19, 2020
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This Slow Cooker Chicken Curry is perfect in every way – juicy pieces of chicken and a spicy, flavorful gravy that has the right consistency. This is the perfect dinner to come home to ❤️
Alright! So who is with me when I say slow cookers are awesome? Especially when you have recipes where you can dump a whole lotta stuff in and after a few hours, you are left with plain deliciousness. Enter: Slow Cooker Chicken Curry.
This recipe took a few tries but I’ve got it exactly the way we like it – tender, juicy chicken, a gravy that coats each piece of chicken instead of pooling at the bottom, and so much flavor that you would think we marinated the chicken for a few hours!
- A really simple dump-and-go recipe that yields a really flavorful chicken curry
- Most of the recipe is hands-off. The only real cooking you’ll do here is to cook the onions and garlic together in a little oil before adding it to the slow cooker
- Can be made in a large batch and stored for later
Jump to section: Slow Cooker Chicken Curry
Top tips to cooking juicy chicken in a slow cooker
To cook really juicy chicken in the slow cooker, here are my top tips:
- Use chicken thighs because they have more fat than breasts so they remain tender when cooked for long periods and don’t get stringy or dry out
- Don’t add too much liquid because you are locking in the steam in a slow cooker so the water in the recipe does not have room to evaporate as much as it does in a pot. The chicken also leaves a fair amount of water so you are actually left with more liquid than you started with in the beginning
- Cutting chicken into the desired size right in the beginning will save you the time and effort to shred it or chop it later. It will also ensure that the flavors coat and seep through every piece right from the beginning
- Don’t cook it for longer than 6-7 hours because really, chicken cooks pretty fast compared to lamb or beef and that’s all the time it needs if you are cooking it on low sitting. When you slow cook it on high, the chicken only needs 3.5-4 hours
- If you don’t have whole spices, feel free to skip them and increase the garam masala by 1/4 teaspoon
This slow cooker chicken curry uses simple ingredients but is really high on flavour. Plus you’re going to love just how simple it is to put together. I usually serve this with some plain steamed rice and a lemon wedge for weeknight dinners. But you can easily alleviate the recipe by serving with some butter garlic naan for weekend lunch or if you’re making this for guests.
Watch Slow Cooker Chicken Curry Recipe Video
Slow Cooker Chicken Curry
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 1 cup Onions, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon Garlic, minced
- 7-8 Baby Potatoes, cut into half (or 2 large potatoes, diced into 1 inch pieces)
- 685 grams Chicken Thighs, skinless and boneless , cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 Bayleaf
- 2-3 Cloves
- 6-8 Peppercorns, whole
- 1 Green Chilli, finely chopped (or Serrano Pepper)
- 1 tablespoon Coriander Powder
- 1 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder, or chilli flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 1 teaspoon Garam Masala Powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Tomato Puree
- 1/2 cup Water
- 1 tablespoon Butter
- Chopped coriander for topping
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onions and minced garlic. Saute for 3-4 minutes till the onions soften. Transfer this mixture to the slow cooker along with all the other ingredients. Mix well.
- Cover and cook on high for 3.5-4 hours or low for 6 hours. Once the chicken curry is cooked, mix in the chopped coriander and serve hot on top of steamed rice or with some butter naan.
Video
Notes
- Chicken Thighs vs. Breasts: I recommend chicken thighs for this recipe because they don’t dry out and retain their juiciness in the slow cooker. You can also use bone-in chicken thighs for this recipe. If you insist on using chicken breasts, keep them whole and once the curry is cooked, use a fork to shred the chicken in the slow cooker.
- Butter: Butter adds an extra layer of flavor and the fat keeps the chicken curry from drying out. You can also stir in some cream or coconut milk in the end in this recipe.
- Spices: The blend of coriander powder, turmeric, chilli powder and garam masala is powerful, and adds tons of flavor. Chilli powder can be swapped with paprika or cayenne pepper in this recipe. You can also swap these spices for two tablespoons generic curry powder.
The recipe is in the slow cooker now, looking forward to tasting it later. Just one note in the prep, the ingredient Tomato purée looks more like passata in the video and would make more sense. It seemed an awful lot of uk tomato purée.
Hey Linda, tomato puree in this recipe is 1 cup of puree got by grinding fresh tomatoes. if you are using store bought puree, you may reduce the quantity to 1/2 cup depending on how concentrated the puree is.
This was great, and with a few tweaks it can be even better! I cooked the onion and garlic in ghee. When they were soft I added the spices to toast and then browned 1/4 cup tomato paste (didn’t have purée/passata on hand) with the onion and spices. Since my pan was already hot it made sense to boost the flavor this way. Then added the chicken to the pan and tossed to coat, dumped it all in the crockpot with 1/2 cup chicken stock. The only changes I made to the ingredients were using 1/4 tsp ground clove and a few large cracks of fresh black pepper in lieu of whole spices, and about 1/2 tsp smoked paprika along with everything else. Absolutely delicious! I’ve spent years in Kerala and it reminded me a lot of a South Indian curry. Looking forward to leftovers today!
Hey Carie, that is so so awesome. Thank you for leaving a comment.
This was absolutely amazing tasting. I cooked this for me and my two friends and it was a massive success.
I deviated on the recipe slightly and it may be a lost in translation thing between the UK and US, but thought it was worth mentioning. A “cup” in US measurement terms is about 237ml- therefore suggests the recipe requires more than a full average tube of tomato puree in the uk (generally 200ml). In the uk tomato puree is double concentrated, and will be far too much. I put in 6 tablespoons of the puree and that felt like the perfect amount (a bit less than half of 200ml). I’ve seen a couple of people saying it turned out with too much of a tomato taste and am wondering if this is why!
Having said that my result was the best tasting curry I’ve had in ages, plus it’s so easy to do. Thank you!
Yaay! that sounds awesome Adam.. thanks for the tip too.
Beautiful and so easy I served it with turmeric rice Thanks for this recipe 👍
yaay! that sounds awesome Stuart. so so glad you liked the recipe.
I followed this recipe carefully and unfortunately it really lacked flavour. It smells great! But very bland and not enjoyable at all.
Hey Sarah, I’m sorry this didn’t work out well for you. i have cooked this a multiple times and it has turned out perfect.
could you add coconut milk to this recipe? thank you
Hey Joe, I would not advice to use coconut milk, but if you want to give it a try, do leave a comment as to how it turned out.
Hi Richa
Cooking this curry this morning but I am finding it very thick.
Could I use some fresh chicken stock to thin it down
Apart from that all seems to be going well
Regards Tricia
Hey Patricia, yes, you may dilute it with chicken stock, if you prefer.
excellent recipe. loved it.want to increase the spice or heat. how can I do that. should I just increase the Serrano peppers and chili powder
Hey Beena, yes, you may do that, you may use 2 green chillies and 2 teaspoons of red chilli powder.
Really tasty. I sure what curry it is but is a family friendly flavour
Hey Sinead, so so glad you & your family liked the recipe
How many calories is this per portion please? Many Thanks
Hey Tracey, 1 portion of chicken curry is 453 kCalories