Simple shouldn’t mean bland – and this Chicken Curry recipe knocks it out of the park! A mild, creamy coconut curry sauce made with just 5 ingredients (from scratch!), it tastes so good for something so quick, you will be amazed.
If you want to go all out, serve this with Soft No-Yeast Flatbreads to slop up the sauce (it’s basically naan, but much easier to make!)
Chicken Curry
Curries are notorious for lengthy ingredient lists to achieve the richly spiced sauces and punchy flavours. And while we’d all love to be able to whip up a from-scratch Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken whenever the craving hits us, it’s simply not viable.
So today, I’m sharing the best SIMPLE chicken curry that I know. This recipe is a Western style curry – it’s not a traditional Indian curry, Thai curry, nor any other cuisine. And here’s why you’re going to love it as much as I do:
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(Very) short list of ingredients
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Curry powder is the only spice you need
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Creamy curry sauce with mild coconut flavour
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30 minute recipe –Â from scratch!
This chicken curry is the perfect way to get your curry fix without being in the kitchen all day!
What you need for Everyday Chicken Curry
Here’s what goes in this Everyday Chicken Curry.
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Curry powder – the only spice you need! Any brand is fine here.
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Garlic, ginger and onion – fresh aromatics add a flavour boost that makes all the difference with quick curries! It’s the same when making quick Thai Green Curry or Red Curry using store bought paste.
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Chicken broth/stock AND coconut milk – for creaminess and flavour. We’re just using 1 cup of coconut milk here – this isn’t intended to be an overly rich, heavy coconut sauce.
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Chicken – thighs are best because this curry needs to be simmered for 12 minutes for the flavours to develop. But yes, it can be made with breast – but the steps need tweaking otherwise you’ll complain that the chicken is dry!!
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Peas – optional! Try other diced veg!
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Coriander/cilantro – lovely freshness and flavour boost. Coriander haters – use chives or green onions instead.
Don’t let the short list of ingredients fool you. The curry sauce tastes SO GOOD!
Curry Powders
These are the curry powders I currently have in my pantry – but I’ve used plenty of other brands in the past. Curry powder is used in all sorts of recipes, not just Indian curries, including:
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Satay Chicken Curry – basically it’s chicken satay skewers in curry form, with loads of peanut sauce!
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Chickpea Potato Curry –Â very popular with readers!
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Curried Rice and Curried Sausages
How to make it
There’s nothing groundbreaking about how this chicken curry is made. The one key step is to fry off the curry powder. This brightens up the flavour of the spices + creates more golden bits on the base of the pan, and both of these things add more flavour into the curry sauce!
So don’t skip this step. 🙂
Make it your own!
This recipe is all about the curry sauce, so it’s really versatile in terms of what you can put in it, as well as extra add ins. Here are some options:
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Other proteins or vegetarian – make this with beef, lamb, pork, turkey, shrimp/prawns, fish or vegetarian. See directions in the recipe notes;
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Make it SPICY! This is not a spicy curry. So to add heat, either use HOT curry powder, or add cayenne pepper or ground chilli powder;
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Make it richer – use coconut cream instead of milk. Or use more coconut milk and simmer to reduce for longer; and
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Add tomato paste to thicken the sauce a touch and make the sauce a darker colour. Use about 1.5 tbsp.
Try this curry with a side of Green Bean Salad, my friend JP’s famous Iceberg Lettuce salad, or this no-mayo Cabbage Salad.
Serve it over rice, or even mashed potato or noodles. Basically anything that can be doused with that coconut curry sauce! ~ Nagi x
More cosy Chicken recipes
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Slow Cooked Chicken Stew and a faster Chicken Stew (Casserole) – on the table in under an hour!
The Curry collection
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Thai Red Curry or Green Curry – quick 30 minutes, or from scratch
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Massaman Curry and Beef Rendang –Â two of the most iconic curries in the world
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Biryani – the BEST chicken and rice in the world
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Dal – Indian lentil curry
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Goan Fish Curry – an authentic, spicy fish curry with coconut from the south of India
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Indian Coconut Curry sauce – A stronger, more heavily spiced coconut curry sauce than this recipe
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View all Curry recipes
Watch how to make it
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Easy Chicken Curry
Ingredients
- 1.5 tbsp oil (vegetable, canola)
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 2 tsp ginger , grated
- 1/2 onion , finely chopped
- 500g / 1lb chicken thighs, sliced (Note 1)
- 2.5 tbsp curry powder (Note 2)
- 270 ml / 1.25 cups coconut milk , full fat (9 oz) (Note 3)
- 1.5 cups (375 ml) chicken stock low sodium
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup frozen peas
- 1/4 cup coriander / cilantro leaves , chopped
Instructions
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Cook garlic, ginger and onion for 3 minutes until onion is translucent.
- Add chicken and cook until it it changes from pink to white.
- Add curry powder and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add coconut milk and chicken stock. Stir, lower heat to medium and cook, simmering rapidly, for 10 minutes until sauce reduces and thickens.
- Add peas and salt. Cook for a further 2 minutes, then taste to see if it needs more salt. Garnish with coriander.
- Serve over rice, noodles or mashed potato!
Recipe Notes:
- Chicken breast - sprinkle with 2 tsp extra curry powder plus pinch of salt and pepper. Sear first in a bit of oil then remove (no need to cook through). Follow recipe - fry off curry with just the onion. Add breast back in towards end of sauce simmering, just to finish cooking.
- Shrimp/prawns or fish pieces - as above with breast.
- Other proteins (beef, turkey, lamb, pork) - use a quick cooking cut that's tender and juicy, slice or dice. Follow chicken breast steps.
- Vegetables - add into sauce based on cooking time.
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
I forgot to share this when I published Gozleme! (Turkish stuffed flatbreads) I took them down to Jeff, a local who lives down at the dog park and he gave them a big thumbs up.
And there’s Dozer. Being shameless!!!
Yum! I needed a quick recipe that I could make up easily between online meetings (and used up the homemade chicken stock that I couldn’t fit into the freezer!). This absolutely fit the bill.
My alterations were:
Used pre-cooked chicken (again, trying to clear freezer space)
Used two large mushrooms and a whole onion to up the veg count
Slightly jiggled the stock to coconut milk ratio, but that was more because of the amount of stock I had available.
Served over cauliflower rice.
I was a little worried that it would be runny because of the mushrooms (as they add extra water), but the cauli-rice absorbed it all really easily.
Definitely going on to the make again list – thank you Nagi!
I have made this a number of times, and it’s still the BEST chicken curry recipe ever! So simple, yet so complex in flavor. And even better the next day. Thanks once again Nagi – you’re the magic recipe Angel 🙂
Loved this chicken curry, so simple, tasty and inexpensive. With food prices rising every week its nice to not need too many ingredients, Thanks Nagi!
Made this for dinner tonight, a great success!!!
Love your recipes 🥰
Sadly, this one bombed for me. The sauce didn’t reduce so we had mild chicken curry soup. Hum………
My go to quick chicken curry for midweek easy. I use diced chicken leg meat-so even easier. This is the recipe my kids ask for when I tell them I’m cooking curry.🍛💖🙏
Hi is this recipe freezable?
Absolutely the most delicious recipe ever! I have been looking for a chicken curry recipe for ages and this hits the spot! WOW!
Very nice I always make a recipe to a t first time I make it but did tinker with this one didn’t add any stock added little turmeric and baby spinich
That was fantastic. I tripled the ingredients. Doubled the liquid- home made stock with aromatics and rice wine. Used 6TBS Malaysian meat powder. Added bay leaves-no curry leaves, cloves, star of anise and cinnamon powder- no sticks in the house…. and omg ended up with enough liquid to make curry laksa. Accidentally.
And oh use 1TBS cornflour to thicken it. Looked like an authentic Malaysian curry chicken to me. The colours looked deeper. I used drumsticks so cooked it longer and steamed my quick cook potatoes separately.
Between your poached chicken recipe- I have been gorging on Hainanese chicken rice because of it. And this-, with yellow noodles and I still have my frozen prata- am a very happy person with the rain and cold weather now. Thank you so much.
Hi, just made this & while it’s got great flavour, it’s very spicy. I used 2.5 tablespoon of Keen’s curry powder…wondering if it is meant to be 2.5 teaspoons?
There’s an older comment under this section to say it is.
I came here to check out Nagi’s chicken recipe since I’ve been using her recipes this last month.
I think I have used Keen’s before its got a spicy taste but it’s ok for me. I am about to use a Malaysian brand which is spicier. I usually cook a chicken and potato curry myself and I use about 8 TBs of powder usually- I usually do 3x amount of curry than hers.
About to eat it with frozen prata for breakfast since the weather is atrocious this weekend.
Would velveted breast work instead of thigh?
I don’t know how you do it over and over again, but this recipe was amazing! I am not a big curry person but I made this according to the recipe (using chicken breast and the 2 extra tsp of curry powder) and it had a kick to it, but even my husband who is wussier than I am when it comes to heat in food had seconds. I can’t wait for your cookbook to be out so I can hold all those incredible recipes in my hands 🙂
That’s great Meryl!! I am glad that you both enjoyed it! N x