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 – 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 – very popular with readers!
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 – 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!!!
I had a 1/4 jar of Ayam massaman paste in the fridge so added in and reduced curry powder to 1.5 instead of 2.5. Added precooked potato chunks as well as the peas.
So good for such a quick curry.
Another winner.
Thanks Nagi, this looks delicious. Would it be freezable?
This recipe is alright, but I’d personally use a full onion, double the ginger and garlic added with the curry powder, add a bit of the chicken stock to deglaze around 3-4 tbsp of curry powder, and add the coriander stems after the stock with some potatoes instead of the peas, then at the end add a full 400 ml of coconut milk and half the leaves for the last five minutes of cooking.
It’d be less thick without reducing the coconut milk, but it also keeps the aromatic taste of it a bit better and the longer cooking time with the potatoes allows the stock to reduce more.
The curry powder, I never use a set time for it, it’s something you do by sight and smell, like when it’s aromatic but not burning; it depends on the brand and the type of pan you’re using; but never burn the curry powder, you can add a tiny bit of stock or water to stop it from catching, but once it’s burnt it’ll give the curry a strong bitter taste.
Cooking the curry powder really is the most important step, you let it kinda catch on the pan with the meat juices but not so much that it burns and turns bitter.
I love your recipes. I have tried them all, and they are all delicious. From Ireland
Really great. Very flavorful without being overpowering. Added tomato paste as suggested. Also added cauliflower. The whole family enjoyed it included toddler!
I just made this and it’s great! I don’t even care what my kids think I am making this fairly routinely. It scaled up nicely for 2 pounds of chicken. Yummo, and thank you. I routinely trust your recipes over other sites.
You always share very good and very unique recipe.
Many helpful for people.
Please give me a backlink.
Hola from México
When ever I’m at a loss for a recipe I always go to you
Most times I don’t have every ingredient but I feel if the bass line is there
I can orchestrate it into what I have on hand.
Close enough to the recipe
An inperation if you will
Thank you so much for being my go to meal of the day
Dozer.
Your a sweetheart
Lynda in Puerto Vallarta
I’m a single bloke, cooked this for myself, delicious. The other three servings stayed in the pan with some cornflour to thicken up the sauce and then used as pie filling for work lunches. Will defo make again. PS the book is amazing!
So quick and easy and very delicious.Making it again tonight
Naji, just made this chicken curry. Tastes delicious but thought it was a bit thin. Re looked at your video and was reassured, seemed a out same as yours. Thank you so much.
Absolutely delicious. I added tomato paste as recommended. Peas and corn. Yummee 😊🌺😊
Absolutely delicious! Quick and easy which is what I love and made these cold winter nights very cosy! Will definitely make again and add some more veggies too!
Can try coconut cream
So easy, so delicious, as always. I used frozen peas, corn and capsicum instead of peas but that was the only thing I changed – fantastic recipe!
So easy and always appreciated. Thank you. I use my own homemade curry powder which gives the dish a lovely perfume.
Made the curry but replaced the chicken for roasted cauliflower,
It was amazing
Thankyou Nagi
This is a flavourful, simple, mild curry! I would recommend to people who think curry is too strong for them. Increased to be 8-9 servings. Boiled for 20+ min in a wide pan to help reduce. It is just a more runny recipe but I just used cornstarch and water to thicken at the end (almost 1/4 cup for my scaled up version). I also did bone-in dark meat and it works to add a really rich chicken flavour. Added an entire bunch of cilantro + stems, and juice of a lemon. The loads of peas are a great idea. My family loved it and all had multiple helpings. I think next time I can go heavier with aromatics and curry powder for my taste. Thank you!
Quick and easy recipe but honestly the flavour is pretty boring, all I could taste was curry powder.
To improve this I added the traditional Thai flavourings of lime juice, palm sugar and fish sauce until the flavour was balanced. Made it so much better in my opinion
Easiest tastiest curry, I have ever made five stars absolutely and more. I’m not fond of peas, so I added potato and beans and carrot. Just prepped to make another batch of this curry. Only this time I’m going to use lamb and cook it in the slow cooker. Thank you so much for all these beautiful recipes. PS I love your book
Delicious easy family curry. I added capsicum, pumpkin, chick peas, peas and corn 😋