This Coconut Curry Chicken recipe is beyond easy. You can literally start cooking before the prep work even starts. I don’t know why it took us this long to publish our coconut curry chicken recipe. It’s one of my absolute favorite meals.
Curried chicken is a quick, crowd-pleasing one-pot dinner that’s great for a weeknight. Not only is it fast, but it also has depth of flavor that makes it seem like you’ve been at the stove for much longer.
There are many curry chicken recipes out there, but more often than not, I think the chicken is over-cooked. I made adjustments to correct this problem. Most Chinese curry chicken recipes do not use coconut milk, but I myself like the addition. My mother started adding it to her curries after eating at a great hole-in-the-wall Malaysian restaurant in Flushing, and we’ve been doing it ever since. Coconut really adds richness and a lovely aroma to the curry sauce.
Another favorite curry dish we discovered at a Malaysian restaurant is Beef Rendang which has some unique and awesome flavors!
Coconut Curry Chicken: Recipe Instructions
Heat the oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over low heat, and immediately add the curry powder. Let it cook in the oil for 1-2 minutes, making sure not to burn it. In the meantime, dice the onion and smash the garlic. Add them to the pot, turn the heat up to medium, and give everything a stir.
Stir in the coconut milk and water (or chicken broth). Bring to a boil. While you’re waiting for that, dice the tomatoes and prep the potatoes. Add them both to the pot and season with salt, then add the sugar. Cover the lid and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through.
Cut the chicken thighs into chunks and season with salt and pepper. Once the potatoes are cooked through, add the chicken to the pot and give everything a stir. Cover the lid and cook for 10 minutes.
Adjust seasoning to taste, and serve your coconut curry chicken with steamed rice!
Coconut Curry Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 3 tablespoons curry powder
- 1 large onion (diced)
- 3 cloves garlic (smashed)
- 14 ounces coconut milk (400 ml)
- 2 cups water or chicken broth (475 ml)
- 2 plum tomatoes (diced)
- 2 medium potatoes (peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks)
- salt and pepper (to taste)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- salt and white pepper (black pepper may be substituted)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over low heat, and immediately add the curry powder. Let it cook in the oil for 1-2 minutes, making sure not to burn it. In the meantime, dice the onion and smash the garlic. Add them to the pot, turn the heat up to medium, and give everything a stir.
- Stir in the coconut milk and water (or chicken broth). Bring to a boil. While you’re waiting for that, dice the tomatoes and prep the potatoes. Add them both to the pot and season with salt, then add the sugar. Cover the lid and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through.
- Cut the chicken thighs into chunks and season with salt and pepper. Once the potatoes are cooked through, add the chicken to the pot and give everything a stir. Cover the lid and cook for 10 minutes. Adjust seasoning to taste, and serve with rice!
nutrition facts
I give this the highest rating I can give
::homer drool::
hahahaha…Thank you!
My husband and I have used this recipe so many times I’ve lost count.
Thanks for making such a flavorful dish so simple!
We substitute potatoes for sweet potatoes and coconut milk for coconut cream… delicious!
Lovely, Cali, nicely done!
Wait, so you add the chicken uncooked to the pot and it cooks for 10 minutes? That’s it? Wow, I never knew you could do that! I just wanted to make sure I was reading that right before I tried it and ended up giving everyone salmonella! ;)
Hi Carol,
I am Malaysian and I love curry. We usually use chicken with bones in to make curry and add it right after the spices are fried however, if you use breast meat only, it does get tough and overcooked if we put it in before the potatoes are cooked. Usually it takes 15-20 mins for whole chicken breasts to cook so it will be less when we use bite size chunks of chicken breast like in this recipe and Judy’s recipe said she closed the lid on her pot while cooking ( that helps to cook the chicken too). However, it’s always necessary to avoid Salmonella poisoning, so probably you can put it in for a longer time especially if you put the heat down to medium. If your curry is too dry, putting chicken breasts in on high heat also might burn it..so again, adjustment with lower heat and longer cook time is necessary. Hope that helps.
Hi Carol, yes, correct! Chicken breast cooks quickly and we don’t want to overcook it or dry it out.
Thank you for the recipe. It was very delicious and both of my picky girls loved it.
Hi Jamie, that’s so awesome!
Hello, this is my first post but have tried several of your recipes. I’m also a new guy when it comes to cooking, and eating this cuisine.
Once I started this recipe I started thinking it’s sounding a bit bland, we typically like hot spicy food. But to my surprise it was very flavorful, I’m already eyeing the left overs for lunch tomorrow.
So far I’m really enjoying this ride of flavor your taking us on.
Lately I find myself combing through tour archives to find new and different recipes for hours at a time. Thanks so much, please keep up the good work!
Love it, John! We have so many yummy recipes for you to explore. Happy wokking!
Im impressed with the ease of making this. I enjoyed it a lot, this was my 1st time making curry. I used sweet potatoes instead of reg, added ginger, yellow pepper and did chicken breasts. Added a bit of a minced red chili and upped the sugar to give that sweeter curry taste i enjoy at restaurants. However it does need a method to thicken it up as it was fairly liquidly. i added a touch of corn starch and that seemed to help. it did have a velvety texture which was nice. But need to figure out how to have a gravy texture one enjoys at restaurants.
Thanks
Hi Michael, try the recipe with potatoes next time, because the gravy texture largely comes from the starch in the potatoes. So glad you like the recipe.
Oh my gosh, this was absolutely delicious! Made it the other night and had leftovers tonight – just as good the second time around. I used sweet potatoes, as that was what I had on hand and it worked out well. Also used half garam masala because I had it on hand. Served with coconut rice and it was just phenomenal! What a great bog! I will definitely be following…
Yeahhhhh! Love it, Carolyn! You know curry always tastes better the second day.
Hi, I love your website and pretty much cook exclusively from it now! I usually follow your recipes exactly. But I would have to agree with some others on this one. The sauce initially turned out too bland and not enough curry flavor for me, so I added 2 cubes of the Japanese Golden Curry (hot). I also used unsweetened coconut cream instead of milk b/c that was all I had. It turned out great. Thanks for all of your wonderful recipes.
Hi Lisa, since chicken meat is more delicate, I thought to use slightly less curry. You have the right idea––add more when it’s not enough.
I thought it was very liquidy as well. But the flavors were nice. I love the cubes of Japanese curry what a great idea!! There is a very strong thickener in those cubes!
Hi Lisa, maybe you can use higher heat so more liquid can be cooked off throughout the cooking process. Or just use less liquid to begin with.
I made it but it seems to taste too much like coconut milk? Is that the norm?
Hi Karina, it shouldn’t taste too much like coconut milk once it’s cooked. There is a hint of coconut milk in the taste though.
Please send more delicious chicken recipes, thank you!
We’ll keep that request in mind, Silvia!