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:
(Very) short list of ingredients
Curry powder is the only spice you need
Creamy curry sauce with mild coconut flavour
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.
Curry powder – the only spice you need! Any brand is fine here.
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.
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.
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!!
Peas – optional! Try other diced veg!
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:
Satay Chicken Curry – basically it’s chicken satay skewers in curry form, with loads of peanut sauce!
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:
Other proteins or vegetarian – make this with beef, lamb, pork, turkey, shrimp/prawns, fish or vegetarian. See directions in the recipe notes;
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;
Make it richer – use coconut cream instead of milk. Or use more coconut milk and simmer to reduce for longer; and
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
Slow Cooked Chicken Stew and a faster Chicken Stew (Casserole) – on the table in under an hour!
The Curry collection
Thai Red Curry or Green Curry – quick 30 minutes, or from scratch
Massaman Curry and Beef Rendang – two of the most iconic curries in the world
Biryani – the BEST chicken and rice in the world
Dal – Indian lentil curry
Goan Fish Curry – an authentic, spicy fish curry with coconut from the south of India
Indian Coconut Curry sauce – A stronger, more heavily spiced coconut curry sauce than this recipe
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!!!
Great quick curry. I followed exactly except for 2 things: 1) Revised quantities so I could use a whole can of coconut milk, and 2) Added a bit of cayenne.
It was tasty and hit the spot. Chicken thigh is definitely the right meat to use as it stands up to simmering. The fact it was soupy worked in our favour as tomorrow night I’ll be extending the leftovers with some lightly steamed additional veg and we will have another easy meal.
I followed the recipe apart from using 600g of skinned and boned chicken drumstick.
Very easy to make and great flavour. Everyone enjoyed it. More of a Chinese curry than an Indian but no complaints.
fave in our family. I don’t add the full amount of stock or coconut milk and add chick peas, grape tomatoes and baby spinach to boost the veggie content. Yum
The gang up the Ottawa Valley, aka “Up the line” had a pot luck for Canada Day. I’ve been keeping this recipe in my pocket for a few weeks.
I changed the amount to 14 people but cut the broth in half so I could thin if necessary.But I only used a bit.as I like it thick. It was served with naan bread. Another winner! We love you “Eh” !
This was great, only issue is what does it mean to “fry off chicken” I didn’t know so I politely ignored it 😂. Thank you for the easy recipe, I appreciate you very much!
Made this and needed major adjusting – used 2kg of chicken so thought I’d double rest of ingredients. I believe it should be 2.5 teaspoons of curry powder, not tablespoons – and I really like spicy food.. had to drain a lot of liquid and add much more coconut milk.
Easy, quick, flavour++, no exotic ingredients needed. Yum!
I love this dish. Made it a number of times as per your recipe Nagi. Always a winner! Quick, simple, and so delicious. Thank you again.
This is my quick comfort food go to dish. SO easy, yet so incredibly delicious.
Making a chicken curry? If you want the sauce to be thicker, instead of adding corn flour, try adding a few spoons of almond meal. The Indians do this often.
Delicious and so easy.
I made this last night with left over bbq chicken and added mushrooms.
We are free camping and this went down a treat.
I was looking for something simple to use some defrosted chicken thigh.
For the 15 month old, I added an egg plant, a carrot, and a tin of chickpeas.
She inialated it. Very tasty and simple.
Made this today. I used chicken breast as my hubby does not like dark meat (he’s a weirdo). Even my picky kid ate it all. Really good. Thanks.
Really enjoyed this, only thing I added (as I had some frozen), was about 1/3 can of the Maesri green curry paste.
Will definitely make again.
Easy and delicious as are all your recipes
Fabulous! Cooked EXACTLY as per recipe.
Our family dining experience has improved dramatically since finding your website. Thank you Nagi ♡
Delicious! I added some halved baby potato’s and fried them off with the chicken and the curry powder and it thickened the sauce up lovely and it was so tasty!
This was a great emergency dinner recipe. It was so simple and tasty- exceeded my expectations.
Oh and your dog is gorgeous
I’d love to see a one-pot version of this recipe where you dump the rice into the pot for 15 mins, come back and it’s all done 🙂
This recipe IS very ‘saucy’ but that’s a plus – I add finely diced vegies to go with the peas to make a whole meal, and then serve with either rice or mashed potato. I cook almost exclusively Nagi recipes, and while this one is very simple compared to all the great curries with a gazillion spices and ingredients, it is a GEM as it’s quick and easy and relatively few ingredients. You can up the curry to more spicy, or tone it down. Anyone who wasn’t impressed with it – give it another go as its the most fantastic recipe for something relatively quick that tastes great, and copes with the addition of more vegies. Five stars from me – I’ve made it a LOT. Love you Nagi (and Dozer xx) – our cooking and eating lives were enhanced ten fold when we discovered you this year! (but we’re all too FAT – your fault Nagi *wink*)