Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken Curry
Yield 6
Easy, healthy and delicious Coconut Curry Chicken made in the Slow Cooker! Perfect for cooler fall weather coming up and busy schedules!
Ingredients
2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs (frozen tenders are okay). If using thawed, cut chicken into cubes.
5 large carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large bell pepper, seeded and chopped (I used a green pepper)
1 (5 oz ) can tomato paste
1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp garam masala
1 jalapeno, seeded and halved OR 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
Lightly spray your slow with Coconut Oil Cooking Spray or Pam. Place the chicken, carrots, sweet potato, bell pepper and onion on the bottom of slow cooker.
Place the tomato paste, coconut milk, garam marsala, curry powder, salt, and garlic cloves in a large food processor (or blendtec blender) and process together until mixture is smooth.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and carrots, mix well, then cover and cook on low for about 6-8 hours (may vary depending on your slow cooker). Cook until vegetables are tender and chicken is fully cooked through. Remove the chicken if you put whole tenders in, and shred it, then add back to the pot.
Serve over rice, with Naan, and garnish with cilantro (optional). Also good over cauliflower rice for a low carb option!
- if the sauce seems too runny, an hour or so before serving, you can mix a little cornstarch and water together in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved. Then pour mixture into the slow cooker, stir to combine, and continue cooking for another hour. **This will thicken up the sauce. When the sauce is to your desired thickness, turn slow cooker to warm setting until ready to serve.
- if the sauce seems to thick, pour a little more coconut milk in!
I have never tried curry! GASP! I will have to make this asap!
Sounds divine! Must try! Have you ever tried sweet potatoes instead of carrots in a curry? My husband is not a huge veggie eater and sometimes I add ones I know he will eat to things that I make. Anyway the sweet potatoes play off the spicy curry and is really interesting.
Do you use sweetened or unsweetened coconut milk
I have yet to try curry. Such a lame food blogger! We still need to get together!! Oh, and gorgeous photo!!
Making this tomorrow! Yum! Thanks!!:)
gorgeous photos! Sounds like an amazing recipe!
I love coconut curry! I definitely need to try this slow cooker version!
I’ve gotta make this. Thai food is a very favorite of mine and I always order a chicken and coconut variety.
Why on earth do I not have garam masala in my kitchen right now! Of to the store.
love that this is so easy!
i didn’t have thai or curry until i met my husband either 🙂
So glad you liked the curry and reposted it. It’s definitely a meal we keep coming back to as well. I love when situations like a closed burger joint lead you to discover something new.
Seriously Liz, that curry is soooo good! It’s going to become a regular!!
This is sooooo good! Thanks!
Is the garam masala a necessity? My local grocery did not have the spice.
Safeway carries it!
You can mix your own, it’s just a combination of a bunch of spices. http://indianfood.about.com/od/masalarecipes/r/garammasala.htm
Is the garam masala a necessity? My local grocery did not have this spice.
The garam masala is a key seasoning! I did a little searching for you and you might be able to make your own.
Mix these, then use a tbsp of it in place of the garam masala–I haven’t tried it but it might be worth trying:)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp crumbled bay leaves
1/8 tsp ground cloves
Thanks for posting this!!
I used this substitute, it worked great in place of garam masala!
I used this in place of garam masala and it came out great! Thanks for the recipe, this is definitely a keeper.
I just made this!! Well, I made some minor adjustments. The garam masala is definitely essential to this curry. Luckily, I had some on-hand as a Pakistani co-worker gave me some of her own one day.
The changes I made were:
I used chicken thighs and took the meat off the bone once it was cooked through and continued to let the curry cook.
I didn’t have a pepper on-hand so I added fresh green beans about 45 minutes before serving.
I used a mixture of hot and regular curry power.
I added basil leaves.
Instead of water I used chicken stock.
I just bought a slow cooker and this was the recipe I chose to kick-off my slow-cooker life. What a success! Thank you!
I added some dried coconut and craisins, which added a little sweet to the salty/spicy, delicious!!!
In my crock pot now…i only had one pound of chicken so I added mushrooms also….Let you know how it turns out! also no garam Marsala so I used the list above to make my own…
We had this for dinner tonight … my family consists of individuals from Vietnam, South Korea, and Kansas … and we all LOVED it!
This is in my slow cooker now and my house smells DIVINE! So excited to eat this tonight.
Thanks for this recipe. My wife and I enjoyed it. My kids, not so much.
Changes I made:
-whole chicken breasts on the bottom of the slow cooker, topped by a layer of sliced carrots (4), topped by a layer of chunked sweet potatoes (3), then 1 sliced bell pepper, then the coconut milk/spice mixture over that. Six hours later–no stirring–the chicken came apart very easily, while all the other vegetables remained chunky.
-added basil leaves
-added cashews and raisins when serving
-I did not need to use water/corn starch to thicken
Single guy tired of getting take out all the time. I’ve been experimenting with various crock pot recipes recently and this is the first one I really REALLY like.
Thanks!
I really WANTED to like this recipe, but the sauce really did not turn out well at all. After being in the slow cooker for a few hours, I realized how ’empty’ the sauce tasted. It was seriously lacking. I ended up adding a dollop of curry paste (green), fish sauce, tumeric, and ginger. Since I was having guests over for dinner, I paniced and just started throwing things in to taste to try to save the dish. So I really wasn’t paying close attention to the measurements. Not sure why I had such a drastic difference in results as others, but I would suggest the next person to experiment more with other ingredients.
I just made this and I agree, it is lacking flavor. I was expecting big flavor with the spices called for in this recipe. Now I’m stuck with a tasteless dinner to serve my picky husband. I won’t make this again.
Sorry it didn’t turn out to your liking! It was flavorful to us! Thanks for the feedback though.
I made this and it turned out great!!! I was nervous that my grocery store (Harris Teeter) wouldn’t have all the ingredients, but they did!
This was one of the recipes included in the chicken round up I did for Nikki at Chef In Training and it was the first one I wanted to try! Soooooooo good!!! And it made so many delicious leftovers! I think I ate it for three meals in a row and I was seriously bummed when there was no more. Thank you!! 🙂
Thanks Lisa! I’m so glad you liked it! And thanks for including me in the round-up:)
Sweetened or unsweetened coconut milk
Unsweetened!
I cooked this for dinner and it was great! I will definitely add this to my dinner list.
So glad you liked it! Thanks for stopping by to tell me!
Hi! I accidentally added the water and cornstarch to the food processor along with the rest of the ingredients. It is now in the crock pot and I just wanted to know how bad of a mistake I made. Will I have to start over? Thank you!
I don’t think youll have to start over. If it seems too thick, add a little water!
I have made this SOOO many times and I LOVE it! You are an angel in my home for providing me and my family with our most favorite dish! We seriously have eaten it 4 times in the last month.
Would you mind if I share your awesomeness on my blog with this recipe and a few things I have discovered with it and of course, with a linky link sending traffic your way? Let me know. And Kristy a big thanks to you from me, my hubbs and my 2 yr old. Yes! She loves it too!
and I would love for you to follow me too!
I’m so glad you guys like it Tiara! Thanks for stopping by to tell me!!
Tasty & ideal for intentional leftovers. (I like to cook extras in the crock pot to stretch time, money, cooking & cleaning.) Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I used 3 lbs of chicken & a few extra carrots but no more liquid or spice than described. In total, I’ll get 8 generous adult servings from this crock pot: 4 fresh servings with naan & I’ve frozen down 4 servings for a quick pan heat up later (likely that the second round will get served with rice since I always have that in stock & naan is a bit of a grocery store treat). If the freezer container looks thin when ready to eat, I’ll add drained chick peas from a can to stretch it out.
Next time: I’d maybe consider adding a big handful of frozen peas when I open up the crock pot to add the corn starch just for color & a bit of extra nutrients.
Overall: I liked it. Maybe I’d consider it more of an Indian influence — as opposed to Thai — but possibly that’s just my previous taste experience. Either way, it had a really good taste & we’ll be eating again for sure.
I did in fact made my version of this using Indian yellow curry and added plent of vegetables – eggplant and green beans in addition to carrots and 1 green bell pepper. Here is what I did with the sauce: I chopped up a couple of wedges of onions, diced ginger and garlic, and sauteed them with 1 tspn olive oil. Then added the coconut milk, garam masala, 2 tablespoons of indian curry, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce and 1 tspn of crushed red pepper. Poured this over the chicken and carrots, set on high for 6 hours, then added the other veggies after 3 hours (this is to ensure they don’t become mushy and are left whole with the right tenderness). Left to cook again the rest of the 3 hours and voila! an amazing crockpot of delicious curried chicken and veggies.
A couple questions. #1) Has anyone tried this recipe with light coconut milk? #2) Do you think it will be ok to cook on low for 8 hours?
I am planning on making this recipe on Tuesday. Do I cook it all for 6 hours THEN throw in the cornstarch mixture and cook an additional hour? So the whole thing cooks for 7 total hours, or stop at 5 hours to add the mixture? I just dont want to overcook and mess anything up! I am REALLY excited to try this! Thanks!
Add the mixture after about 5 hours of cooking then cook for another hour (or two)!
I tried it with the light cocunut milk and it just turned out great! I also added fresh basil and extra carrots. The carrots were the best!
How would you add pineapple to this dish?
I’d just add it in to the crock pot from the beginning!
OH MY GOD!!!! This is the best thing I’ve ever made. It’s SO freaking good!!
I added a few things…
I used 1.44 lbs of chicken just because that’s how much came in the organic chicken package I found. I added three small potatoes, hella extra garlic (about 8-10 cloves instead of 2), extra salt, fresh basil, fresh ginger, fresh cilantro, and several tablespoons of grapeseed oil (not to be confused with rapeseed/canola oil). I used half a tablespoon of arrowroot powder in place of cornstarch.
I’m so happy! Thank you!
Oh one more thing. I used a can of Trader Joe’s Light Coconut Milk. Not because I wanted light, but rather because this was the only coconut milk I could find that didn’t contain guar gum or any other additive. (I also looked at Whole Foods and Sprouts, and this was the only one I could find without additives.) If anyone knows of a good coconut milk with nothing added, preferably in a glass container, please let me know!
I should add that there is definitely no shortage of flavor as a result of the light coconut milk, possibly because I added grapeseed oil, but it does feel silly to be paying for watered down coconut milk! 🙂
Just made a good meal of this curry. It was FANTASTIC. I did change some things though.
Only used 2.5 huge carrots as five seems like too many.
Added 1 extra clove of garlic midway
Ommited bell peppers (hate them)
Added extra tsp of curry powder midway for no particular reason
Amazing! My husband and I love curry and this was great! Made it last week and he has already requested it again for next week! I think I may lover the red pepper flakes next time though, it was spicyyy! Definitely going into rotation in my kitchen! Thank you!
Lower*
This is a GREAT starter dish for people who have never made an Indian dish. Good traditional flavors and ingredients and wonderfully fast for the week (crock pot curry?! yes please)
For those who have made a curry or Indian dish before, you may find the dish lacking. Look at the comments for additives and you will not be disappointed.
So glad I stumbled upon this.
I am going to make this but i have a dumb question . There are different curry’s & my wife can’t take spicy so what curry do i use ?
thanks, so much .
This recipe was absolutely fantastic! I loved it so much I posted a link to it on my blog. I used only 1/2 tsp of the red pepper flakes since my little one does not like spice and it was perfect.
I will definitely be making this again and will be doubling the amount of chicken next time so we have some left-overs.
I just made this tonight – amazing! Everyone loved it!
For my first time making an Indian dish, i think that i did an awesome job. This was amazing and i’ll def make it again now.
It’s 8:30 PM and I just threw this all in the crockpot and put it in my fridge to be ready to just pop into the heating unit and turned on low tomorrow morning!! I read other reviews that this is a bit bland so I changed several things to suit our tastes. I used cubed chicken thighs, chopped my bell pepper instead of blending it, I also used a red bell pepper because they are sweeter. I rough chopped a small onion to add to the curry and used a small one blended with the coconut milk. Because I had other spices from previous curries I have tried (never one in a crockpot yet!) I decided to throw that in there too! So I used 2 tablespoons of oriental curry powder, 1 tsp grnd coriander, 1tsp grnd turmeric, 1tsp grnd cumin. I didn’t have garam masala and my commissary doesn’t carry it so I left it out. The oriental curry had all the spices listed that is in a garam masala and more so I figured that was good…. :/ . I added a few splashes of fish sauce since I had that, and a tablespoon of red curry paste because I had that laying around too.I plan to add some frozen peas during the last 30 minutes of cooking, and possibly a can of drained chick peas to stretch the meal even further, but we like our curry saucy so I haven’t decided yet… Can you tell I like ALOT of build of flavor?? Lol I am soooooo excited to pop this in and just have to turn it on
Low tomorrow morning!! A super easy dinner!! I’ll report back with how it turned out because we LOVE curries and try a new one almost once a week in the last few months. Thank you so much for this recipe !!
I’d love to hear how you like it, especially with your changes!! Good luck!
I made this recipe and it is absolutely amazing… i just started a blog and if you give me permission, i would love to post this on my blog using the pictures that i took myself and everything else will be credited to you.
I’m looking forward to making this! One question though; what size crockpot did you use? I live alone and have a medium sized crockpot – I don’t want to overfill it. Before my new (current) crockpot, I had a very small 2 qt crockpot, so I’m not yet able to accurately gauge volume by ingredients! 🙂 Thanks in advance for your reply!
I used a 6qt!
Is this recipe really spicy? I tried a different one and t was way to hot
No, it’s not too spicy! I’m kind of a whimp with spicy stuff and I don’t think it’s too hot!
Hi! I made this tonight and it’s delicious, however the onion seems to be really overwhelming. Thanks for the great recipe though! 🙂
Hey! I had forgotten to come back and report back how the curry turned out… It was AMAZING!! We made a huge crockpot full and my husband and I ate allllll of it in a few days! I served it with jasmine rice and it went perfectly. I know I made a lot of changes to the recipe, but thank you so much for the base recipe! It was the best curry I’ve ever had!
Wow, just made this last night and it’s delicious. I was worried after seeing some of the comments suggesting it was bland. But I did not have that problem at all. It’s got a nice kick to it. I let it cook for about 12 hours though because I left the slow cooker on overnight, so maybe that boiled off some of the water and concentrated the flavors? I also used lite coconut milk because that’s all we had. Tastes great. Can’t wait for dinner.
Thank you! This is by far the most amazing crock pot recipe I have ever made. I used whole bone in Thighs without the skin and a whole Jalepeno that had turned red- extra spicy. I added a sweet potato cut up and a can of chick peas. Unreal!
mine turned out so blend, and just not enough flavour. i actually tried to figure out how to fix it and dont know..i love curry and this recipe seemed easy to make but turned out not good for me
Interesting, some others thought it was too spicy! But it was just fine for my family!
I made everything this morning, and the sauce tasted fantastic! Now, though, it has a very bitter aftertaste. I did add the green pepper into the sauce. Maybe that’s the problem? Any suggestions for how to remedy this prior to dinner? I was thinking a bit of sugar, but not sure… Thanks for the great recipe! Smells delicious!
One thing I always do with my curries is add at least a tbsp of brown sugar. If it ends up too sweet, add a splash of vinegar. It helps alleviate bitterness and add extra flavor. Good luck!
This turned out great, however I did find it a bit bland so I doubled the spices at the end of the cooking time to kick it up a notch. I also added a bit of garlic powder and salt at the end as well. Hubby and I loved it! Will definitely make this again.
Hi I am just wondering if there is any nutritional Info on this dish?
Thanks
I just want to say, I have this in the crock pot, it’s 10:30am, dinner is done just add a salad, it smells good and I feel like pretty dang happy!
I made this tonight and it was fantastic!!
I’m so excited to try this, but I was wondering if there is a good substitute for the coconut milk? Like chicken stock or something? My husband hates coconut, but he loves curry. Thanks!
You can probably just do regular milk or chicken stock (the stock just won’t be as creamy)!
Thanks for the suggestion! I made it for dinner tonight with regular milk. It was delicious! My whole family loved it, including my 4 year old who said repeatedly, “I just can’t stop eating this awesome chicken!”
I don’t understand the comments saying it was bland. We eat a lot of pretty spicy food, so I was prepared to add more spices once it was cooked. But I thought this was very flavorful as is!
So glad they liked it!!
This is a longshot as I need an instant answer – but can you do this on the stove top instead of the crockpot? Time got away from me this morning and afternoon…
Yes you can do stovetop!
I didn’t realize it needs to cook for 6 hours. Can I cook on high for 4 instead?
Yes you should have been able to!!
Can this recipe be used for a 2.5 quart crock pot?
I would use a 6 qt crock pot!
Fantastic recipe! This is definitely among my favorite coconut curry recipes I have tried thus far. I substituted eggplant for the green pepper, as I had none in the house. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Mike!
This curry is amazing! I also added some butternut squash with the carrots and it was great! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
I’ve made this twice and love it! The first time I used tikka masala because I couldn’t find garam masala in the grocery store – that added great flavor and quite a bit of spice! The second time, I was able to find garam masala and loved it that way, too! I served it over coconut rice and it was a great match. Such an easy, flavorful, and healthy recipe. Thanks!
I made this for a cooking competition at my husbands place of employment and took home 1st prize! We love this recipe and use it often. I think it has great flavor and is not very spicy at all. Thanks so much for sharing!
Awesome!!
How essential is the corn starch?
I’ve been making this for a year now and love it! My boyfriend, who is obsessed with curry, requests this regularly. I use 3/4 T tikka masala and 1/4 T garam masala to kick up the spice and flavor and it was amazing! Thank you for this great recipe!
Can I put the slow cooker on high to decrease the wait time?
Yes!!
I was just wondering – has anyone tried this as a freezer meal? (Prepping the meal, and putting it in a ziplock bag in the freezer to cook later) Thanks 🙂
This was my first attempt at making chicken curry and I have to say it was delicious and SUPER easy to make! Tons of flavor and took less than 15 minutes to put together! Thanks for the recipe!
YOu’re welcome!! Thanks so much for letting me know you loved it!
I’m going to try cooking this tomorrow when i’m at work. I was wondering if I need to cook the chicken before putting in my slow cooker?
Nope, you don’t need to cook it first!! Let the slow cooker do the cooking 🙂
By husband and I have been looking for a great curry recipe and finally we found it!! Made it over the weekend and even my Sicilian father LOVED It!!
So glad you liked it!!
Can you add ground ginger as well? If so how much? Also, can you double the spices to 2 tbsp instead of one?
I tried this today. I haven’t ate a lot of curry, but isn’t the sauce supposed to be yellow/tan in color? Mine came out more reddish orange. But maybe since i used a red bell pepper instead of green?? Anyway it was really good, but i didn’t taste the curry very strongly. I did make a few changes. I used a red bell pepper instead of green. I did put the onion and bell pepper in the food processor and puree it. Sweet potatoes instead of carrots. Added some peas at the end. Doubled the spices to 2 tbsp. of garam masala and curry, and even threw in some extra curry at the end, didn’t measure it so I can’t tell you how much. Also, somebody mentioned adding brown sugar. When i tasted it at the end it did seem like it could be a little sweeter so I did add light brown sugar, again I didn’t measure, just shook some in. Let me tell you, the brown sugar was the key! It tasted sooo good with the sugar! Also, for some odd reason I didn’t add the corn starch because it was actually thick enough. I will definitely make again. I can’t wait to heat up the leftovers tomorrow!
Awesome!! Glad you were able to add your own twist to make it good!
This is my family’s favorite meal.. I make it about once a week 🙂
I’m on Whole30 right now and was searching for a curry recipe. Stumbled upon yours and tried it out. So good!! Thank you!! 🙂
So glad you liked it!
This was really good! I can’t imagine anyone thinking it’s bland. My only changes were using boneless skinless thighs, a bit less salt, twice the garlic and adding potatoes. I also used baby carrots and light coconut milk because that’s what I had. I may use a bit more spice next time…but if I don’t remember it won’t be a big deal because this is great. Thanks!
Thanks so much Alice!!
This curry meals is too good, It shows how delicious the food can be, great 🙂
Its healthy than ever think..this curry looks awesome as well too..
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