I adore this easy Indian Chicken Curry Recipe!
It's a complete weeknight dinner solution and so tasty.
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Usually, this Indian Chicken curry is ready within 25 minutes and it's flavorful, filling and so comforting at the same time!
Learn how to make this easy Indian chicken curry with the step by step video and recipe further below!
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It has been a while since I had posted an Indian chicken curry recipe here, and it was about time, don't you think?
I have to confess, I was playing around with ingredients and flavors for a while.
Understanding the different effects of spices is a challenge I enjoy, and I love preparing a deep, flavorful Indian chicken curry!
When I was introduced to spices the Indian way, I was overwhelmed by the number of different flavors and shocked that one could throw them all together in a pot.
I know my Indian friends will chuckle at the thought of my face turning red while eating a spicy hot dish, but a Westerner might understand my first reaction.
It took a few years and pure food love and I was a changed person.
In fact, I am pretty much alright with most Indian dishes as you can see (pun intended!)
One of the Indian dishes that helped me getting into Indian food was this quick and easy chicken Curry.
My mother in law was so kind to share this Indian Chicken Curry recipe with us and of course, her recipe is the best!
So, if you are a person who grew up with non-spicy food, then this Chicken Curry will surely be your next favorite.
Can chicken curry be frozen?
Yes, you can freeze this chicken curry easily by placing the curry with the chicken pieces into a freezer friendly container.
Then you just need to defrost the chicken curry and reheat it again on the stove top or microwave.
You will realize that it's easier to heat up again this chicken curry as the chicken is still on the bone and doesn't get that tough when reheated.
How long does it last in the fridge?
Chicken curry can last for about 5 days in the fridge, however, try to consume it before 3 days are over.
In fact, storing the chicken curry in the fridge and reheating it is beneficial because the chicken curry tends to gain more flavors when sitting in the fridge and being reheated.
Serving Ideas
Serve the chicken curry with plain cooked rice, lemon rice, cilantro rice or other aromatic spiced rice.
Or serve the chicken curry with flatbread such as chapati or any other bread.
Dear Reader, when are you planning to make this easy Indian chicken curry?
📖 Recipe
Easy Indian Chicken Curry Recipe
Ingredients
- 1-2 Tablespoon Oil
- 1 Onion sliced
- 1 Tomato diced
- 1 Tablespoon Ginger + Garlic *see Notes
- 1 pound Chicken Cut-Up aka chicken curry cuts, about ½ of a small Chicken
- 1 ½ cup Coconut Milk
- 1 cup Broth
- 3 Tablespoon Garam Masala
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- Salt to taste
- Juice of one Lime
- Cilantro Fresh aka Coriander greens
Instructions
- Add the oil to a cooking pot and heat up. Throw in the sliced onion. Stir fry for a minute or until the onion turns a bit translucent. Then add the Tomato and stir fry as well.
- Reduce the heat and add the ginger garlic and stir cook for a few seconds on low heat so that the contents of the pot get mixed up.
- Add your chicken pieces and stir fry for another 2-3 minutes.
- Pour in the Coconut milk.
- Add the garam masala and black pepper. Mix everything well.
- Cook on slow heat (slow so that it doesn't curdle) for about 15 minutes uncovered or until the curry has reduced and thickened and the chicken has cooked and the flavors have incorporated.
- Take off from the heat and add the juice of one lime into the curry before serving still hot.
- Garnish with cilantro.
- See below the recipe for serving suggestions.
Notes
- Use Ginger & Garlic Paste or finely chopped ginger + garlic (ratio of ⅓ ginger and ⅔ garlic). That way it will mix into the curry properly, emulsify and help thicken the curry.
Lovely mild creamy curry couldn't see on the steps when to add broth but it turned out fine
In srilanka we always use coconut milk, for every dish
I don't know about the india
But indian people use curd i think
U can use curd instead of coconut milk
Dula, this chicken curry is a coconut milk chicken curry version 🙂 and is based on Goan chicken curry recipes. Goa is a region in India.
Regarding Chicken or Fish curries 1. generally indians prize more the taste of the curry ( to go with rice or chappati ) rather than the taste and size of meat or fish.
2. Many people prefer to marinate the meat or fish with part of the massala- so that it permeates the pieces and then fry. Next the onions are stir fried (dorée), the remaining massala,, the fried meat or fish and finally coconut juice, all cooked under slow fire.
Would like to know your opinion in this regard.
True Carlos you are right,
Cooking a chicken curry in clay pots over a wooden fire is definitely the way to go for an authentic and flavor rich chicken curry.
However, this post is an easy one-pot Indian chicken curry. It's for all those, and mostly the hard working ladies, who are tight in time. All those people who have a full time job and a house and family to take care of. And nowadays it's a fact, 24 hours are not enough, so from scratch made dishes with real ingredients that take up less of our time and effort, are much welcomed in our society.
As a vegetarian, an obvious question I have is - Can I just replace Chicken with some vegetables and make this curry?
As a North Indian, coconut based curries are not a usual thing for us, we usually make onion tomato based curry with garam masala as the primary masala in it.
thank you for your question Anu,
Eventfully you could however, the ingredients would have needed to be changed. In that case you could make it with potato and cauliflower and peas or similar. And we would have to add more flavor by adding different spices and herbs such as fresh curry leaves and maybe a souring agent. Adding more flavor would be needed as chicken, and especially the bones, tend to harbor a lot of rich aromas which lend the curry the characteristic flavor print.
In that sense, I will make sure to share a coconut based veg curry soon. For now i can recommend the Drumstick pod (Moringa) vegetable curry and the sorak curry, which are both very goan coconut curries, if you want to try more coconut based curry cooking. 🙂
Wonderful recipe! I just love Indian food!
That is an easy peasy chicken curry. Perfect for a weekday meal.
I recently cooked for an Indian chef from her cookbook for a morning show demonstration, she was appalled at how complicated and heavy non-Indians make Indian food; this recipe presents Indian food with simplicity and full-flavours that it was meant to have. You are fortunate to have your MIL teach you to cook real Indian food.
I absolutely agree, it's gold worth that she taught me her food preparing habits. Also the credit goes to my sister in laws, they have a great hand for tasty food.
I think so there are two main different "Indian" foods. The Indian subcontinent food and the Indian food abroad, so to say the British/American etc Indian food. I think they call it Balti food. Already Indian food in India itself has many shades as each community has different food and cooking methods. But, the Indian food in the rest of the world can be rarely compared to what is there in India.
Balti food kind of developed from modified Punjabi cuisine, I think? It's often very rich in cream and butter and the spices are off half the time. I went to a Indian restaurant in Austria, in the alps. It was run by Indians. When they saw us coming they looked nervous as my husband had come along with me and it's obvious that he is Indian. Local Austrians had said how amazing this place was and how tasty the food was. The restaurant itself was full. We ordered butter chicken, nan and something else, which I can't recall now. It was horrible and tasted very off, one of my worst meals ever. I realized in fact it tasted a bit like Austrian food repackaged into Indian inspired flavors. It was really weird. So basically, Indian restaurants abroad figured that the only way to be profitable is to adapt to the local taste preferences. And that, apparently has been the norm and trend in most Indian food places in Europe in most probably world wide.
I love love love a good Indian chicken curry! It's the most ultimate comfort food and the fact that this is made in one pot makes this even better!
All your food appeals to me, but this one in particular...I'm forever ordering my Indian take-out "extra spicy" and it never lives up to my expectations...time to take matters into my own kitchen!
This looks so good!! I have just recently tried a curry recipe (never made it before) and my family loved it so now I am looking for more! Can't wait to try this one out! 🙂
I love Indian food and this chicken curry looks amazingly delicious!
Such a perfect one-pot weeknight meal! We don't eat curry nearly enough and I love how easily this one comes together. Yum!
Can I used water instead of coconut milk becoz i dont like milk
Sounds delicious... but one question... why on earth are you rinsing and drying chicken?
Hi there. I rinse the chicken for hygienic reasons and drying it a bit helps so that less liquid accumulates. You don't have to pat dry it but I find it easier to handle. You want to stir fry the chicken with as little liquids as possible but with the lemon juice marination. Hope that helps and let me know if something else is unclear.
Hi Helena your quick and easy Curry made with chicken is delicious, thanks a lot.X
Hi Norren, Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a short feedback. Very much appreciated and I am happy to hear of course that you enjoyed it. =) Take care!
You know I have never made a curry dish in any way. Hubby is allergic to turmeric, and he loves curry.....kinda a bummer. Your recipe looks so hearty and delicious! Perfect dish on these cool days here in the U.S. 🙂 Gorgeous, Hugs, Terra
I love curry, and especially quick and easy one! 😉 I usually make extra so that I can serve at least two days. 😀 (and no one minds as we all love curry!).
Simple and delicious curry, with no fuss ingredients -- i'm having a huge craving!!!
My grandmother introduced my to her curry ages ago, and it is one of my favorite spicy stews to make. Can't beat a quick and easy one Helene!
The curry looks so nice Helene. Simple and perfect. I love that you've used the bones too, I think, it's the best way to add flavor into curries.
For sure the bones give the dish a flavour depth which you won't get in a dish without. Thanks for your comment!
You had me at easy (and def at the coconut milk).
😛
This is the kind of dish I love discovering and making for my family. I have been making a quick and easy chicken curry I got off of Meeta's blog but now I'll try this one! Quick, easy and flavorful... my family will love it!
btw cannot pin this post 🙁 It doesn't work.
Let me know later on how they liked it Jamie! 🙂 about the pin thing... Did you try using the bottom pin button at the end of the post? Also try clearing your browser cache that should help. I have the same issue sometimes with other pages and I found that clearing the cache helped.
The curry looks scrumptious and it sounds perfect when in a jiffy.
Thank you, you will definitely enjoy this chicken curry
I love how quick this is! Definite win.
Complete time saver 🙂
just simply gorgeous and looks delicious
Thank you!
I love how quick and easy this recipe is Helene - it looks fabulous!
Thank you for your compliment Jeanette 🙂
We, Europeans, don't cook often enough with bones. I suppose because of the table manners issue... Impossible to eat a curry with bones in an elegant way but who cares if we are at home and have no guests 😉 It must taste wonderful! I keep your recipe and next time I'll try to leave the bones (I'll experiment with my cleaver) to see the difference in flavours.
I think it's for sure a difference in flavours Sissi. Honestly I have always been irked by the thought of cooking meat with bones (because of the small bones) but it's necessary to give the flavours to the curry dish. 🙂
That's a great looking curry, Helene and it doesn't require a lot of time or ingredients which makes it perfect for me! xx
I hope you will treasure the recipe as much as I do. It has saved me a couple of times 😉
I've seen so many recipes this week already using curry. I love curry but unfortunately my family doesn't. This looks wonderful. I am going to have to try this sometime when they aren't around.
You have me drooling here... chicken curry is close to my heart. 🙂
Give me a bowl of chicken curry and rice and I am all set. Comfort food at it's best! This curry looks so inviting and delicious!
Coconut milk in curry is not often done in my country although I know it is quite flavourful. Yours looks perfect.
Fantastic recipe. I love the ease of it and you totally had me with the short ingredients list. I'll be making this one very soon.
The gravy looks so good! I have some bread ready for that!
what beautiful colors and delicious flavors!
G'day! For a curry in a hurry Helene, you dish looks delish, true!
Wish I could have a taste of it right now too!
Cheers! Joanne
Funny you just posted this curry recipe. Just a couple of days ago we had a similar one with coconut milk at a local Indian restaurant. I know sometimes you just need to attend to life no worries we are here. Will be patiently waiting! 🙂
Great looking dish! I love any and all curries. Question, though: in the Ingredients you list lime, in Step 1 of the instructions you're using lemon. I assume lemon is the citrus to use? Anyway, really good recipe - thanks.
I've been looking for ideas for curry that John's dad can eat. Really spicy food leaves him eating antacid tablets. 🙂 This looks really good!
This curry looks sooooo good Helene....So simple, and yet delightful.