Slow Cooker Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk

Slow Cooker Chicken Curry is made with coconut milk, chicken breasts, an easy curry powder seasoning blend and sweet potatoes.  This Crock-Pot Indian curry is healthy, dairy-free, and gluten-free.  It makes a quick and easy weeknight dinner when served with rice.

Want a few other easy curry recipes?  You might also enjoy this Chickpea Curry, Salmon Curry, and Chicken Korma Curry

Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

This chicken curry recipe was first created a few years ago for our annual Christmas party and has since become a family (and reader!) favorite.

It’s super quick to put together.

Easy to meal prep ahead of time.

And tastes JUST as good as your favorite Indian restaurant’s yellow curry dish.

I’m being for realz here.

Not only is the Indian-style creamy sauce FULL of curry and coriander flavor…

It’s loaded with big chunks of sweet potatoes…

But it is also made with =coconut milk and WITHOUT any dairy or heavy cream!

Yup!  You can enjoy a big ole’ Crock-pot full of this soupy goodness without a lick of lactose guilt.

Ingredients

The ingredients you will need are relatively simple to find at your local grocery store and include:

• Chicken – One pound of chicken breasts are used in this recipe.  There is no need to pound them thin or tenderize them before cooking since the slow cooker does the work for you.
  • See the section below if you would like to make this into a vegan yellow curry.
• Coconut Milk – Two cans of full-fat and lite coconut milk were both tested in this recipe.  Using all full-fat milk will make the curry more creamy whereas two cans of lite milk will be lower in fat and calories but a bit runny.  You can also choose to use a combination of the two.
• Sweet Potatoes – Unlike a traditional yellow curry recipe, this one uses sweet potatoes instead of Russet or Idaho potatoes.  Feel free to substitute these orange beauties with their whiter cousins if that’s what you have on hand.
• Onion – A sweet onion was used to test this dish, but a white, yellow, or red onion can also be used.
• Garlic – Crushed garlic adds a nice flavor to the dish.  Garlic powder can also be substituted.
• Yellow Curry Seasoning – A blend of a few simple Indian spices make up the bulk of the flavor in this recipe.

Yellow Curry Seasoning

While you can technically buy the yellow curry paste at your local grocery store, I much prefer to blend up my own curry spices at home.

To make a curry seasoning mix you will need:

• Curry Powder – These come in mild, medium, and hot when bought in the bulk section at grocery stores.  Mild or medium is recommended for this recipe.
  • Most commercial brands, such as McCormick, are a mild heat.
• Turmeric Powder – Watch out for this one as it definitely stains white countertops!
• Coriander – Please don’t leave this one out.  It gives the dish a wonderful nuttiness.
• Sugar – Just a touch of white sugar is used to sweeten the sauce.  Feel free to leave it out if you are on a Whole30 or Paleo diet.
• Salt and Pepper – Adjust these according to your taste preferences.

Preparing the Potatoes

An important step when making this Crock-pot curry is how big or small you cut your potatoes.

If you like super soft sweet potatoes, you’ll want to cut the potatoes close to 1/2-inch cubes.

However, if you prefer your potatoes on the firmer side, 1-inch cubes will cook completely while still holding their shape.

No matter what size, you’ll definitely want to peel the sweet potatoes before adding them to the slow cooker.

If not, the peel will start to separate from the potato while cooking.

How to Make

This chicken curry is a quick and easy meal that you can prep ahead for busy weeks.

Here is an overview of the step-by-step instructions you will need to follow.

1. Pour all but 1 cup of coconut milk into the bottom of a 6-quart Crock-Pot.
2. Add butter, garlic, and seasoning ingredients.  Stir to combine.
3. Place chicken into the slow cooker.
4. Add sweet potatoes and onions.  Stir to combine.
5. Cover Crock-Pot with the lid and cook on High for 4-5 hours, or Low for 5-6 hours.
6. Shred the chicken using two forks during the last 30 minutes of cooking. (Step 1 above.)
7. Pour in remaining 1 cup of coconut milk.  Stir until well combined. (Steps 2 and 3 above.)

Instant Pot Chicken Curry

What if you don’t have 5 or 6 hours to kill and want to make a chicken curry in a hurry?

If you have a pressure cooker, you’ll want to check out this Instant Pot Yellow Chicken Curry recipe.

It’s super similar to this one, except it uses white potatoes and carrots instead of sweet potatoes.

But you can always sub sweet potatoes instead!

Serving

Once the chicken is tender and shredded, the potatoes are soft, you’ll want to stir the curry and let it sit in the Crock-Pot for at least 20 minutes before serving.

This additional time allows the coconut milk to come back together if it separated while cooking and thicken up.

What to serve with chicken curry?

Traditionally, curry dishes are served with a side of basmati rice in Indian restaurants.

You can either make this Instant Pot Basmati Rice or serve it with a side of traditional white or brown rice.

If you want to limit your carbs, it would also taste great with cauliflower rice.

Storing

Chicken curry is much like soups and stews in that it refrigerates and freezes exceptionally well.

In fact, I often find that curry tastes even better after a few days of the flavors melding together.

Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.

Freeze leftover yellow curry in a freezer-safe container for up to 4-6 months.

Vegetarian or Vegan Curry

A simple way to make this chicken curry fit for a vegetarian is to leave out the chicken and substitute it for 2 cans of drained chickpeas.

You can leave all of the other ingredients the same!

Need a Crock-Pot?

Slow cookers are an extremely affordable kitchen appliance that are well worth the space they take up in your kitchen.  They come in various sizes, but I would highly encourage you to get at least a 6-QT Crock-Pot.  This will give you plenty of room to make big batches of soup, stew or this coconut milk chicken curry.

Sometimes your slow cooker can be a bit of a hassle to clean-up.  If you want to save even more time, these Slow Cooker Liners can be thrown away after use.

Other Easy Curry Recipes

You might also enjoy these other healthy curry recipes:

Whole30 Butter Chicken Recipe

Thai Green Chicken Curry

Salmon Curry with Coconut Milk

Thai Yellow Chicken Curry