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Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka-Style Curry

Chicken thighs slow cooked in a spiced tomato sauce and finished with coconut milk. Twenty minutes in the morning, a curry waiting at night.

By Camille McLaughlin, RDN, LD, registered dietitian nutritionist

Built forDairy-FreeDinner
Also fits Low-Carb Paleo Whole30
Chicken thighs go into spiced tomato and come out hours later falling apart at the touch of a spoon. Onion, garlic, and ginger melt away into the sauce entirely, coconut milk stirred in at the end turns it gold and glossy, and cinnamon and cloves sit underneath without ever announcing themselves.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe

There is a particular kind of weeknight where you want something that tastes like it took real effort, and you have none left to give. This is that dinner. Twenty minutes in the morning gets the pot loaded, and by evening the whole house smells like a restaurant you would otherwise have had to drive to. Thighs are the cut to use, since breast meat dries into strings over eight hours where thighs only get softer.

Chicken thighs are the cut for this and it is worth being stubborn about. They carry enough fat through the muscle to stay tender across six hours, where breast meat goes dry and stringy somewhere around hour three. The sauce builds itself out of crushed tomatoes and tomato paste, and the spices go in as individual jars rather than as one blend, which means you can push any single one of them up or down to taste.

The sauce is what people come back for. It thickens on its own as the tomatoes cook down, and the coconut milk stirred in at the end takes the sharp edge off and leaves it glossy. Stirring it in at the end rather than the start matters, since coconut milk left to cook for eight hours separates into oil and grit. I spoon the sauce over cauliflower rice, my husband wants it over basmati, and either way there is usually an argument about who gets the last of it.

A deep bowl of chicken curry in a thick red-orange sauce, chopped cilantro scattered over the top, a lemon wedge and a small dish of rice alongside. Save
Prep: 20 minsCook: 6 hrTotal: 6 hr 20 minMakes: 6 servingsServing: about 1 cup curry with sauce

Ingredients

Serves6Amounts change with the number. The nutrition panel is per serving, so it stays the same.
  • 2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
  • 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
  • 1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 3/4 cup canned full-fat coconut milk
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
  • 2 tsp sweet paprika
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, for serving

Instructions

  1. Mix the spices: In a small bowl, stir together the cumin, coriander, turmeric, paprika, cinnamon, cloves, cayenne, salt, and black pepper. Doing this first means you are not measuring nine jars over an open slow cooker at six in the morning.
  2. Build the base: Scatter the sliced onion, minced garlic and grated ginger across the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste and stir them together right in the pot until the paste is broken up.
  3. Add the chicken: Lay the chicken thighs on top of the tomato mixture in a single layer if they fit, then sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over the meat. Turn the thighs once or twice so both sides pick up seasoning.
  4. Cook it low: Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Leave the lid alone, since every look costs you real heat that a slow cooker is slow to get back. The chicken is ready when a fork pulls it apart with no resistance.
  5. Shred and finish: Pull the thighs apart with two forks right in the pot, or lift them out, cut them into large chunks and return them. Stir in the coconut milk and let everything sit on warm for 10 minutes so the sauce comes back up to temperature and thickens slightly.
  6. Brighten and serve: Stir in the lemon juice, taste, and add more salt only if it needs it. Scatter the chopped cilantro over the top and serve.
Nutrition Facts
6 servings per recipe
Serving sizeabout 1 cup curry with sauce
Calories367
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 21g27%
Saturated Fat 11g53%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 147mg49%
Sodium 490mg21%
Total Carbohydrate 13g5%
Dietary Fiber 4g14%
Total Sugars 6g
Includes 0g Added Sugars 0%
Protein 33g
Vitamin D 0.1mcg1%
Calcium 74mg6%
Iron 4.5mg25%
Potassium 725mg15%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Values are computed from USDA FoodData Central and are estimates. Per serving (about 1 cup curry with sauce).

Variations

  • Instant Pot: Cook on high pressure for 12 minutes with a natural release of 10, then shred, stir in the coconut milk and let it sit on saute for 2 minutes.
  • With chickpeas: Add a drained 15-ounce can of chickpeas along with the tomatoes. They hold their shape over the long cook and stretch the pot to eight servings.
  • Spinach at the end: Stir 4 cups of fresh spinach in with the coconut milk. It wilts down in about 5 minutes on warm and adds color without changing the flavor much.
  • Lamb instead: Boneless lamb shoulder cut into 2-inch pieces works on the same timing and gives you something closer to a rogan josh.
  • Deeper color: Add an extra half teaspoon of turmeric and an extra teaspoon of paprika. Neither changes the heat, and together they take the sauce from red-orange to a deeper brick color.

Storage & Leftovers

Cooled leftovers keep in the refrigerator for 4 days in a covered container. Keep the chicken in its sauce rather than draining it, since the sauce is what keeps the meat from drying out. Reheat gently in a covered pan over medium-low, stirring now and then, and add a splash of water if it has tightened up overnight.

It freezes well for up to 3 months. Portion the curry and its sauce into flat freezer bags, press the air out and freeze them lying flat so they thaw quickly. Coconut milk can look slightly grainy coming out of the freezer, which sorts itself out as soon as you stir it over gentle heat.

The flavor is better on the second day than the first, which makes this a good thing to cook on a Sunday. The spices settle into the sauce overnight and the whole pot tastes more like one thing and less like a list of ingredients.

Notes & Tips

A few notes from my kitchen. The two things that make the difference here are mixing the spices ahead so the morning is easy, and holding the coconut milk back until the very end so the sauce stays glossy.
  • Mix the spices the night before: Nine jars is a lot to open at six in the morning. Stir the blend together in a small jar the night before and the morning is down to loading the pot.
  • Slice the onion, do not chop it: Slices soften into strands that disappear into the sauce. Chopped onion stays as recognizable pieces, which is not wrong but is a different dish.
  • Do not add water: Between the chicken, the onion and the tomatoes there is plenty of liquid, and a sealed slow cooker loses almost none to evaporation. Adding water gives you soup.
  • Use full-fat coconut milk: The light version is mostly water and will leave the sauce thin. One can of the full-fat kind goes a long way, and you only need three quarters of a cup here.
  • Taste before you salt: The tomatoes and the long cook concentrate everything, so the pot is often seasoned enough as it stands. Taste after the coconut milk goes in, not before.
  • Fork test, not clock test: Slow cookers run hotter or cooler than each other by a wide margin. The chicken is done when it gives way under a fork, whatever the timer says.

Nutrition & Mindful Eating

This curry is built to taste warm, tangy and deeply spiced, with dark meat chicken that falls apart and a tomato sauce that thickens on its own over a long, slow cook.
  • The thighs, the tomatoes and the coconut milk are each doing a different job. The chicken gives the curry its body, the tomatoes give it the tang that keeps it from going flat, and the coconut milk rounds the edges off both.
  • Dark meat chicken is what makes this taste like a curry rather than a tomato sauce with chicken in it. It carries more iron and zinc than breast meat does, and its fat is the reason the meat is still tender after six hours in the pot.
  • Crushed tomatoes and tomato paste cooking down for hours are where the deep color and the concentrated flavor come from, and tomatoes that have been cooked this long give up their lycopene more readily than raw ones do.
  • Cumin, coriander, turmeric and paprika build the warmth you taste first, and the cinnamon and the small amount of cloves sitting underneath them are what give the sauce a sweetness you cannot quite name.
  • Coconut milk brings the fat that slows the whole meal down, which is why a bowl of this holds you through the evening instead of sending you back into the kitchen at nine.
  • As you eat, notice the warmth of the spices before the heat arrives, and give yourself long enough at the table to taste the difference between the first bite and the last.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use chicken breast instead?

You can, but shorten the cook to about 4 hours on low and expect a drier result. Thighs are forgiving in a slow cooker and breast meat is not, because there is very little fat in it to protect the muscle over a long cook.

Why add the coconut milk at the end instead of the beginning?

Coconut milk that cooks for six hours can separate and go thin. Stirring it in at the end keeps the sauce glossy and gives you the round, creamy finish you are after, and it only needs 10 minutes on warm to come together.

Is the sauce supposed to be this thin before I shred?

Yes. Chicken releases a surprising amount of liquid into a slow cooker, and none of it evaporates under a sealed lid. It tightens once you stir in the coconut milk and let it sit, and it tightens further overnight.

Can I make it less spicy?

Leave the cayenne out entirely. Everything else in the spice mixture is warm rather than hot, so the curry will still taste fully seasoned. You can also go the other way and take the cayenne to half a teaspoon.