Indian Chicken Curry (Murgh Kari)
Chicken curry simmers in mouthwatering Indian spices and creamy coconut milk until it reaches a nearly luxurious thickness, coating each chunk of the moist chicken and vegetables. It’s creamy, comforting, and surprisingly easy to make — and all in one pan!
This chicken curry recipe includes two of my favorite homemade spice blends: curry powder and garam masala. When you make use of these curated spices, you really cut down on the ingredient list, measuring, and clean-up. It’s a real easy button that cuts down on prep time!
Chicken curry has all of the fan favorites: hearty potatoes, tender tomatoes, caramelized onions, and juicy chicken bites. They all spend plenty of time together in a thick sauce of tomato juices and coconut milk, soaking up those warm Indian herbs and spices with each passing minute. Watch me make it in the video below in the recipe card!
Table of Contents
Serve creamy, saucy Indian chicken curry with warm naan, steamed white rice, or anything else you can use to scoop up the rest of the sauce. You won’t want to waste a single drop!
Next time, try fruity mango curry chicken or paneer butter masala, which is my favorite vegetarian-friendly Indian dish!
Yogurt, coconut milk or tomatoes
While coconut milk is more typically used in south Indian curries, other types of curries, such as in North India, most typically use different bases like yogurt, tomatoes, or broth.
(Be sure to check the recipe card for a full list of ingredients and quantities)
- Chicken – Dark thigh meat is rich and tender — perfect for simmering in sauce!
- Ghee – This popular South Asian butter is heated to remove excess milk and liquid, leaving behind a fattier, richer butter. But regular butter does the job, too.
- Vegetables – My preferred veggies to add heartiness, bulk, and a bit of acidity to coconut chicken curry are red onion, white potatoes, frozen peas, and Roma tomatoes.
- Garlic & Ginger Paste – These are two very common and prominent flavors in Indian curries. Avoid powdered and use fresh whenever possible!
- Curry Powder – You’ll taste the turmeric, cumin, and cayenne right away, but there are plenty of other Indian spices in there that make this curry chicken so delicious!
- Garam Masala – With a name that translates to “warm spice mix,” it’s no surprise that garam masala includes many of the warm and “spicy” flavors found in chicken curry that aren’t found in other blends, including cloves, anise, nutmeg, and mace.
- Coconut Milk – This is where the creaminess comes from! Possible substitutes include heavy cream, Greek yogurt, and sour cream.
- Fenugreek Leaves – Gently crushing the leaves in your hands releases that characteristic, herbal curry aroma right into the curry chicken.
- Cook & Season the Vegetables. Add the ghee to a skillet and melt over medium heat. Add the onion to the skillet and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir the minced garlic and ginger paste in with the onions and cook for 1 minute. Now, add the tomatoes and curry powder, stir them in, and cook for a minute longer.
- Thicken the Sauce. Pour the coconut milk into the skillet and cook for 3 minutes. Keep the sauce thick and chunky as-is or use an immersion blender to puree until smooth. Salt to taste.
- Cook the Meat & Potatoes. Stir the meat and potatoes into the sauce, cover, and lower the heat. Simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add Remaining Ingredients. Add the green peas, fenugreek, and garam masala and stir. Cook for a few more minutes as the sauce reduces and thickens.
- Serve. Season the coconut chicken curry as desired and serve over rice, naan, or your bread of choice.
Recommended Tools
- Garlic Press – What’s stopping you from using freshly minced garlic in your homemade curries? Skip the “jarlic” and powdered stuff and start quickly mincing your own — I promise it’s worth it! And if you don’t have a garlic press, I use the side of my knife to smack it, and then mince. Super easy!
- Skillet with a Lid – When you’re shopping for a cast iron skillet, don’t skip the lid. It adds a level of control that will really fine-tune your cooking.
Storing and Reheating
Transfer leftover chicken curry to an airtight container, refrigerate, and eat within 4 days.
Reheat on the stovetop on medium heat, stirring until the vegetables and chicken are warmed through.
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There are two ways I like to thicken coconut chicken curry with potatoes.
The first method is to cook down the potatoes and stir until they start to break down and thicken the sauce.
The second method is to stir 1 or 2 tablespoons of instant mashed potatoes into the sauce. A little untraditional, but very effective!
Coconut cream, as you might expect, is basically a thicker, fattier version of coconut milk. It is not the same as cream of coconut, which is rather sweet.
Indian chicken curry made with coconut cream, therefore, is much thicker and fattier than that made with milk. It will really coat your tongue and become almost overwhelmingly rich. You can dilute it with a little milk if its fattiness is too much.
I typically get cans of coconut milk from Costco, works beautifully!
Absolutely! Indian chicken curry is fantastic for preparing in bulk, portioning, and freezing for easy meals for up to 3 months.
To freeze, let the cooked chicken curry cool to room temperature before storing in individual portions in plastic baggies or other airtight containers. Let thaw in the refrigerator overnight and reheat as described above.
Indian Chicken Curry (Murgh Kari)
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless chicken thighs cut into 2-inch size pieces
- 2 tbsp ghee or butter
- 1 1/2 cups red onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tbsp ginger paste
- 2 Roma tomatoes chopped
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 15 ounces coconut milk
- 2 cups white potato peeled and cut into 2-inch size pieces
- 1/2 cup frozen green peas
- 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
Instructions
- Melt ghee in large skillet over medium heat and cook onion until almost translucent. Stir through garlic and ginger paste, cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes and curry powder, stir and continue cooking for another minute.
- Add coconut milk and cook for 3 minutes. Either keep sauce thick and chunky or use an immersion blender to puree until smooth. Season to taste with salt.
- Add chicken and potatoes, stir through and cover. Lower heat to simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Remove lid, stir through green peas, fenugreek leaves and garam masala. Cook another few minutes, stirring to thicken sauce and reduce (See Note 1).
- Season to taste and serve over optional steamed rice and plenty of naan or bread of choice to sop of delicious curry sauce.
Video
Notes
- If curry sauce is too thin there are 2 things that can assist in thickening it. I stir the cooked potatoes that slightly start to break down and thicken the curry sauce or add 1 or 2 tablespoons of instant potatoes and stir through. It’s certainly not a traditional technique, but one that works every time.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
You are amazing thank you so much for this recipe ad all your efforts in making this article available to us. I tried making it in the similar way you have mentioned and it really out to be so yummy that I could not believe it was made by me.
So happy to read this and that you enjoyed it Supriya! Thanks for coming back to let me know. 🙂