Warm curry flavors and coconut milk add flavor and moisture to lean chicken breasts to make this Slow Cooker Chicken Curry recipe a delicious one-pot dish.
In this Post: Everything you need for Slow Cooker Chicken Curry
When it comes to preparing moist and delicious dishes using lean chicken breasts, I’ve learned that the slow cooker is your friend! By locking in the moisture and cooking the meat slowly, you always end up with tender and juicy chicken without relying on fat, oil, or extra calories from the skin. My Slow Cooker Chicken Curry is a family favorite, as it’s mild enough for anyone to enjoy! It’s also extremely versatile, so you can change it up to be whatever you like!
Ingredients
- Chicken breasts: While I prefer lean chicken breasts you can use Chicken thighs or any type of dark meat. The darker meats will boost the flavor!
- Onion: White onion will add great, strong flavor without adding more sweetness.
- Sweet potatoes: Mild and sweet, they make the curry filling and hearty.
- Chickpeas: A great source of protein, and makes the curry more hearty and filling.
- Coconut milk: A staple in many curries, it adds sweetness to balance out the savory and sometimes spicy flavor.
- Chicken stock: While you can also use veggie stock, I think chicken stock adds the best flavor to curry.
- Tomato sauce: Slightly sweet and slightly acidic, you could also use crushed or diced tomatoes if you want your curry more chunky.
- Curry powder: Different brands have different blends, but it usually consists of cumin, turmeric, ginger, and pepper, but they all add a delicious warmth.
- Green peas: Added towards the end of cooking, they don’t soften too much to add a great pop as well as fiber and antioxidants.
- Lemon juice: Bright, acidic flavor that adds freshness to the curry.
How to Make Slow Cooker Chicken Curry
Start your Slow Cooker Chicken Curry by peeling and chopping up your sweet potatoes, and dicing your onion.
Then add the sweet potato to the bowl of your slow cooker.
Followed by the diced onion.
Then drain and rinse your chickpeas, and add them to the pot.
Next pour in the full-fat coconut milk.
And your chicken or veggie stock.
And the tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes.
Next add the curry powder and cayenne.
Then place your raw chicken breasts and season with some salt and pepper.
Using a large spoon or tongs, gently stir until mixed and chicken is coated. Then cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8.
During the last couple minutes, add the frozen peas until warmed through and the lemon juice. Then serve over rice, garnish with fresh scallions or cilantro, and enjoy your Slow Cooker Chicken Curry!
Easy substitutions
- Swap the potatoes: If you aren’t a fan of sweet potatoes, use regular or try something new like Brussels sprouts.
- Make it vegetarian: Swap the chicken out for extra veggies, or follow the recipe for my vegetarian curry.
Frequently asked questions:
Can you put raw chicken in a slow cooker?
Yes you can! And you can even start with frozen breasts, not needing to thaw them ahead of time.
Will coconut milk curdle in slow cooker?
As long as you use a good quality brand, you shouldn’t have to worry about curdling.
Can I make this curry in a instant pot?
Yes you can! Follow the first 2 steps the same, then seal and cook on high pressure for 25 minutes. Stir in the peas and lemon juice, until heated through. Then serve!
More Slow Cooker Meals
Did you try this slow cooker recipe? The next time you make it, snap a picture and share it to your socials! Tag @thelemonbowl and #thelemonbowl so we can admire and share your meal.
With so many ways to play with curry, let me know how you decide to serve yours in a commet below!
Your fork is waiting.
Slow Cooker Chicken Curry
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless (skinless chicken breasts)
- 1 medium onion (sliced or diced)
- 15 ounces can chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
- 2 medium sweet potatoes (peeled and diced)
- ½ cup full-fat coconut milk (light)
- ½ cup chicken stock (low sodium)
- 15 ounces can tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons curry powder (salt-free)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cayenne powder (optional)
- 1 cup green peas (frozen)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- cilantro (optional garnish)
Instructions
- In the bottom of the slow cooker, whisk together coconut milk, chicken stock, tomato sauce, curry powder, salt and cayenne.
- Add chicken breasts, onion, chickpeas and sweet potatoes. Using tongs, gently toss ingredients together to ensure evenly coated.
- Cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 4 hours. Shred the chicken.
- Stir in peas and lemon juice 5 minutes before serving.
- Serve over rice and with plenty of fresh cilantro.
Making this dish for my husbands bday..
hoping it comes out good. I used tomatoe sauce, but after reading comments I think you actually meant to say was tomato Passat :/ looks really runny ….
How did it turn out? I’ve never heard of Tomato Passat. In America we use tomato sauce which is pureed tomatoes. Does that help?
I made this but forgot to add the peas and lemon juice but it was still very yummy! I also left out the cayenne this time. Served it over brown rice and used chicken thighs instead of breast because I had that on hand. I think next time I may add some ginger, garlic and a bit of cinnamon as well as the cayenne pepper for a little more spice. Overall we really liked this and especially loved the ease!
I’m so glad you loved it!!
I added some crushed garlic and ginger with the spices and it was yummy. I’ll be making this again as the family all enjoyed it and it is so easy.
Great idea!!
I love this recipe and use it often! I juts got an instapot- has anyone tried it in the instapot?
Hi, when you say tomato sauce do you mean chopped tomatoes or a pasatta?
I am allergic to coconut. Any ideas as a substitute for coconut milk?
Hmm how about a little half and half? Maybe 1/2 cup?
Turn out great, my wife liked it very much and that’s an accomplishment. I may try making it with chicken thigh meat.
That makes me so happy!
Hi! I am excited to try this recipe out and bought all the ingredients today. However, I want to make around 4-5 chicken breasts. Do you think I should also increase the other ingredients? If I added more chicken but kept the same proportions would lack flavor?
Yes you would need to add more of the other ingredients, particularly the spices, salt and tomato sauce (tomato puree)/coconut milk. You should be ok not adding more veggies!
Made this yesterday and LOVED IT. You can use this as the jumping off point and add more flavour, spice, etc but for dead simple, no mess (literally you don’t need to dirty any bowls or cut up raw chicken which I hate!) and have dinner on the table as soon as you get home from work, it’s awesome!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!!!! Isn’t it the best?
This is delicious. Instead of cayenne pepper, I used 1 tsp red pepper flakes.
Great idea!
I made it for 20 people it was delicious, definitely I highly recommend it. Thank .you for the recipe ????????
I totally agree recipe is solid as and as springing off point. I love veggie adds in you suggested. I second time I made it I added some fresh ginger and garlic. It’s tasty.
A great idea to add depth of flavor is to toast the spices whole then crush them into your own curry powder!
This was a good base recipe, but I agree with other commentators it lacks dimension. it needs something else. it’s an easy recipe to make and will make again, but with only one spice and onion driving the flavors it falls flat. any ideas of what could be added. Garlic? other spices? Suggestions
good news is kids loved it,
Hi Erin – I’m so glad your kids enjoyed the recipe! If you’d like to make it richer in flavor, I would recommend making a homemade curry spice blend and toasting your spices before your grind them. Since most of my readers are busy moms or busy with day jobs I wanted to streamline the recipe for busy week nights. Enjoy!
I made it for 20 people and I love it, I added mushrooms, green, red peppers , courgette, spring onion you can add many veggies you want, all are delicious on it…I will make again today for friendslove it just put in the pot and chat way then the last the rice…
I’m so glad you like it Maria!
2nd time to make this… however hubby got unsweetened coconut milk… :( I hope it still turns out tasty.
That’s correct! It should not be sweetened!!
MY Family really looked forward to this after all the great reviews. Added 1/4 c of finely chopped cilantro and parsley stems. COOKED 4 hours on high and found it too soupy so added 1/4 c half & half with 2 Tbsp. cornstarch. I also found he veggies overcooked so would only cook it on high for 3 hours next time. It was a bit bland so we added another 2 Tbsp. curry powder, TBSp. garam masala, anoher 1/2 tsp. cayenne and a couple big dashes ground coriander and tumeric. It waswonderful with all the additions. Thank you for the great base recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it!!
Hi there,
I was wondering if I could substitute anything for the chickpeas as someone is allergic to them? Also, which curry paste would you recommend using?
Also, what kind of tomato sauce works best?
Tomato sauce is just pureed tomatoes – any low sodium type is great!
No curry paste, curry powder! Any brand works well as long as it’s fresh. As for the chickpeas, just replace with another veggie. :)
My husband does not chickpeas, so I subbed in cauliflower. It turned out great.
Great idea!!
Lentils area a great substitute.
Adding ginger, lemongrass and garlic
What a great idea!
Hi!
Sounds so tasty and I’m in the process of making it right now!
We are not big fans of sweet potatoes in my home, anything I can sub it for? Weird, I know but not sweet fans!
I hope you love it! With regards to sweet potatoes, you can replace with any other potato or perhaps another vegetable like Brussels?
Butternut squash works for a great substitute
Great idea!
I just made this recipe tonight and all I can say is AMAZING!! I don’t understand any of the comments about being bland since it was anything but that. I left out the cayenne since one person couldn’t eat spicy. I used whole cup of coconut milk and 3 tablespoons of curry powder. Wow!! Everyone loved and will definitely will make this recipe again. Easy and didn’t take much prep time and of course I love a slow cooker recipe. My only comment is the serving since seems pretty big for 2 1/2 cups. We each had 1 1/2 cups which was more than filling. So this recipe really could serve more. Can’t wait to try out more recipes from this site. Thank you Liz! And P.S. I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this dish so much Sarah!!! It is definitely a big serving but I typically don’t eat it with rice or anything else but yea it’s a generous portion for sure. :) Thanks for your sweet comment! Love that you’re here in Grand Rapids too!! Let me know what other recipes of mine you make!
Just made this recipe with chicken in cubes (3hrs on high), it was delicous! Definitely our top curry recipe, thank you!!!
I’m eating this as we speak. Excellent recipe! Substituted one of the sweet potatoes for a courgette and half of the curry powder for curry paste. Also put a bunch of cilantro stalks in the cooker. It came out great, can’t wait to see how the flavours will blend even more by tomorrow. Thank you!
So happy you made it your own!!
After reading some of the comments I was a bit hesitant to make this with it being my first time making curry, but IT WAS AMAZING!!!!! I am not sure what those people are talking about!!!
I cubed the chicken instead of shredding it and did not put peas in and I am about to go make another plate (maybe 2 ). I served it with white basmati rice and naan <3 absolutely delicious and this is definitely going to be a new staple in our house. Thank you!!!!
I make this all the time! I’m so glad you tried it Melanie!! It’s one of my all time favorites!
I followed this recipe exactly, and I have to say that I was sadly disappointed. It is . . . fine. Edible. It just doesn’t have much flavor. I was dubious when the recipe only called for one spice (which, of course, is actually a combo of spices), but I doubled the recipe so that we could have leftovers, and I am now not looking forward to them. I am living overseas, and chicken is quite expensive here, so I regret that I didn’t use it in something tastier. If someone has a suggestion for upping the flavor in the remains of my big batch of curry, I’d love to hear it!
Hi Laura, I’d love to help figure out where this recipe went wrong for you as it’s the #1 most popular recipe of all time on my website. Additionally, my family has been making it and eating it for years. Did you make any changes at all to the recipe? Did you add enough salt for the amount of chicken and vegetables you used? I’d love to help you make this a success!
Thank you, Liz! I did add the right amount of salt, and the only sub I made was veggie broth for chicken broth since it’s what I had on hand, and I didn’t think it would make a difference since it’s only 1/2 cup, but perhaps that influenced the taste. I think I just like something with more flavor and kick. No worries, though! I’m glad it’s been a hit with others! :)