This really easy slow cooker chicken curry recipe is a tasty alternative to an Indian takeaway with tender chunks of boneless chicken breast in a delicious, creamy sauce. I'll also show you how to make it lean with some weight loss tips.
This slow cooker chicken curry recipe is the perfect mid-week meal for the whole family if you want the taste of a takeaway on a budget.
What first inspired me to make this creamy curry was my love of the spice mix in Mayflower curry sauce.
If you can't find it in your local grocery store, fear not, because you can get the flavours right here to make a great recipe that's stress-free!
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🛒 Ingredients
Please see the printable recipe card with exact ingredient quantities, nutritional information, and preparation instructions at the bottom of this post.
Oil spray - a great choice for a healthy slow cooker chicken curry. We used low calorie cooking oil spray called Frylight, or you could brown the meat in olive oil or coconut oil
Chicken breasts - diced for a leaner tender chicken, or opt for skinless juicy chicken thighs. Or, use cuts from a whole chicken.
Onion - cut into large chunks and sautéd for flavour.
Garlic cloves - to enhance the curry flavors
Ground ginger - or ginger puree, or grated fresh ginger for a warm, fiery kick
A few tablespoon Tomato purée - (AKA tomato paste) for a subtle tomato sauce base. Additionally, you also could add 50g passata if you like a red curry.
Vegetables - we use sliced mushrooms and garden peas, but you could use extra vegetables such as green beans, a red bell pepper, etc.
Curry powder - we use mild curry powder, but you could use garam masala, or tikka for chicken tikka masala. Alternatively, you can use yellow curry paste
Indian spices - to ensure plenty of flavor, we use a mix of mustard powder, turmeric, Chinese 5 spice, cumin, ground coriander, salt, and black pepper
Chicken stock - for flavour and to line the crock pot with liquid, but we'll stir in cream at the end to finish the curry sauce
Soy sauce - light soy sauce for a salty flavour, or you could just use dark soy sauce for colour
Cream (forgot to photograph!) - we stirred in reduced fat creme fraiche, but you could opt for reduced or full-fat coconut milk. For Slimming World chicken curry, use fat free natural yogurt at room temperature, low-fat cream cheese, quark, etc for low syn values.
Optional Ingredients
Red chili - just a pinch of chilli flakes for heat, or use chili powder, fresh chilli or red pepper flakes
Mango chutney - for sweetness, or use brown sugar, honey, jam, Siracha, sugar-free sweetener or why not try stirring in a Muller Light coconut fat free yoghurt?
Fresh coriander (fresh cilantro) - other fresh herbs such as parsley for a garnish
📋 Instructions
Add oil or spray in a large skillet and sauté the onion and garlic until softened.
Add the chicken with the salt and pepper and fry until browned while stirring occasionally.
Stir in all of the spices while stirring for 1 minute until all the chicken chunks are coated well.
Transfer to the slow cooker with the stock and everything else except the peas, cream, and chosen sweetness.
Stir and cover and choose one of the following cooking times:
- High heat for 3-4 hours
- Low heat for 6-7 hours
Once cooked, stir in the peas, chosen cream, and sweetness (ie, mango chutney) for an additional 30 minutes of cooking time on the "keep warm setting".
To serve: spoon on a bed of nutritious brown rice or jasmine rice and add some freshly chopped coriander and lime or lemon juice of extra flavour.
👩🍳 Substitutions
Here are a few ways you can adapt this slow cooker chicken curry for special dietary requirements:
- Keto - opt to brown the meat in oil instead or spray and serve with cauliflower rice as opposed to classic white rice
- Stock - use gluten free chicken stock and GF soy sauce
- Vegetarian - the diced chicken can be replaced with Quorn style pieces and the chicken broth vegetable stock or vegan bouillon
⚖️ Variations
Depending on your tastebuds, here are some suggestions on how you can really personalize this slow cooker curry chicken recipe:
- Thai curry - use lemongrass, ½ teaspoon fish sauce, hot curry powder, a dash of cayenne pepper, and stir in creamy coconut milk with a twist of lime juice
- Extra spicy - why not mix up your own Jamaican curry powder with ground scotch bonnet pepper, cloves, nutmeg, etc
- Deluxe - add a bay leaf to the slow cooker and cardamom seeds to the pot. And stir in a knob of butter, peanut butter for chicken satay sauce at the end with chili oil spice
- Kid-friendly - omit the red chili and use medium curry powder
See this low fat butter chicken recipe version.
🔪 Equipment
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- Slow cooker (mine is 3l, however, I do have a 6.5l one for much larger recipes
- Mercer culinary chef's knife
- Chopping board
- Spatula
- Large non stick frying pan
- Measuring jug
- Kitchen scales
- Measuring spoons
❄️ Storage
If you have leftover chicken curry or are simply doing some meal prep and batch cooking, then I recommend leaving it to cool to room temperature, then transferring it to an airtight container.
Either immediately store in the fridge for up to 3 days, or for up to 3 months in the freezer.
Reheating Coconut Chicken Curry
To reheat, you can cook on the stove until piping hot, but avoid overcooking if you have added coconut cream as it splits and loses flavour.
Alternatively, it microwaves well in a lidded container with a vent for approximately 4 minutes, stirring halfway.
🍽️ Serving Suggestions
We think a good curry recipe also needs tasty sides like naan bread for an authentic taste! But if you're cooking for some healthier options, why not try one of these?
- Skinny chips
- Bombay potatoes (potato curry side dish)
- Baked potato
- Onion bhajis
- Horseradish egg fried rice
- Cauliflower rice
- Whole roasted cauliflower
- Fruity salsa perfect rice
- Jewelled rice
- Tandoori chicken
- Red Onion Chutney
- Pilau rice
- Mixed salad
💡 Pro Tips
- Sear the chicken to help keep the chicken from falling apart too much (if you wish). Or for an easy chicken curry recipe, skip this step and chuck everything into the pot
- Deglaze the pan with the stock to get every scrap of flavour before adding to the slow cooker
- A great way to keep costs down is to make your own curry paste by adding the spices, onion, ginger, and garlic to a food processor, as featured in our Syn Free chicken bhuna
- Add the green peas towards the end to avoid overcooking
- To retain all the moisture in the slow cooker, line the lid with tin foil while cooking.
- Also, if stirring in fat-free yogurt for a low fat chicken curry, make sure it is at room temperature to prevent it from going grainy.
Disclaimer: This is an unofficial page and has no affiliation or endorsement from Slimming World. Slimming World's website can be found at https://www.slimmingworld.co.uk/
*Any syn values are personal estimates and not verified by Slimming World.
❓ FAQ
Instead of adding cream at the end, the first time we made this recipe, we used to add 400ml (1 + ⅔ cups) of stock in the slow cooker with 2 tablespoon of oats (as part of your healthy extra for a Slimming World friendly option) to naturally thicken. It's not creamy yellow chicken curry and is more like a Chinese chicken curry recipe.
Alternatively, you could add diced sweet potatoes that will soften while cooking. Or, make up 300ml of Mayflower curry powder, (I estimate as 12 syns in total as 23g makes powder for every 100ml at 4 Syns). This also makes a delicious recipe.
Sometimes I don't have time for browning my chicken. But it's an important step to help trap the juices and prevent the chicken from falling apart. That is unless you would like a shredded chicken curry.
To ensure you cook a good chicken curry, I don't recommend browning the chicken the night before as it is a scavenger bird and bacteria may still be present.
An easy slow cooker curry that you can make in minutes is by cooking it in an Instant Pot or pressure cooker for 30 minutes. Once finished, stir in the peas and cream for a final 5 minutes over medium heat.
Yes! You can make this delicious meal in a large pan by using these ingredients in 15-20 minutes and following the method in my butter chicken recipe.
Yes, you can add cream early on in your slow cooker curry dishes, but as overcooking tends to split the cream, I always find myself adding more at the end, making it unnecessarily less healthy.
Unfortunately, I've never been a member and have only attended a Slimming World group. However, feel free to comment and let me know what you estimate the WW points to be.
➕ More Family Go-To Recipes
Aside from many curry recipes here at Tastefully Vikkie, here are just a few of our favourite family feasts to help you meal plan:
You must use the category name, not a URL, in the category field.➕ More Slow Cooker Recipes
We love to adapt delicious recipes to make them slow cooker friendly, which you can find here for next time:
You must use the category name, not a URL, in the category field.📖 Recipe
Slow Cooker Chicken Curry
Equipment
Ingredients
- Frylight
- 4 chicken breasts Cut in to large chunks
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1 onion cut in to large chunks
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 200 ml chicken stock
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- 100 g mushrooms thickly sliced
- 2 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon curry powder
- 3 tablespoon tomato puree
- ½ teaspoon Chinese 5 spice 1 star anise
- 50 g frozen peas
- 1 red chilli deseeded and finely chopped
Stir in at the end
- 300 g Reduced fat creme fraiche (1 & ⅓ cup) Or use lightest cream cheese, reduced fat coconut milk, fat free natural yogurt, quark, etc
- tablespoon Mango chutney Or honey, sweetener, etc
Instructions
- Spray a large frying pan with cooking oil spray, then saute the garlic and onions until softened.
- Add the diced chicken with salt and pepper and brown while constantly stirring.
- Add all of the spices and stir while frying for another minute until everything is coated.
- Then transfer the chicken to the slow cooker and fresh chilli if using except the peas, any sweetness and fresh coriander.
- Stir well and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 7 hours.
- Now stir in your chosen cream (read recipe notes for healthy tips if needed), mango chutney or sweetener.
- Serve on a bed of white rice with fresh coriander and a squeeze of lime or lemon if you wish.
Disclaimer
*This is an unofficial page and has no affiliation or endorsement from Slimming World. Slimming World's website can be found at https://www.slimmingworld.co.uk/. Any syn values are personal estimates and not verified by Slimming World.
Video
Notes
- Sear the chicken to help keep the chicken from falling apart too much (if you wish). Or for an easy chicken curry recipe, skip this step and chuck everything into the pot
- Deglaze the pan with the stock to get every scrap of flavour before adding to the slow cooker
- A great way to keep costs down is to make your own curry paste by adding the spices, onion, ginger, and garlic to a food processor, as featured in our Syn Free chicken bhuna
- Add the green peas towards the end to avoid overcooking
- To retain all the moisture in the slow cooker, line the lid with tin foil while cooking.
- Also, if stirring in fat-free yogurt for a low fat chicken curry, make sure it is at room temperature to prevent it from going grainy.
Brenda Lawrence
Excellent curry. A bit hot for me, but the family loved it. I made SW Onion Bajhes and we had with wholemeal rice.