Quick Coconut Chicken Curry

Ever get stuck in a dinner rut, staring blankly into the fridge, wondering what on earth to cook? This Chicken Curry with Coconut is about to become your new best friend. It’s quick, easy, and packed with flavour, perfect for a weeknight meal that feels like a weekend treat. Plus, it’s a guaranteed crowd-pleaser – even the kids will love it! So, ditch the takeaway menus and get ready to whip up a curry that’s both comforting and healthy.

It was particularly dark and chilly outside, and hubby and I needed some comfort food. So, I made this nourishing Coconut Chicken curry. It was based on a recipe I learned in a restaurant years ago. I loved it then and thought I might have a go at recreating it. After rummaging through my spice drawer, this is what I came up with. It’s another quick meal (using the ingredients I had on hand), and I hope you’ll love it as much as we did.

What would you serve with this chicken curry?

• It goes well with this naan recipe.
• Rice is also great I would choose basmati for this dish, Cumin Rice would be perfect
• If I wanted something super quick I’d use something like this couscous.
• But seriously, roast vegetables would give some balance to the meal.
• I like steamed broccoli sprinkled with toasted almonds.

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Step By Step – for Coconut Chicken Curry

Coconut Chicken Curry

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Discover the perfect balance of creaminess and aromatics with our Chicken Curry with Coconut recipe. Quick, easy, and packed with flavour. The spice blend (masala) is enough for four people (or 2 complete meals for a couple).

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Difficulty Medium

Course Dinner or Entree, Quick easy dinner

Cuisine Indian style

Servings 4

Method Food processor, Stove top, Thermomix

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Equipment

• 1 Thermomix (optional)
• 1 Stand mixer (optional)

Ingredients

  

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For the Coconut Masala (Curry powder) enough for 4 – 6 chicken pieces

• 2-4 dried chillies it is a curry but it’s up to you if you how many you want to use and which type
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp fenugreek seeds
• 11/2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 11/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• ½ tsp cracked peppercorns or 1 tsp of whole peppercorns
• 1 tsp dried garlic granules
• 85 g desiccated coconut

For the dish

• 4-6 Chicken thighs bone in, and skin on, is nice for this dish
• 2 -3 Brown onions sliced
• 40 Curry leaves
• 1 cup non flavoured oil (I used sunflower) more or less depending on the size of your pan
• 1 cup water to deglaze the pan and make the sauce
• Salt to taste

Instructions

 

• First, start by making the masala (spice blend). *See tips Add all the ingredients for the masala except the coconut into the TM bowl, spice grinder or food processor and grind to a powder. Thermomix MC in 30 seconds/speed 9
• Add the coconut to the TM bowl or spice grinder and blitz again. Thermomix 30 seconds/speed 9 then remove from the processor and set aside
• Add enough oil to a frypan to cover the base around 1/2 – 1 cm high *see tips turn the heat to medium-high (180°C) when the oil is hot enough, add in half of the sliced onions and give them a stir. Then add in half the curry leaves. Stand back when you add the curry leaves; they'll pop and splutter for a few seconds don' let that hot oil splash on you. Cook them off until the onions are golden brown; it should take 5 – 8 mins. Then remove from the oil and drain onto a paper towel.
• Now allow the oil to cool a little, remove most of it from the pan leaving behind around a tablespoon (*see tips). Add the remainder of the onions and curry leaves and gently stirfry until the onions soften. Don't forget to watch out for those spitting curry leaves.
• Once the onion has softened, add the masala blend we made at the start. (I only used two pieces of chicken in the step by step examples, so I only used 1/2 the masala and popped the rest in a jar for another day use what you need to for the amount of chicken you have). Stir it around and fry it off until it's fragrant. It should only take a minute or so. Then push it aside and add in your chicken thighs. – Skin side down first. Cook until the skin starts to brown a little, then flip them over to brown the other side.
• Now add enough water to the base of the pan to turn the masala and onions into a sauce. Make it slightly watery at this stage, as it can be reduced later. Use a spatula to loosen the ingredients from the bottom of the pan, then pop on a lid. Cook on low to medium heat for 15 minutes, remove the lid, give it a stir, and add more water if needed; continue to cook for a further 15 minutes or until the chicken juices run clear.
• When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan, plating it up as you wish. Taste the sauce and add enough salt to bring out the flavour, then take the fried onions/curry leaves we made at the start, set some aside for a garnish; add the remainder to the sauce, stirring them in to combine. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and add the fried onions as garnish. I've also added a few micro coriander leaves to mine to make it pretty.

Notes

• There is enough masala in the recipe above for 4 – 6 chicken pieces, however, in the step by step images, I only used half of it because I only cooked off two thigh fillets. I popped the other half of the masala into a lidded jar to use another day.
• I use a smaller fry pan for frying the onions and curry leaves.  This prevents me from using too much oil.  Don’t overcrowd the pan; cook them in batches if needed.  To make the onions crispy, you need to get the oil hot before adding the onion, shallow fry to crisp up and not stew.  
• You don’t have to waste the leftover oil from frying off the onions.  When you remove it from the pan, add it to a heatproof bowl.  Use it over the next few days when cooking.  Waste not, want not, and it has a lovely flavour now. 
• Curry leaves can be kept in the freezer for a couple of months if you don’t use them all.  
• Frying onions brings out the sweetness. 
• Salt will bring out the flavour. 

Want to know more?

Spice blends are important for great dishes.

I make up my own spice blends without any non-essential shelf-stable additives. When I was doing my Cert 4 in Training and Assessment, one of our lessons and assessments was teaching people for distance education. Who would think this would come in so handy today for so many reasons.

Anyway, I chose to do an introductory course on spices, where, how and why they’re used. I loved doing the research, talking to Chefs that originated from the middle east, Asia etc., staying all hours in the school library, and then training my five students online for my assessment.

Doing my Cert 4 in this subject taught me how to teach remotely, but I learned a lot more about spices and blends as well. And hey, I got a lovely message written on the bottom of my report from my teacher saying I’d inspired him to cook and share my course with his friends. No wonder I do a spice class, and have written an eBook with some of my recipes. A little bit of encouragement goes a long way.