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Easy Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk, Coconut Milk Chicken Curry Recipe

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Easy chicken curry with coconut milkEasy Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk – Learn how to make a basic and easy Indian-style chicken curry with coconut milk and spices. This is a relatively mild chicken curry recipe that’s fabulous because it goes with everything – rice, chapati, pulao, dosa, appam, puttu, etc.

There are so many variations to a coconut milk chicken curry and this is my own. There’s nothing special or majorly different in this recipe than the base of most Indian curries but I do like my chicken curry in a particular way, and this is it.

While generally my Indian non-vegetarian recipes are on the spicier side, both heat-wise and spice-wise, I like to keep coconut based curries on the milder side. That tends to brings out the flavour and sweetness of coconut milk which really should be the star in such recipes. I also like to keep tang to a minimum and so add tomatoes for the colour than for any major flavour.

easy chicken curry recipe with coconut milk

You can adapt this chicken curry with coconut milk recipe in many different ways to suit your palates and I have mentioned some variations below, while I explain the flow of how I make it. If you use canned or packaged coconut milk, this is a very easy dish to put together in under 30 mins. Making your own coconut milk will obviously elevate the flavour of the curry but it’s not essential in this dish, in my opinion. Since I like the gravy to be a bit on the thicker side, I used ground poppy seed paste, something that is unavailable in Singapore and so more used and appreciated in Sydney 🙂 TH and I have different choices (he’s a vegetarian) and we rarely comment on each other’s choices but after making this chicken curry, I told him for the first time that I wish he could taste it.

I have a few more chicken recipes in the site and my favourites are dry chilli chicken, Kerala chicken curry, and butter chicken masala. Try them! You can also check out how to make coconut milk at home.

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Easy Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk - Coconut Milk Chicken Curry Recipe
 
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Chicken curry with coconut milk - An easy, coconut milk chicken curry that comes together in less than 60 minutes, perfect for a quick lunch or dinner.
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 250 gm of cleaned and cubed chicken pieces
  • 1 cup of sliced onions
  • 2 tbsp of oil (I use coconut oil)
  • ½ tsp of turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp of cumin powder
  • 2 tsp of coriander powder
  • ½ tsp of red chilli powder
  • 1" piece of ginger
  • 2 green chillies (adjust to taste)
  • 2 flakes of garlic
  • A few cubes of ripe tomato
  • 1 tbsp of poppy seeds, soaked for 15 mins (see notes)
  • 2 cups of thin coconut milk (see notes)
  • 1 cup of thick coconut milk
  • A small bunch of chopped coriander leaves, for garnish
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in a wide pan and add the sliced onions. Fry until golden brown
  2. Grind the green chillies, garlic, and ginger together coarsely
  3. Add the spice powders – chilli, coriander, cumin, and turmeric – to the fried onions. Saute for 20 seconds
  4. Now add the ground chilli paste and tomatoes to the above. Fry again for a minute, the mixture will turn fragrant
  5. Add the cleaned chicken pieces to this, along with the thin coconut milk + 1 more cup of water. Add salt. Bring this to boil
  6. Meanwhile, grind the soaked poppy seeds in 2-3 tbsp water into a smooth paste. I use the same grinder as I used for chilli paste
  7. Add poppy seed paste to the curry and when it comes to boil, lower heat and cook closed for 15-20 mins or until the chicken pieces are cooked. The gravy will also thicken a bit
  8. On low heat, add the thick coconut milk and mix well
  9. Do not boil for too long after the thick coconut milk is added. If you feel the gravy is too watery, boil the curry in an open pan before adding the thick coconut milk
  10. Once it’s heated through and just begins to boil, add the chopped coriander leaves, adjust salt, and remove from flame
  11. Serve hot!

Step by Step Coconut Milk Chicken Curry Recipe

1. Heat oil in a wide pan and add the sliced onions. Fry until golden brown (they need to brown a bit more than in the picture below).

chicken curry recipe with coconut milk-2

2. Grind the green chillies, garlic, and ginger together coarsely.

easy chicken curry recipe with coconut milk

3. Add the spice powders – chilli, coriander, cumin, and turmeric – to the fried onions. Saute for 20 seconds.

easy chicken curry recipe with coconut milk-3

4. Now add the ground chilli paste and tomatoes to the above. Fry again for a minute, the mixture will turn fragrant.

easy chicken curry recipe with coconut milk-4

5. Add the cleaned chicken pieces to this,

easy chicken curry recipe with coconut milk-5

along with the thin coconut milk + 1 more cup of water. Add salt. Bring this to boil.

easy chicken curry recipe with coconut milk-6

6. Meanwhile, grind the soaked poppy seeds in 2-3 tbsp water into a smooth paste. I use the same grinder as I used for chilli paste.

easy chicken curry recipe with coconut milk-7

Add poppy seed paste to the curry and when it comes to boil, lower heat and cook closed for 15-20 mins or until the chicken pieces are cooked. The gravy will also thicken a bit.

easy chicken curry recipe with coconut milk-8

7. On low heat, add the thick coconut milk and mix well.

easy chicken curry recipe with coconut milk-9

8. Do not boil for too long after the thick coconut milk is added. If you feel the gravy is too watery, boil the curry in an open pan before adding the thick coconut milk. Once it’s heated through and just begins to boil, add the chopped coriander leaves, adjust salt, and remove from flame.

easy chicken curry recipe with coconut milk-10

Serve hot!

Variations and Notes:

  1. You can add more tomatoes if you want or omit it completely
  2. If you want a ‘whiter’ curry, omit the chilli powder and increase amount of green chillies, to taste
  3. I use poppy seeds as a gravy thickener. Other options are to use cashew nut paste (soaked cashew nuts ground with water) or more thick coconut milk or coconut cream
  4. You can use curry leaves as garnish instead of coriander leaves but avoid using both
  5. You can try this same recipe with chicken pieces with bone. It’s hard for me to find that kind cleaned and prepared so I always opt for chicken breast. Adjust cooking time according to size of chicken pieces
  6. You can make a vegetarian version of this curry by substituting chicken with soya chunks, potatoes, or a mixture of both. A mix of vegetables may also turn out well
  7. Regarding thin and thick coconut milk – if using canned coconut milk, buy full cream variety (not the low fat or whatever) and for the 2 cups thin milk, dilute with 1:1 water. When you need to add the thick coconut milk, add it as is. Check this post if making coconut milk at home

For chicken curry with coconut milk recipe in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, etc, please use Google translate button in the sidebar.

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  2. Just made this recipe and it tastes amazing! Just the scent in the kitchen was already making my family salivate.
    I just added 2 tbp of cashew butter instead of the paste and it worked wonders.
    Thank you
    ☺️

    Reply

  7. It’s an amazing dish. I did boil the chicken ( with bones ) in advance and instead of water I used the chicken stock. Also I used just regular coconut tin milk ( less than the mentioned on the recipe) and instead of poppy seeds I grinded regular raw cashews with little coconut milk without soaking in water.
    Thank you for the tasty chicken curry. It’s really an amazing dish.

    Reply

  9. This recipe looks amazing and I’m going to try it asap. So just to be clear on the thick and think coconut milk: 1 cup of full fat coconut milk for the thick, and 1 cup full fat coconut milk mixed with 1 cup of water.. Is that correct?

    Reply

  11. Hi! I tried this last night and it turned out perfect – creamy, thick, and deliciously coconutty. I used cashew paste instead of poppy seeds and fried the chicken for a while before letting it boil in the thin coconut milk. I used local chicken instead of broiler, which takes a longer time to cook. On adding the thin milk, it first looked like it was going to curdle, but turned out absolutely fine later. Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply

  12. Awesome my wife loves it and find poppy seeds work best for thickening, have added both potatoes and chicken and extra tomatoes seeds out and green bell peppers too. I think that by adding the potatoes getting starch as well to help thicken. Thanks so much it is my fav to prepare.

    Reply

  13. This is my favourite recipe and have made it several times, varying from poppy seeds to cashews to thicken. I have spiced it up and added both chicken and potatoes and even added extra green peppers not hot. I freeze what we cannot each and is just as good out of the freezer. My wife can hardly wait for dinner when she sees me cooking the chicken curry. It does get more flavourful a day or so in fridge. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  16. Re: The "Easy Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk – Coconut Milk Chicken Curry" Recipe

    Hahaha! Easy? What's so easy about this recipe? The number of ingredients alone means it's not easy and it includes poppy seeds soaked for 15 minutes. Who on earth knows where to buy poppy seeds let alone that a curry recipe would require it?

    Thanks for a good laugh this morning!

    Best regards.

    Reply

    • Aside from the fact that I am glad I brought some joy to you in the morning, I have to say that "easy recipe" is a relative term. If you look up a "proper" chicken curry recipe, you would need to roast and the grind the spices, sometimes separately since many of them roast at different speeds. Poppy seeds are a common Indian ingredient in most parts of India. If you don't have them/know them/use them, you can omit them. Be prepared for a thinner gravy, that's all.

      Compared to, say, the Chicken Majestic recipe I have on the site, this one is easy peasy. As I said, it's all relative.

      Reply

    • I am pregnant and sick, and I think this recipe looks easy enough. 😉 and delicious! I'm trying it tonight.

      Reply

    • You must be used to chicken nuggets and fries. This recipe is easy, simple and quick if you’re person who knows how to cook with more than salt and pepper. If your looking up Asian recipe you nee to expect something more than ketchup.

      Reply
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