Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Chicken
More slow cooking…yes! So we went to brunch with friends and inevitably as the kids were playing together the conversation drifted into ‘what’s for dinner’. I started discussing my current slow cooker obsession and my friend shared this wonderful recipe that I decided to tweak a bit for my family’s needs (ahem, ingredients and time I had available).
There are a lot of ingredients in this dish which creates the lovely layers of flavor as is typical for curries. I am adding this one to my weekend rotation of larger meals. It was delicious and it’s been a long time since I’ve made a curry in the slow cooker.
Expectations:
- Total time: 5 to 5 1/2 hours. Prep time takes about 15 – 20 minutes (chopping the veggies, browning the chicken & setting everything up in the slow cooker). Cooking time for me was 4 1/2 hours — much less than stated in the original recipe, so check on how things roll after 4.5 hours based on the amount of chicken and speed of your slow cooker.
- Servings: This dish served my family of four 2 to 3 times. I doubled the chicken used in the original recipe – planning for left overs and streamlining some steps for speed, i.e. I didn’t reduce the sauce at the end and adjusted the seasoning. The original recipe is from The Food Charlatan’s website, posted here.
- Kid modifications: I know, you’re thinking curry with kids? But it works! It’s not super spicy, however, my oldest is ‘anti-sauce’ so I removed the skin and scraped off any excess sauce with a spoon from the kid portions of the chicken. I only added the cilantro on top for the grownup portions.
- Equipment: You will need a 6 quart (large) slow cooker
Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken Curry (adapted from the Food Charlatan).
Ingredients::
- 2 – 3 lbs. (i.e. 2 grocery store packages) of bone-in skin on chicken pieces (I used 4 thighs & 6 chicken drum sticks. However, legs, quarters, etc. would be fine also). Seasoned with salt, pepper & turmeric to taste.
- 1 teaspoon of olive oil (or other vegetable oil).
- 2 cans or packages (I had one that was 13.66 ounces & a 12 ounce size) of lite coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons of dried basil leaves
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 1 to 2 teaspoons of fresh ground pepper
- 2 to 3 tablespoons of sweet yellow curry powder
- 1 teaspoon of chili powder (I used regular chili powder)
- 1 large red onion, chopped
- 1 head of garlic (chopped or minced)
- 1 or 2 jalapeno peppers (seeded and finely chopped)
- Optional: serve with 2 tbsp. of chopped fresh cilantro per cilantro eater

Chopped carrots, cilantro & cucumbers
Steps to put this on your table:
- Brown the chicken, using the olive (or vegetable oil) on all sides over medium high heat, this will take about 3 – 4 minutes per side and you may have to work in batches, depending on the size of your pan.
- Transfer the chicken and all of the other ingredients to the slow cooker.
- Set (low heat, 4.5 hours to 5 hours) and forget!
- I served mine over a basmati and wild rice + lentils combination that I love to make. Enjoy!

Kids’ plates basmati & wild rice with lentils + curry chicken

Slow cooker curry chicken over basmati & wild rice with lentils.
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