A Chicken Curry Recipe

Easy Weeknight Meals, Paleo, Recipes

I get the craving for takeout no less than three times a week. I know. It’s a plight I live with.

Cravings are sneaky little monsters. Mine come upon me without any warning and before I know it I only have one single thought – the thought of that craving.

It’s fun trying to be an adult or have conversations when a craving has taken hold. By fun I mean confusing for all other people involved.

Take Sunday for example, there I was reading my book next to Jeremy and it came. I wanted chicken curry. I just wanted it.

Jeremy turned to me and asked how my book was to which I responded, “Chicken curry.”

I know I had that crazed look in my eyes and, logically, I knew that was the wrong answer to his question. But I just sat there. Content with my response. Staring at him.

He looked slightly bewildered but tried again, “What are you reading?”

“Chicken curry.”

This proceeded for quite sometime until the decision to have chicken curry for dinner was made.

After looking at several recipes and drawing on my own experience I entered the kitchen and just started adding things.

I was nervous when it was completed. But when Jeremy took a bite and looked at me and said, “This is the best curry I’ve ever had.” I knew I’d done good.

Cause that man does not lie about his food.

Watch me bring this recipe together step by step over on The Cook’s Channel 👇

A Chicken Curry Recipe to Please the Craving

Let’s start at my happy place.

Heat 1/2 stick of butter in a large saute pan until in melts and begins to foam a bit.

Butter. That is my happy place.

To this add 2 medium onions, chopped, 2 large (or three small) garlic cloves, finely chopped, and 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced.

I like to call them the trio:

Let these saute over medium low heat until fragrant and translucent. About 5 minutes.

Now we add our spices.

These spices are what make this dish so incredibly flavorful! The line-up includes:

  • 3 tablespoons curry powder
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Beware! This dish is actually on the spicy side. For Jeremy it was perfect. For me, it tasted spicy. So, if you like less heat, then add less cayenne. The Paleo rice I make will add some sweetness to this dish which does complement the heat quite well.

Add the spices to the sautéed onions. Mix it around to coat them nicely.

Once the spices are nice and fragrant add 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into about 1 inch cubes.

Stir them around to get them nice and coated. COAT ALL THE THINGS! At least that is what I shouted as I was stirring.

After the chicken is coated add 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes.

Stir well and then cover and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes (be sure to stir halfway through).

While that is simmering it is time to prepare the ingredients which will thicken our curry.

A great trick, especially for a curry, is to take cashews and pulse them in a food processor or coffee/spice grinder until they are finely ground. This will thicken the curry but also add nice flavor.

Also, I just love cashews.

I keep full fat, organic, canned coconut in my refrigerator. I do this because this helps keep the coconut cream separated from the coconut milk. And sometimes I just need the cream. Like for this recipe.

Open the can and scoop out just the cream:

At the bottom will be some of the clear milk. I reserve this for smoothies.

Look at this beauty. White cloud goodness.

After 20 minutes add the coconut cream (which ends up being about 3/4 to 1 cup) to the curry.

Cover and cook for an additional 20 minutes.

Once time is up, uncover and add the cashews and continue cooking and stirring for about five minutes more. And that my friends, is one delicious chicken curry recipe!

Bonus! Serve with Coconut Milk Rice!

Paleo Rice for Chicken Curry Recipe

Now, the rice is important. While you wait around for your chicken curry to cook you can prepare paleo rice made with cauliflower! It is so yummy!

Take one head of cauliflower and roughly chop it up. In a food processor fitted with the grater add the chunks of cauliflower.

An easy way to do this without have cauliflower fly up at your face is to keep the food processor off while you add the cauliflower to the tube. Once the tube is full, place the feeding tube over it, turn on the food processor, press the feeding tube down until the cauliflower is grated. Turn the food processor off and repeat.

Your cauliflower will look like rice:

Add the cauliflower to a small stock pot. Add to it 1/4 cup chicken stock. This might not seem like a lot but it is plenty to steam the cauliflower! Then add 1 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/2 tablespoon salt. Sitr it all together and then cover and let it steam on medium heat for about 7 minutes.

Now, to make it unique for our dish. I need you to trust me on this. It is going to be amazing.

Once your cauliflower is done, uncover. (Stir and taste it, it should be tender but mot mushy.) Add 1 cup of golden raisins and 1/4 cup of roughly chopped cashews.

The sweetness of the raisins will burst with this incredible flavor when you eat it along with the curry. It not only will cool down the heat of the curry but it is just so delicious!

Scoop out some of the paleo rice and then add the curry to the top. Add chopped, fresh cilantro and kiss your craving goodbye.

Print

A Chicken Curry Recipe with Paleo Rice

  • Author: Bri McKoy
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 5 1x

Ingredients

Units Scale

Chicken Curry:

  • 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
  • 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  • 2 large garlic cloves (or 3 small cloves) finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon finely minced peeled fresh ginger
  • 3 tablespoons medium yellow curry powder (for less spicy, purchase mild yellow curry powder)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (add less for less spiciness)
  • 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch cubes
  • 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
  • 3/4 cup dry roasted cashews (1/4 pound)
  • 3/4 cup full fat, canned coconut cream

Recipe for Coconut Milk Rice!

Paleo Rice:

  • 1 head cauliflower, roughly chopped and then grated
  • 1/4 cup chicken stock
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt
  • 1 cup golden raisins
  • 1/4 cup roughly chopped dry roasted cashews

Instructions

Chicken Curry:

  1. Heat butter in a large saute pan over moderately low heat until it is melted and slightly bubbling.
  2. Add onions, garlic, and ginger, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add curry powder, salt, cumin, and cayenne and cook, fully coating the onion mixture with the spices.
  4. Add chicken and cook, stirring to coat, 3 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes, including juice, and bring to a simmer. Then cover and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.
  5. Uncover and add the full fat, canned coconut milk (the cream skimmed from the top). Stir and cover for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  6. Add finely ground cashews. Stir and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Paleo Rice:

  1. Grate the cauliflower in a food processor with the cheese grater attachment.
  2. Add the grated cauliflower to a pot along with 1/4 cup chicken stock, garlic powder and salt. Cover and let steam for 7 minutes over medium heat.
  3. Uncover and stir. Add the raisins and cashews and stir to incorporate.

 

Notes

You can also use Basmati rice in place of cauliflower rice! Once the basmati rice is cooked, add 1 cup golden raisins and 1/4 cup, crushed cashews! 

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1
Print

Cilantro Yogurt Sauce

This is a great sauce to complement the heat of the curry!

  • Author: Bri McKoy

Ingredients

Scale
  • 7 oz Greek yogurt
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • Juice from 1 lime
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 TBS cold, filtered water

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients to a bowl. Mix to combine.

(I like to use cold, filtered water to thin out the sauce (so it is in a sauce form, not a heavy cream). But you can add as little or as much water (up to 4 TBS) as you like for your desired consistency.)

Notes

Will keep in refrigerator for one week.

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  1. Jacquie says:

    Once the latest strict diet phase is over I am SO making this!!!

  2. Katie Klimek says:

    Holy moly, this looks amazing!!

  3. Michaela says:

    This looks amazing. I too have Indian food cravings weekly, but I was under the impression that butter was not paleo? It’s alright, I can easily substitute another fat to saute everything. I’ll be making this soon, thanks!

  4. Becky says:

    Hey Brianne-

    I made this for dinner tonight and we LOVED it. All four of us. I give it five stars and am going to put it into regular rotation. I (of course) went easy on the cayenne as suggested to ensure the kids would eat it, but even without much heat, Chris and I both loved it. It’s got great flavor, while being both a tiny bit sweet and a tiny bit spicy.

    It. Was. Awesome.

    I made it with basmati rice, prepared as you suggested (which was amazing), but next time we’ll try it with the cauliflower rice to make it full on paleo.

    Thanks for this. Your blog is changing our lives! 🙂

  5. Kristie says:

    I made this curry last night. It’s more of a Malay style curry than Indian but it’s incredible! Has that amazing satay taste. My husband’s Mother is Malaysian and he absolutely loved this.

  6. Paige says:

    I haven’t put the cashews in yet and already I can tell this is one of the nicest curries I’ve tasted…thank you! It is DELICIOUS!

  7. jessica says:

    This is so yummy! I’m making it for the 2nd time tonight. Thanks so much for posting this recipe, it’s a favorite!

  8. Rachelle says:

    Wow! Amazing. I used some left over coconut milk in the cauliflower and was awesome!!!

  9. KJ says:

    Hi there from Australia, my husband pointed this recipe out on his Facebook news feed, one of his friends had recommended it so I decided to make it. I don’t follow the paleo diet, but I do like tasty food, and this certainly ticked all the boxes for us! Thank you, and I’ll be going back through your archives now to find some more tasty morsels.

  10. Debbie Haas Williams says:

    This is what’s for dinner…

  11. Pamela Butcher March says:

    This was a deliciously satisfying meal. Thank you.

  12. Alexis Olle Ward says:

    Super yummy! Thanks for sharing!

  13. Kerry says:

    This is definitely a keeper in our house. It is so nice to serve up a meal everyone likes, so much better than hearing “I don’t like this”

    I thought the cauliflower would be a stretch but my husband is on board with me, the teenage daughter still has some transitioning to do.

    Paleo is working out well for me, thanks so much for making my life in the kitchen so much easier. We are from Australia as well.

    • Bri McKoy says:

      That is so wonderful to hear, Kerry! Thank you 🙂 I spent about 4 months in Australia after I graduated college and I absolutely fell in love! Cannot wait to visit again one day with Beau!

  14. Csilla Lyerly says:

    Dinner tonight 🙂

  15. Emma says:

    How many servings does this make? I guessed about 4 or 5 from the ingredients, but wasn’t sure. I’m planning on making this tonight, and want to make sure I make enough to last all week! Thanks!

    • Bri McKoy says:

      Hi Emma! This makes a hearty four portions! 5 if you can stretch it out a bit 🙂 Hope you enjoy!!

      • Emma says:

        Doubling the initial recipe, we stretched it in to about 5 moderate portions each (but also added brown rice in to the cauliflower and broccoli in to the curry).

        This was DELICIOUS. It’s a bit higher calorie, but heck! It’s healthy! I used 1/4 the amount of butter and salt, and halved the cayenne. It tasted perfect to me, and my hot-sauce obsessed boyfriend also loved it (he didn’t even add hot sauce, yay!). He did mention though, that he could definitely handle the whole tsp of cayenne if I had added it, hah.

        Thanks for the recipe, I’m going to be making this again in the future! 🙂

  16. Stephanie Gage says:

    This meal is rediculous. Rediculous good! The absolute best home made curry I’ve ever made!

  17. Jennifer Walton says:

    This was absolutely amazing!!

  18. Ellen Flanders Roberts says:

    want to try this….

  19. Annie F says:

    Just Amazing! I have been searching and trying all different curry recipes to find the “right one” and haven’t found one that I really love until I came across this one. Thank you so much!

  20. Melissa Bordes says:

    About how many pounds of chicken did you use as sizes can vary? This looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it.

  21. Melissa says:

    About how many pounds of chicken did you use as sizes vary? Thanks!

  22. Ta'Shanah says:

    This curry was so fricken good. Literally the best curry I’ve had so far. We have now had this twice and didn’t alter it all. We actually double the recipe we like it so much!

  23. Sandy says:

    This was absolutely amazing!!! Love the trick of using the coconut cream. I had freshly ground almond butter on hand so I used that to thicken instead of ground cashews. I cannot say enough good things about this recipe. It’s even better the next day when the flavors have even more time to blend together.

  24. Cat Tobin says:

    This is a fantastic recipe! Simple, yet very flavorful. Making it for the second time tonight

  25. Elle Dreyer Brawner says:

    Fantastic recipe, so delicious! Makes being on the paleo diet seem like its no diet!

  26. Sharon says:

    Hi! I just want to say I love this recipe!!! I was wondering if I could use macadamia nuts instead of cashews.. My boyfriend can’t eat cashews and I feel he’s missing out on this dish! If not, what other nut would be a good substitution? And if it’ll work, would you recommend the same servings as cashews to macadamia nuts? Thank you! I cannot wait to eat this again!!!

  27. DD says:

    Any way to make this with beef? If so what cut of beef?

    Thanks!

    • Bri McKoy says:

      I have never made this with beef but if I did I would probably buy the raw pre-cut beef strips (usually used for fajitas). Most grocery stores carry this. Or sometimes I buy a New York Strip steak and cut it into strips for salads. This could also work. Let us know how it turns out!

  28. Yury says:

    Looks delicious! I’m looking forward to making it.

  29. Jo Nicholl says:

    Exquisite.. easy to follow recipe.

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  31. Gabrielle Flores says:

    I think what we need to do is to try and make diets and exercise easier to stick to.
    Personally, I follow a Paleo diet and I love it. I lost a lot of weight, it helped my constant tiredness and I go through life with much more positivity.
    I’ve now actually taken an interest in cooking paleo meals, to help others I’ve written about one of my favourite cookbooks: fb.me/4yz9S195N

  32. Таисия Осипова says:

    Hi friends, I want to share with you a great book paleo recipes. Almost 500 incredibly delicious dishes. See more here pl3450.blogspot.com/

  33. Because the photo is really good, I’ll try to do it, then I’ll comment on my experience

  34. Taegan says:

    Hi there. I’m about to make this for tea tonight, but instead of chicken I’m adding prawns and calamari. I just wanted to point out that in the ingredients list for the cauliflower rice you missed the Chicken stock. It’s only mentioned in the instructions. Wouldn’t want anyone to miss this! Thanks for a lovely recipe, let’s hope it goes well with seafood! 

    • Bri McKoy says:

      Hi! I am so excited to hear that you are making this and putting your own spin on it. I hope it was so delicious with the prawns and calamari. And thank you for noticing the typo. I have updated the recipe!

  35. Michael Ann says:

    I made the chicken curry today!  I’ve always worried that curry would be too hot for me (I don’t like my food to hurt!), so I’m thankful for the tip to opt for mild curry.  I followed your recipe pretty closely, and/but I DID stir in half a can of pumpkin puree to add a touch of fall and some extra nutrients.  WOWZERS WAS THIS GOOD!!!  Thanks for yet another great recipe, Bri!  My whole gang loved it and voted to definitely have it again!

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