Mom’s authentic Chicken Curry recipe made in Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker. This chicken curry instant pot recipe is made in a simple onion-tomato gravy with the aroma of whole spices. This is the best Chicken Curry you will ever have!
I wanted to recreate my mom’s chicken curry in the instant pot and tried it multiple times. But I was not getting the exact favor that comes when she cooks the curry….something was missing! But guess what, mom is visiting and shared her secret tips for the chicken curry.
Mom’s Chicken Curry Tips
- Sauté the onions for longer, about 4 mins until the oil starts separating .
- Add the tomatoes and sauté the onion-tomato mixture for longer, again about 4 mins until the oil separates.
- Add the chicken and cook it on sauté for 2-3 mins, before you pressure cook.
You get the idea, basically sauté the ingredients perfectly, to get the perfect chicken curry. Another great thing about this curry is, there is no marination required. So no pre-prep for this recipe.
Step-by-step Chicken Curry Instant Pot Instructions
Start with getting the main ingredients ready.
- The whole spices in one bowl. If you want to make this recipe simpler, you can skip the whole spices. What you lose with that is the aroma, but trust me, it will still be as flavorful.
- The ground spices in one bowl.
- Chicken cut into pieces. I used boneless chicken breasts in this recipe, but mom says bone-in chicken tastes even better. This is next to try, but I do like the convenience of boneless chicken.
Now we are ready to start cooking! Start the instant pot in Sauté mode, and heat ghee or oil in it. I prefer ghee to get the richer taste, especially homemade ghee in the instant pot. Add the whole spices and sauté for 30 seconds to get the aroma. Add the green chili, onions, ginger and garlic to the pot. Sauté for about 4 minutes until the onions turn brown and the oil separates. Now add the tomatoes and ground spices. Sauté for another 4 minutes until oil separates. Remember mom’s tips, this sautéing of onions and tomatoes is what gives a great taste to the chicken curry. Keep stirring at about 1-2 minute interval, so the onions and tomato don’t get stuck to the bottom of the pot.
Let’s add the chicken pieces to the pot. Stir it well, so the chicken is coated with the onion-tomato masala. Sauté the chicken for a couple of minutes. Now add half cup of water to the pot. The trick is to add less water, as the chicken also releases water.
Change the instant pot setting to manual mode and cook for 5 minutes on high pressure. Quick release the pressure, as we don’t want to overcook the chicken. Stir in the lemon juice and garnish with cilantro.
Look at the end result, doesn’t it look appetizing? I had this chicken curry for three meals at a stretch, first with roti (Indian flatbread), then with rice and finally with naan.
Don’t have an instant pot or pressure cooker, use the same steps to cook chicken curry in a pan. After adding chicken to the pan, cover pan with a lid and cook for about 15 minutes. Stir every 3-4 minutes, so the chicken does not stick to the pan. You would need to double the amount of water (1 cup) when cooking in a pan.
Try this Chicken Curry instant pot recipe and let me know how you like it.
- Recipe posted 3 months ago: Bell Pepper and Potato Stir Fry
- Recipe posted 6 months ago: Vegan Spinach Tofu Curry
- Recipe posted 9 months later: Potato Curry in Tomato Gravy
Want to find other easy Instant Pot Indian Recipes? Here are 23 Best Instant Pot Indian Recipes for you to try!
Recipe Video
Mom's Chicken Curry - Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 pound Chicken boneless, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
- 3 tbsp Ghee or Oil
- 1 Green Chili Pepper small, chopped (optional)
- 1 inch Ginger finely chopped
- 5 cloves Garlic finely chopped
- 1 Onion medium sized, finely chopped
- 2 Tomato medium sized, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup Water
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 1/4 cup Cilantro to garnish
Whole Spices
Spices
- 2 tsp Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne or Red chili powder
- 1/2 tsp Garam masala
- 1/4 tsp Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Cut the boneless chicken into small pieces, about 1-2 inch in size.
- Heat the instant pot in Sauté mode and add oil to it. Add the whole spices and sauté for 30 seconds to get the aroma.
- Add the chopped green chili, onions, ginger and garlic to the pot and sauté for 4 minutes until they turn golden brown. Keep stirring at regular intervals.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and spices. Sauté for another 4 minutes, while stirring at regular intervals.
- Add the chicken and sauté for 2 minutes. Then add the water and stir it with the chicken. Deglaze and scrape off anything stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Change the instant pot setting to manual/pressure cook mode on high for 5 minutes.
- When the instant pot beeps, quick release the pressure manually. Stir in the lemon juice.
- Garnish with cilantro and chicken curry is ready to serve.
Notes
- If you want to simplify this recipe, skip the whole spices in this recipe.
- To make this less spicy, you can skip the green chili.
- If using bigger pieces of chicken, increase the pressure cooking time to 7 minutes. I used chicken breasts when making this curry, but chicken thighs would work great too.
- This recipe was created in a 6qt Instant Pot DUO60 Multi-use Programmable Pressure Cooker.
Note: Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
Nutrition
If you are looking for more chicken recipes, check out Chicken Korma, Keema Matar, Chicken Chettinad, Saag Chicken and the famous Butter Chicken. Like goat meat, check out our Mutton Curry recipe.
Roy Ainley says
June 10, 2019 at 12:33 pmWe love Curry made in the Pro King Quick, Clean and easy to use, mind you we always cheat with the Paste. We’ve used Shemins Paste for well over a year now. Therefore it makes it a lot easier for us, not only for Curry but Stews,Spare Ribs and Stuffed Peppers etc. Roy Ainley 🍷🍷
Caitlin says
May 30, 2019 at 6:41 amTasty! Very aromatic and has a good level of spice (both in terms of spiciness and flavor). I added sweet potato in as well which helped thicken the curry a bit (I also accidentally added too much tomato so it all evened out 😂) Would definitely do again
Meeta Arora says
May 30, 2019 at 9:17 amHi Caitlin – Glad you enjoyed the chicken curry. Thanks for sharing the changes you made!
Catherine Lawrence says
May 20, 2019 at 6:37 pmThank you for your great recipes and information. I am new to Instant Pot and Curry. I love it though. Do you have a curry mix you recommend? I want to try your mom’s chicken curry recipe. If not, then do you have a brand you like for the individual spices? I will be in town in a day or two where I can buy the seasonings. Forgive me if you have already answered this question!
Thanks!
Meeta Arora says
May 21, 2019 at 8:35 amHey Catherine – Glad to hear you are looking forward to try the recipes. I usually don’t use a curry mix for my cooking, as once you have the main spices, and onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, you can really make any curry. If there is an Indian grocery store in town, then I would highly recommend to go there and you will find most of the spices for a much cheaper price. Otherwise, Walmart and Whole Foods kind of chains also carry a lot of the spices. If you are unable to find a specific spice in the list, just let me know and we can see if it can be skipped or if there is an easy substitute. Hope that helps.
Catherine Lawrence says
May 21, 2019 at 1:17 pmExcellent. I will head to the Indian grocery. Are there other spices you would recommend as staples in your Indian cooking spice rack? Sorry, should have asked this the first time. 🙂
Meeta Arora says
May 22, 2019 at 2:07 pmHi Catherine – No problem at all. I have a post for the various spices used in Indian cooking – https://pipingpotcurry.com/shop/indian-spice-pantry/. I would say go through the top 5 indian recipes you want to try and see the list of spices to buy 🙂
Cari B says
May 2, 2019 at 9:27 amIf using more chicken, would increase the water or leave at half cup?
Meeta Arora says
May 9, 2019 at 9:24 amHi Cari – You can leave the water to be half cup, as chicken releases a lot of liquid when cooking. I hope you enjoy the curry!
Aly says
May 1, 2019 at 10:04 pmI’m eager to try this recipe. We normally get fresh chicken but I have frozen chicken thighs I’d like to use for this recipe. Any tips on what I’d have to modify with the cook time to accommodate for this? I’m using a Lux Mini IP. Thanks!
Meeta Arora says
May 9, 2019 at 9:23 amHi Aly – For this curry, I usually thaw the chicken, cut into pieces and then use. The main reason is frozen chicken can leave a lot of water, which can make the curry to watery. I would love to hear if you try this curry!
Monica says
April 28, 2019 at 12:24 pmThank you for posting step-by-step pictures along with your thorough recipe! It gives me confidence in trying this out.
Meeta Arora says
April 29, 2019 at 11:42 amHi Monica – You are welcome. Would love to hear how the chicken curry turns out!
Maryann says
April 27, 2019 at 11:27 amLove this recipe! Easy for a weekday and my toddler said it was delicious 👍🏽 passed with flying colors!!! Only issue I’ve had is that the curry is watery. I followed your instructions on how much water to put for deglazing but it still feels a bit too watery. Perhaps just decrease the amount of water while deglazing? Also I noticed every time I open the pressure cooker once it’s done I’m not quick enough to get it away from the pot and the steamy water makes it’s way into the pot 😆 Any way to thicken it after it’s made?
Meeta Arora says
April 29, 2019 at 11:50 amHey Maryann – So glad to hear you all, including the toddler enjoy the curry. You can definitely reduce the amount of water for deglazing, it is mainly a safety measure against burn in the instant pot to add liquid as chicken does release a lot of liquid. In addition, you can also put on saute (more) for 2-3 minutes after pressure cooking to dry out the liquid.
sammy says
May 14, 2019 at 1:09 pmI always have Bobs Red Mill potato flakes on hand and I use those to thicken curries. Just add a little at a time and cook for about one min and it thickens curries beautifully.
Meeta Arora says
May 14, 2019 at 3:41 pmThanks a great tip, Sammy. Thanks for sharing!
Jeevan says
April 26, 2019 at 4:46 pmIs the nutritional value for the whole meal or a serving? If a serving… how big is the serving?
Meeta Arora says
April 27, 2019 at 8:59 amHi Jeevan – The nutritional value is per serving and a serving is about one full cup. If you want to reduce calories, then one of the main things to reduce is ghee. Hope you enjoy the curry!
Hina says
April 22, 2019 at 10:16 pmHello I cooked the recipes and it is wonderful but I always have more water but it still is great with rice . Can you tell me the pressure time for whole chicken that’s cut into curry pieces ? It’s weighs 900 g intotal in weight . Do I double ingredients ? And is the pressure time the same ? I have a 8 qz instant pot
Meeta Arora says
April 24, 2019 at 11:23 amHey Hina – Glad you like the chicken curry. I would say you can either reduce the water added initially as chicken does release a lot of liquid when cooked or just put it on sauté mode for a 3-4 minutes after pressure cooking to dry the extra water. If the chicken is cut into small pieces, then the same cooking time will work. If the bone-in pieces are a bit larger, increase pressure cooking time by 2 minutes.
Ramesh says
April 12, 2019 at 9:27 amHi Meeta – I have tried a couple of your recipes and they have turned out great! Thanks for sharing –
Best,
Ramesh
Meeta Arora says
April 12, 2019 at 5:41 pmHi Ramesh – so glad to hear you enjoyed the chicken curry and other recipes. Thank you for sharing back your review!