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.
Table of Contents
Watch How to Make Mom’s 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 water to the pot and deglaze well. The trick is to add less water, as the chicken also releases water.
Change the instant pot setting to pressure cook 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!
Mom’s Chicken Curry – Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
Video
Ingredients
- 1 pound Chicken, boneless, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
- 3 tablespoon 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
- 1/3 cup Water
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 1/4 cup Cilantro, to garnish
Whole Spices
Spices
- 2 teaspoon Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Garam masala
- 1/4 teaspoon Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1 teaspoon 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 3-4 minutes. Do not skip this step, as it adds lots of flavor to the curry.
- 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
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.
This was AMAZING!! We can’t wait to have it again !
Hey Koty – So glad you enjoyed the chicken curry. It is very much my favorite as well!
This was delicious! Thanks so much Meeta 🙂
Yay! Glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing back your review 🙂
Easy to follow and Punjabi hubby enjoyed it so I’d say it’s a hit 🙂
Hey SB – Glad to hear that your husband enjoyed the chicken curry. Thanks for sharing your review!
Thanks for this. This was great. Very easy and quick to make and absolutely delicious.
Hey Raj – Glad you enjoyed the chicken curry. Thank you for sharing your review!
Namaste. I made this for the first time, and I assure you it is not the last. I used fresh tomatoes, rather than tinned. Next time I will double the recipe. It is so flavourful, especially served with basmati rice.
Thank you for sharing!
So glad to hear that you enjoyed the chicken curry. This one is definitely my favorite too. Thank you for sharing your review!
If I were to double this recipe, how would I alter the cooking time?
Hey Lara – The cooking time would remain the same even if you double the recipe. Hope you enjoy it!
This was delicious! I doubled all ingredients except the water, and used 1/2 a jalapeño because it was the only pepper I had. I also used two 14 oz cans of diced tomatoes instead of four fresh tomatoes. I realized later that one can would have been more equivalent to four tomatoes, but it turned out great anyway, just slightly soupy but so tasty! I put in about 8 green cardamom pods because we love cardamom (and I didn’t have any black). My whole family oved it! A real keeper!
Hey Carol – So happy to hear your family loved the chicken curry. This one is certainly close to my heart. Thank you for sharing your review and the changes you made 🙂
I just reread the recipe, and I think I lost the benefit of sautéing the tomatoes that you mentioned, because the diced tomatoes had so much liquid. It was more like boiling than sautéing. As I said, it turned out delicious, but next time I’ll try with fresh tomatoes.
I agree that one can of diced tomatoes would be sufficient with double the recipe. But yes, fresh tomatoes are great for this recipe. Looking forward to hear how it turns out when you try again 🙂
Can I use this to make lamb curry? What would be the time for Manuel Mode? Thanks
Hey Sital – Check the Mutton Curry recipe. It is similar and the cooking time for lamb and goat meat is almost the same – MEAT mode for 20 minutes. https://pipingpotcurry.com/goat-curry-pressure-cooker/
Amazing! I just got my Instant Pot and this was my third time using it. I absolutely LOVE curry, so this only seemed appropriate to try. The flavor was amazing, however, I didn’t have whole cardamom, cloves, or coriander seeds, so I used a random amount of ground. I’m looking forward to trying again with an accurate amount of the whole versions. I also used a jalapeño instead of a milder green chili, which made it extra spicy. My eyes and nose were running and my face was sweaty! I like spicy but it made it hard to appreciate the other flavors. My only other issue was because I added mushrooms, I think I made it a tad too watery. Obviously these were all my errors so I looking forward to trying again and making some adjustments. Thanks to you and your mom for the amazing recipe!!! 🙂
Hey Annie, Glad to hear you tried the chicken curry and are looking forward to try again. You can always skip the whole spices, and still make the curry as it. They are mainly to add flavor, we typically don’t eat the whole spices when eating the curry. Absolutely, also use less of the green chili or again, it can be reduced or skipped. I use birdseye or thai chili, which are also spicy, but are much smaller in size. So if you use a jalapeno, then just use 1/3 of it. Hope you enjoy the curry!
This sounds amazing! Can’t wait to try this! Can you tell me what type of green chili you use in this recipe? Would Serrano peppers be the best?
Hey Mia – Thank you! I usually use Serrano or birds eye chili pepper, so that sounds great. Do adjust the pepper quantity to your taste. Hope you enjoy it!
Thank you for getting back to me! I just finished making this and it is SO delicious. I wasn’t able to find whole black cardamom at my local grocery store, so I look forward to making this again with the cardamom, maybe once I visit an Indian grocery store. The only thing I would modify is the amount of water I used. As you mentioned, using less is better. I doubled the recipe and mine looks to be just a tad soupier than the consistency of your images above. For as much as I LOOOVE Indian food, especially chicken curry, this was my first time braving up to try cooking it. Now I will have to try some of my other favorites from your site 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing!
Mia, so happy to hear you enjoyed the chicken curry. I certainly love this one, as my mom stood with me as we made this recipe. Adding black cardamom is a very subtle change in taste, and you might not even feel too much difference 🙂 Looking forward to hear what else you try!