ChakohEasy & healthy Coconut Chicken Curry made in an Instant Pot in just 30 minutes! This is simple Indian chicken curry recipe is made with ginger, garlic, onions alongside flavorful spices, and finished with creamy coconut milk. Pair this dairy-free & gluten-free curry with fragrant basmati rice.
This is the best coconut and chicken curry that you'll ever make. Personally, I love curries because they are quick, full of flavor and tastes just as good the following days. This curry is also incredible because it uses basic ingredients,similar to my chicken curry with potatoes, that you most likely have in your kitchen right now.
It's so healthy because it's made from scratch and also very quick to make (thanks to the instant pot), you have control over the ingredients in this curry and the most important part is that this curry is mild, therefore perfect for kids (even picky eaters). Your family will love this recipe!
How to make Coconut Chicken Curry?
Before you start making this coconut chicken curry make sure you have all the ingredients prepped and on hand. Dice your onions and cut your chicken thighs into pieces. Keep the spices ready. Now let's start making this delicious curry.
- Set the Instant Pot on sauté mode and let it heat.
- Add ghee or oil along with the cumin seeds. Saute for 30 seconds until they release their aroma. Cumin seeds are optional but do add a wonderful flavor to the curry. If you have ghee, I highly recommend to use it, as it adds so much more flavor to this curry.
- Now add the diced onions, garlic, ginger, and sauté them for a few minutes.
- When the onions turn golden brown, add the tomato puree along with the spices and saute for an additional 2-3 minutes. I used canned tomato puree, you can also use fresh tomato puree in this recipe. Blend 2 tomatoes to make a puree.
- Add the chicken pieces to the pot. Stir and sauté for 3-4 more minutes. Do not skip this step, as it adds lots of flavor to the curry.
- Then add the water and mix well. Deglaze well and make sure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Switch the Instant Pot to manual or pressure cook on high pressure for 4 minutes with the vent in sealing position.
- As soon as the Instant Pot beeps, quick release the pressure manually and open the lid.
- Now stir in the coconut milk, garam masala and let it simmer on sauté mode for 4-5 minutes until the sauce is thickened to your preference. Use full-fat canned coconut milk. I used Chakoh brand coconut milk as it is so much more creamier than other brands I have tried.
- You are almost ready! Stir in the lime juice and garnish with cilantro.
- The coconut chicken curry is ready to be served with flavorful rice or Indian flatbreads. Enjoy!
How to serve this Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk?
You can whip up some basmati rice or cumin rice to soak up all that saucy goodness. This curry goes also very well with Indian flatbreads like roti, naan or paratha with a side of yogurt.
Leftovers and Reheating Tips
Seal any leftover curry in an airtight container, it should last up to 3 days in the refrigerator. But if you'd like to make more for the week or month ahead, I suggest you freeze it. Make sure it's fully cooled down before sealing. Once the curry is frozen it will keep well for 3-4 months.
You can reheat the curry in the microwave or on the stovetop while stirring well.
Tips & Variations for making the best coconut chicken curry
- You can use skinless chicken breast or chicken thighs to make this curry.
- Add all the veggies! You can add roasted cauliflower, broccoli florets, green peas and even baby spinach at the end! If you want to add potatoes or sweet potatoes, cut them in large pieces and add them just before pressure cooking.
- You don't want chicken? No problem! You can still make a delicious curry using shrimps like in this Coconut Shrimp Curry.
- For a plant-based version of curry, try this Vegetable Korma with coconut milk which is also made in an instant pot.
Looking for more quick & delicious instant pot recipes? I've got you covered!
- Chickpea Curry with Spinach (Chana Saag) - A healthy vegan and gluten-free curry with chickpeas and spinach.
- Creamy Mushroom Pasta - Spaghetti tossed in a creamy cheese sauce loaded with mushrooms.
- Vegetable Biryani - Fragrant basmati rice cooked with lots of vegetables, and aromatic whole spices and herbs.
- Madras Lentils - Restaurant-style Dal Makhani made in the pressure cooker, it's rich, creamy, and flavorful.
Instant Pot Coconut Chicken Curry
Equipment
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Ghee or Oil
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera) optional
- 1 cup Onions yellow diced
- 1/2 tablespoon Ginger paste or grated
- 1/2 tablespoon Garlic paste or minced
- 1 cup Tomato puree canned or blend 2 tomatoes to make a puree
- 1 pound Chicken thighs skinless and boneless, cut into 1-1.5 inch pieces.
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1 cup Coconut Milk canned, full-fat
- 1 teaspoon Garam Masala
- 1 tablespoon Lime juice
- Cilantro to garnish
Spices
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin (Jeera powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder or paprika, adjust to taste
- 1 teaspoon Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Start the instant pot in Sauté mode and let it heat. Add ghee (or oil), and then add cumin seeds. Let them sizzle for 30 seconds.
- Add onions, ginger and garlic paste. Sauté for about 3 minutes until the onions turn golden brown.
- Add tomato puree and spices. Mix and let it sauté for 2-3 minutes.
- Add chicken pieces to the pot. Stir and saute the chicken for about 3-4 minutes. Do not skip this step, as it adds lots of flavor to the curry.
- Add the water and stir. Press cancel and close lid with the vent in sealing position.
- Start the instant pot in Manual or Pressure cook mode on high pressure for 4 minutes.
- When the instant pot beeps, quick release the pressure manually and open the lid.
- Stir in the coconut milk, garam masala and let it simmer on sauté mode for 4-5 minutes or until the sauce is thickened (see notes to thicken sauce).
- Stir in the lime juice and garnish with cilantro. Coconut Chicken Curry is ready to be served. Enjoy over basmati rice or with naan.
Notes
Note: Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
Made this tonight and absolutely loved it! It was so flavorful and had just the right amount of heat. I didn’t have tomato purée so used tomato sauce and it still turned out fine. My husband said it was the best Indian dish I’ve made at home yet!
Hi Lydia - So happy to hear that. Thank you sharing back 🙂
Was super bland & the sauce was not thicker as shown in the photo. It was actually rather runny. Followed directions to T. Not impressed.
Hi T - Sorry to hear you did not enjoy the curry. I have heard the sauce being thin when someone used coconut milk from a carton, in place of a can. I suggest to really saute the chicken well before pressure cooking and then after adding the coconut milk at the end, put the curry in saute mode. This helps the coconut milk to thicken and give the creamy sauce.
I prefer coconut milk powder what substitute would you use?
Hi Martha - Sorry, I have never tried this recipe with coconut milk powder, so cannot say how it would work out.
This looks delicious! You mention adding the vegetables at the end. Clarifying since I plan to make this soon - in the end, as in when you add the coconut milk, in which case, I assume the vegetables should already be cooked?
I'm also going to try to cook it with the rice. I've done that before with other recipes and it always turns out delish! That and upping the spices for more flavor (based on comments) will be the only changes I make. 🙂
Thanks for a great looking recipe!
Hi Karen - Thank you. Yes, if adding veggies such as broccoli or cauliflower, you can roast them before and then add at the end. You can add any greens such as chopped spinach or kale at the end without cooking. For root vegetables, such as potato or sweet potato, you can cook them along with the chicken. Cut into large chunks, so they cook well in 4 minutes under pressure, but don't get mushy. Cooking this recipe with pot-in-pot white rice will work well. I hope you enjoy the curry!
I made this last night. No substitutions. It was fantastic!!! Though my husband and I now live in the country, with no Indian restaurants around, we both enjoyed plenty of good Indian food when we lived in the city. This was as good as, or better, than what we got in restaurants. We like mild curries so it was perfect for us
We liked it so much I doubled the recipe and am making it again right now, with potatoes and sweet potatoes added. 😊 Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi Marybeth - So good to hear that. Thank you so much for sharing it. 🙂
Where is the curry. You state cumin. Is this an error. I substituted Curry. This is a curry dish! I omitted the tomato, no cumin. Thickened with cornstarch and served over rice. Pretty good.
Hi Janis - Great question! In India, typically there is no such thing as curry powder. People use basic spices such as turmeric, coriander, cumin, etc. These have been combined to make a blend called curry powder. Which even though is not authentic, is a great convenience. So it is totally fine to substitute in curry recipes as needed. I am glad you liked the chicken curry. Thank you for sharing back the changes you made.
Are you supposed to cook the chicken before you put it in? Or just add in raw chicken???
Hi Sera - No you add uncooked chicken in this recipe. It will get cooked in the suggested pressure cooking time. The instant pot also takes time to come to pressure and release pressure, which kind of adds to the time the chicken is actually cooking in the pot. Hope that helps!
I found this recipe a bit plain. My wife and I both felt like it had a very mild coconut and curry flavor.
The only change we made was to substitute the kashmiri powder with 1/2 paprika, 1/2 cayenne because we didn't have that. Would this have made enough of a difference in the outcome? We have bought some kashmiri powder now for other recipes so if we retry we would use that this time.
Is the coconut milk supposed to be canned? The recipe did not specify and we used unsweetened Silk coconut milk from a carton. I noticed your coconut shrimp curry recipe actually has specified canned milk so I think that might have been part of where we went wrong...
Any advice on improving flavor here? I was considering just doubling all the powdered spices. My wife used to get a Goan shrimp curry at an Indian restaurant and I was hoping this my scratch a similar itch (but I don't eat shrimp so the chicken was a plus).
Hi Jon - Thank you for sharing back your experience. The addition of paprika and cayenne was a great substitute for kashmiri powder and is not the reason. I do use canned coconut milk in this recipe. I have now added that detail to the recipe (thanks!). This curry is on the milder side, so please feel free to double the spices to taste.
For a Goan flavor, I would highly recommend the chicken vindaloo curry. This one has a lot of flavor from spices and the tamarind paste adds a wonderful flavor. I would love to hear if you try it.
Meeta,
Thank you for the feedback.
We have bought Kashmiri powder and corrected to use the canned milk. We are now very satisfied!
The only changes we make at this time are:
- 1.5x everything but chicken because we prefer to have more curry than chicken and we like leftovers!
- Add 2tsps cayenne pepper. It may not be authentic to make this dish so hot but we really like it that way!
It has now become a regular bi-weekly meal for us!
Thanks for the suggestion on Vindaloo! We follow a similar recipe but may give yours a try one day!
Thank you for sharing back, Jon. I am glad that you are satisfied with the recipe. I do love spicy too, and adding cayenne is great to amp up the heat in this recipe.
I don't understand the amount of tomato puree. It turned out like a chicken tomato bisque. The tomato flavor was so strong I couldn't taste any curry or coconut. I'm curious if that's a typo. I'd think at least half that would be better
Hi Jimmy - Sorry the chicken curry did not turn out well. I wonder if you used tomato paste in place of a puree. About 2 fresh tomatoes blended, will give about a cup of tomato puree.
I love your recipes!! So do my daughters.
Thank you!!!