Chicken Curry Recipe
Published August 5, 2024. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This delicious homemade Chicken Curry Recipe is loaded with spices and herbs and slowly simmered with caramelized onions and tomatoes. The flavors are incredible, and you’ll never want store-bought curry again.
Making the same chicken dishes repeatedly can be bland for you and your family. Break out of your regular routine by making my delicious Arroz con Pollo or Butter Chicken.
Chicken Curry
Chicken curry is a classic Indian dish of seasoned and sometimes marinated chicken cooked in a sauce made of spices, herbs, caramelized onions, and tomatoes. The word curry comes from the Southern Indiana word Kari, which means “sauce.” My personal favorite recipe is red curry.
There are several different types of curry, but the most common ones are red, yellow, and green. Green and yellow stem from Thailand, while red originated in India and is said to be the original.
- Green curry is the spiciest of the three curries, loaded with spicy green chilies, eggplant, lime leaves, ginger, garlic, basil, and turmeric.
- Yellow curry is extremely popular and is often associated with coconut curry since it contains coconut cream. It is medium in spice, usually served with chicken and vegetables, and heavy on turmeric.
- Red curry originates from India and is said to be the original curry. It is mild in spice and loaded with assorted spices and fresh produce for a flavorful taste.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Oil – Any neutral flavored oil will work for this recipe.
- Spices — I used a combination of whole cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, coriander seeds, cloves, and black peppercorns, all of which can be ground. I also used ground turmeric, coriander, cumin, and chili powder.
- Onions — You can use red, white, yellow, or sweet onions. However, red onions are most commonly used in Indian cuisine. You’ll also need garlic cloves.
- Ginger – Fresh peeled ginger is used in this recipe. Substitute with a 1/2 teaspoon of ground.
- Tomatoes – Any fresh in-season ripe tomato can be used. Substitute with drained canned diced tomatoes.
- Chicken – You can use boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs.
- Herbs – I finish the curry with fresh cilantro, but only if you serve it right after that.
- Seasoning – Coarse salt and pepper are used.
How to Make Chicken Curry
Grind or crack fresh whole peppercorns and whole coriander seeds.
Heat the cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon stick pieces, cracked peppercorns, and coriander seeds in a small amount of oil over low heat. At this point, you can grind them in a mortar and pestle if you want.
Sliced red onions and spices should be caramelized, which will take 30-40 minutes.
Add the garlic and ginger and cook for just a few minutes while stirring. Only use fresh garlic and ginger, and be sure to mince them finely.
Sprinkle in the turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, and chili powder, and mix in completely.
Pour the pureed tomatoes into a saucepan and cook over low heat for 20 to 30 minutes or until they become a paste.
Season with salt and finish with fresh chopped cilantro. Only finish with cilantro if using it right away; if you are storing it, then use the cilantro when adding it to something that will be served immediately after cooking.
Once your homemade Indian curry is finished, you can store it in the refrigerator or freezer or use it right away. Chicken curry is incredibly easy to make once the curry is finished.
Start by heating some oil in a sauté pan until lightly smoking.
Add the cubed chicken and sear it quickly until it is cooked through about 7-9 minutes.
Finish the chicken by seasoning it with salt and mixing it in with some homemade Indian curry.
Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro and serve with vegetables, rice, and naan.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: For freshness, you can make this chicken curry up to 2 days ahead.
How to Store: This will hold in the refrigerator covered up for up to 4 days. It will also freeze well covered for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator for 1 day before reheating.
How to Reheat: To reheat the chicken curry, return it to a pan and cook over low heat until hot.
Recipe Chef Notes + Tips
- I use whole spices instead of ground that are also toasted. These will break down into the curry as it cooks. Yes, there still may be some chunks of spices in there, and if you do not like that, then I recommend using ground spices.
- The browning of the chicken will help bring about more flavor.
- You can roughly chop the tomatoes, finely mince them, or place them in a blender to rough puree, which is what I did.
- Chicken curry is commonly served and eaten with long-grain rice and some bread.
- Other popular curries are Massaman, Panang, Madras, Korma, and Vindaloo.
- Yellow and green curry will have different ingredients than this typical Indian curry.
More Chicken Recipes
Video
Chicken Curry Recipe
Ingredients
For the Curry:
- 3 tablespoons neutral-flavored oil
- 8-10 cardamom pods
- 3 broken pieces of cinnamon stick
- 2 tablespoons cracked coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon cloves
- 1 ½ tablespoons cracked black peppercorns
- 2 peeled thinly sliced red onions
- 8 finely minced garlic cloves
- 2 teaspoons peeled and finely minced fresh ginger
- 1 ½ tablespoons turmeric
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 ½ tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
- 8 roughly chopped vine-ripe tomatoes, or 5 cups roughly pureed
- coarse salt to taste
For the Chicken:
- 3 tablespoons neutral-flavored oil
- 3 pounds of cubed boneless skinless chicken breasts
- coarse salt to taste
- ¼ cup finely minced fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Curry: Add the oil to a saucepot over medium-low heat and add in the cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, and peppercorns and cook for 3 to 4 minutes to bring out some aromatics and flavor.
- If you don't want these large spices in the sauce, it is best at this point to remove the spices and grind them down using a mortar and pestle and return them to the pan. If you plan to cook the sauce for long periods, the large spices will eventually break down.
- Next, add the onions and caramelize until soft and dark brown, which takes about 30 minutes, while frequently stirring.
- Next, stir in the garlic and ginger and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or just until you smell it.
- Stir in the turmeric, coriander, cumin, and chili powder and cook for 2 to 3 minutes over low heat.
- Pour in the tomatoes and stew over medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until it becomes thick like a paste. Finish with salt.
- Chicken: Add the oil to a large frying pan over high heat. Once lightly smoking add in the chicken and cook for 7 to 9 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through.
- Season with salt, add the homemade curry, and stir to combine over medium heat.
- Finish with cilantro and serve with optional cooked long-grain white rice, steamed peas, carrots and potatoes, and naan.
WOW! Someone else who works primarily from whole herbs and spices. Your mixture is similar to my curry mixture, tho I also add Fenugreek, which is where I think the curry flavor really comes from. I’m really liking your recipes!
Thank you so kindly!
At the end of prepping the spices for the curry, could you add a bit of stock or juice from the tomatoes enough to loosen it, then pour through a sieve to eliminate most pieces of the spices?
Not sure if that would affect the end flavor…..
You could. I would rather grind them down using a mortar and pestle.
Is this a spicy (as in hot spicy) 🌶️ or is it spicy as in spices flavored? Hoping it’s the latter bc I really want to try the recipe, but I’m allergic to spicy 🌶️ food.
The recipe sounds AMAZING!!! 😋😋
comfortably spicy.
I have a question about the recipe, do you use green or black cardamom pods? I am assuming green but they have different flavors.
green
Thank you ChefBilly fab recipe 😁😋👋
So the pods, cinnamon sticks, cloves are left whole? I’d hate to bite into that! Have I missed something?
They cook down quite a bit after all that time, however, you can remove them if you’d like. It is normal in traditional Indian cuisine to have these big pieces of spices in there.
I’m wanting to make this this week. Just making sure I have it right, you don’t remove the cloves or pods at any time?
Thanks
I do not. They cook down. However, if it weirds you out, you can remove them.
This recipe just made all the prepared curry taste subpar…
LOVE LOVE LOVE and will always make it this way from now on
thank you so kindly!!
This is as authentic as they come. My mother always said she hated curry anything. I believe she never tried it but had a pre-determined opinion based on all Indian food culture. She said she didn’t like what the food smelled like while it was cooking. She was kind of an Italian food snob and Indian food has a very different spice profile than what she was used to. One day after she was diagnosed with dementia, we took her to a restaurant that had curry chicken, which my husband and I typically get. By the time it was served, she had forgotten that we ordered it. She looked curiously at the serving plate and I asked her if she wanted some and she said “sure.” She liked it!! I didn’t remind her what it was for fear that her life-long perceived distaste for it would emerge. Some memories are best left undisturbed. Why would I want to spoil her newly found food pleasure? Every positive experience was a plus. I made it at home after that to her delight. ❤️
Thanks for sharing that story!
It was just amazing
thanks for giving it a shot!!
Yes! This was probably my 5th time trying to make a good curry; this time is was perfect! Funny this is it’s similar of recipes I had precious tried; details – cooking the spices and caramelizing the onion made a HUGE difference instead of ok it was incredible. Oh, the little details that made such an impact!
I tried this recipe to kick up our pallet. It was delicious. However, next time I’m using ground cinnamon and clove. I used whole cloves because one Tablespoon of ground seemed like a lot. And I brock up cinnamon sticks. In the end, everytime I bit into a clove, my tongue went numb. I’ll probably dry roast the spices because they burned when the onions cooked down and were bitter. But the dish was delicious! My husband loved it. Will definetely try again with the above mention changes. Thanks
Hi Billy
Can we use Kashmiri chilli or regular chili powder we use to make chilli.
Kashmiri is deadly, Ive got tons of that and some of the other stuff
Please let me know
Thanks
yes you can.
I’ve noticed a lot of curry recipes use garam masala. What is your take on that? Is there a specific reason why you didn’t include that in this recipe? Do the spices that you toast at the beginning act as a substitute for garam masala? Thanks!
Is it chili powder as in what we put in American chili or chili powder as in something like cayenne ?
American chili powder, which is a blend of dried chiles that are ground up.
Indian curries could be so intimidating to make at home but your videos are so helpful to overcome that fear. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
This dish is so tasty! I love it! Love chicken curry.
I have many curry dishes in my time but this is hands down the best! The flavor is delicious!
I love how you broke down the whole process. So easy to follow without feeling intimidated. Thank you!
So many delicious flavors in one dish! I love adding Jasmine Rice to complete my meal!