Chicken Curry – a slow cooker winner!

I have recently become a huge fan of chicken thighs as the price of chicken breast seems to be sky rocketing lately. Plus as well as being far cheaper they are actually tastier and more succulent than breast meat. So becoming bored with roasting thighs with various herbs and spices etc I wanted to find something a bit healthier to do with them. So a few clicks on the computer lead me to Martha Stewart’s recipe for Chicken Curry which was slow cooked and used skinless chicken thigh where the meat was pulled at the end so there were no bones to fiddle with. Her recipe involved putting raw chicken straight into the slow cooker and I knew that the instructions on mine stipulated that only hot food should be put in it from the onset.

Hence I gave Martha’s recipe a complete makeover and also upped the amount of Madras curry powder in it and made the coconut milk with powdered coconut milk to lower the fat content. I have been meaning to enter Dom’s Random Recipes challenge (Belleau Kitchen) for such a very long time and remember last year taking photos of all my cook books for one of his challenges but time has always worked against me. Then recently on a random recipe challenge the “randomater” wanted me to make something with lobster so I gave up on that month! This month Dom just wanted a healthy recipe (he’s not been a well bunny recently) from the internet or a book so finally after a year I am entering the Random Recipes challenge.

With all the changes I made to the method of this recipe I had no idea if it would work but I’m pleased to say it was really delicious and was enjoyed by myself, my husband and son. My daughter won’t touch chicken thigh meat so the next day with the portion that was left over I made 2 portions of soup by adding some chicken stock and a bit more coconut milk powder – now that’s thrifty! I’m also entering Credit Crunch Munch as all the ingredients in this dish are really inexpensive. This challenge is run by myself and Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and being hosted by Anneli at Delicieux this month. Finally I am also entering my curry into Javelin Warrior’s Cookin w’luv Made with Love Mondays challenge as this dish is made from scratch.

I served my curry with some Mint Raita which I made with Greek yogurt mixed with some freshly chopped mint leaves and chunks of cucumber. I also made a tomato and red onion relish to which I would have added some chopped coriander if I’d had some and then I added a ramekin of mango chutney to the line up. We’ve even been known to serve sliced banana with our curries!

Here’s a step by step guide:

A delicious Chicken Curry that you can enjoy without a guilty conscience!

5 from 13 votes

Print

Chicken Curry

A delicious slow cooked, pulled chicken thigh curry which is low in fat and high on taste!

Course Main

Cuisine Indian

Keyword Chicken, crockpot, slow cooker

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 4 hours 35 minutes

Total Time 4 hours 50 minutes

Servings 4

Author Camilla

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp Rapeseed oil
• 1 Kg Chicken thighs skinned
• 2 Onions finely sliced
• 30 g Ginger root finely diced
• 8 Cloves garlic thinly sliced
• 4 tbsp Madras curry powder
• 2 tsp Cumin
• 2 tsp Coriander
• 2 tsp Course salt
• 8 tsp Coconut milk powder mixed with 500mls warm water
• 250 g Frozen peas
• Coriander to garnish optional

Instructions

1. In a frying pan brown the chicken thighs in 1 tbsp of oil.
2. Place in the slow cooker.
3. Then add another tbsp of oil and fry the onion gently for a few minutes.
4. Add the garlic, ginger, salt, cumin, coriander and curry powder.
5. Cook for another couple of minutes.
6. Add the coconut milk, then add the onion mixture to the chicken breasts.
7. Cook on high for about 4 hours.
8. Then add the peas and cook for a further 20 minutes
9. Meanwhile ransfer the chicken to a bowl and shred on a chopping mat.
10. Put the chicken back in the slow cooker to heat up and mix with the sauce.
11. Serve on a bed of rice and garnish with coriander.