Crock Pot Thai Chicken Curry
Crock Pot Thai Chicken Curry is one of the easiest meals to make and is so tasty. Curry paste, coconut milk, and ginger add a ton of flavor to this healthy, low-cal, and paleo + gluten-free dinner. Your family will LOVE it!
Friends! It's crockpot time again! This magical pot of cook-my-food-for-me has become a staple around here. Most days I wonder how the heck I lived without one for so long.
Remember back when I thought that crock pots were the domain of frazzled, minivan driving house moms? Boy, was I wrong! They belong to us all. Frazzled moms, cool moms, single dudes, suburban folks, city folks, country folks … crockpots are bringing us all together.
Seriously, what's not to love about quickly throwing a few ingredients in a pot and then coming back for dinner. It's. The. Best.
That's what this crockpot Thai chicken curry is all about. You literally put a couple of ingredients into the pot then come back 4 hours later for dinner. Read: easiest dinner ever!
Video: How to make Thai Chicken Curry {1 min}
I have to tell you … making this crockpot Thai chicken curry was a little funny for me. I never put meat in Thai curry. Never ever. There're always lots of veggies, sometimes tofu, but never meat. This was a first.
The odd time when I've ordered curry with meat at a restaurant, the meat always ends up being kind of tough and disappointing. Not here. No way. The crockpot pulls a David Copperfield and turns the chicken into something super tender and delicious. Pure magic.
In this recipe, I like to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I find they have more flavor than breasts, and they're usually a lot more reasonably priced, too. If you have chicken breasts on hand, you can definitely use those instead.
I've made this recipe so many times now that it has become one of those recipes I don't need a recipe for. That might sound a little strange since I made the recipe. The thing is, after I make a recipe, I often reference it when I make it again.
I swear that's one of the biggest bonuses of having a blog. It's like my own personal recipe folder.
What I've found from making this so many times, is that it's a really flexible recipe. I no longer measure ingredients. I switch up the veggies. I leave the crockpot on a little longer or dig into dinner a little sooner. It always seems to work out.
Those are the best recipes, aren't they? The ones that are flexible enough that you can make on a whim and alter them as you go. They are always my favorite!
What I'm really saying is, “You have the freedom to play around with this recipe.” Or not, it's totally your choice.
Enjoy, my friends!
Video: How to make this Easy Crock Pot Thai Chicken Curry Recipe:
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Easy Family Dinner Recipes:
- Perfect Baked Chicken Breasts
- Asian Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
- Saucy Peanut Chicken with Broccoli and Peppers
- Warm Caprese Pesto Pasta
- Italian Braised Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives
- Easy Butter Chicken
- Cheesy Fajita Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Crock Pot Thai Chicken Curry
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Prep Time: 10 mins -
Cook Time: 4 hours
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Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes
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Yield: 4 servings 1x -
Category: Dinner -
Method: Slow Cooker -
Cuisine: Thai
Description
Crock Pot Thai Chicken Curry is one of the easiest meals to make and is so tasty. Curry paste, coconut milk, and ginger add a ton of flavor to this healthy, low-cal, and paleo + gluten-free dinner. Your family will LOVE it!
Ingredients
- 1 14-ounce can coconut milk
- 1 3/4 cup of water
- 2–4 tablespoons Thai red curry paste (see notes)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (gluten-free, if needed. Sub coco aminos for paleo and Whole30)
- 1 tablespoon palm or coconut sugar (or sub maple syrup or brown sugar. Omit for Whole30)
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce (use Whole30 compliant, if needed)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (cut into 2–3 pieces each)
- 1 large kabocha, cut into 1-inch cubes (or 1 small butternut squash)
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 1–2 chili peppers, if you like extra heat
- 1 large bunch of kale, torn into small pieces (roughly 2 packed cups)
- Optional: cilantro, chili peppers, and lime to serve
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients, except for the kale, into your crockpot and stir together well. Set your crock pot to cook on high for 4 hours.
- After 4 hours, stir in the kale and let it sit while you prepare the rice, cauliflower rice or quinoa to serve.
- Top with a little cilantro, lime, and, if you like it extra spicy, some chopped chili peppers.
Notes
Not all curry pastes are created equal. My favorite is Mae Ploy. If you are unfamiliar with the brand you're using make sure to taste it before adding it to the pot. Some pastes will be all heat and very little flavor. Make sure to read the labels if you're doing The Whole30 Program.
*I had a reader comment that she's experienced the coconut milk separating when she makes Thai curries in her crockpot. I've never had this happen to me before, but if you want to make sure this doesn't happen you can add water to the pot in the beginning and the coconut milk near the end. (Thank you for the tip, Lynda!)
Not as advertised. We followed this recipe to a T and ended up with a watery runny mess, that looked nothing like the photo and closely resembled a chicken squash soup of some sort. I’m not sure why water was added at all, as it only served to water down any creaminess that could have been there.
I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t turn out how you expected.
Great curry, but it was very runny. The can of water thinned the sauce too much. Is there something I am not doing correctly, or should I omit the water?
★★★
You can omit or reduce the water if you want a thicker curry. 🙂
I’m going to try this in a pressure cooker tomorrow (on the balcony) because it’s too hot to cook indoors!
I’ve read the recipe and notes twice but don’t understand about the water. You said a can of water two times. Like a can of coconut water? Or just the coconut water from a can of coconut milk? Or did you mean a cup of water?
Thanks! 🙂
Good call on cooking outside!
After I pour the coconut milk into the pot, I fill the can up with water and add that, too. Since the temperature of the pressure cooker will be so high, I would recommend adding the coconut milk at the end of cooking and adding about a can’s worth of water at the beginning. Most cans of coconut milk are 14 ounces so you’ll need 1 3/4 cup of water. I hope that makes more sense! 🙂
I’m confused…do we put water in it? The video says water but I don’t see anything in the recipe…I feel like I’ll scorch my crockpot without it.
Yes! Step one is to put in all the ingredients except the kale, including one can of coconut milk and one can of water. 🙂
Can I use chicken thighs with their bone in? Does that change the cook time or only affect the end result where I have to deal with the bones?
You can! Bone in chicken thighs work well in this recipe. The cook time will be the same but you’ll need to take the thighs out of the crockpot, shred the meat, discard the bones, then return the chicken to the pot.
Can i omit fish sauce
You can. You may want to add some extra salt at the end as fish sauce is quite salty. 🙂
Absolutely loved this, great recipe, we used
Sweet potato instead of squash and spinach
instead of kale and I added bell peppers
but that’s what is all about making a recipe
your own using what you’ve got in the pantry.
As there are two us this has
made two dinners and two lunches for work.
Just brilliant. Many thanks.
★★★★★
I’m so happy to hear it was a hit!
Can I use chicken breast instead<
You can!
Do you know the time conversions if you wanted to make this in an instant pot?
I don’t but I would guess about 15 mins.
I made this for dinner tonight in my Dutch oven rather than a crock pot (cooked for about 30 minutes) and it was SO GOOD. I’m not a fan of squash, so I left that out and added some green peppers. Seriously I could have drank the sauce. A go-to from now on!
★★★★★
I’m so happy you liked it! Hooray!
Made this for dinner tonight – WOW! So good!
Hooray! So happy it was a hit!
Stepped outside the box and fixed this for my hubs. I chose to use sliced carrots instead of squash since he’s not a fan, and it came out quite good! Thank you for this easy and delicious recipe! Next time I’m adding the chili’s too!
★★★★★
That makes me so happy to hear! Hooray!
Could I sub the kale with broccoli?
I think that would be great! You might want to put it in a few minutes earlier to give it a little extra time to cook. 5-10 extra minutes should do it. 🙂
If you were going to add Currie powder to this recipe, how much would you add? Thank you!
Curry powder (which is an Indian spice) is very different from Thai curry paste and using it will completely change the taste of the recipe. But Indian curry is delicious so it should still taste good. I would start with 2 tablespoons, although you may need to add more at the end.
Do you think I could sub sweet potato for kabocha? Thanks!
That would work!
I work all day, would putting this recipe on low work alright? I haven’t worked with curry paste before so I don’t want to ruin it! Lol
While you could do that, the squash will be very cooked after that long and mostly fall apart. 🙂
Hi – do you know what the conversion is if you were to cool this on low instead of high? 8 hours?
This recipe is really best only cooked for 4 hours. When I’ve tried to cook it longer, the squash gets too soft.
Can this cook on low for 8 hours instead?
I find that the squash doesn’t hold up well after 8 hours. So technically you could cook it for 8 hours, but the squash will pretty much disappear into the sauce after that time.