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 naturally paleo + gluten free dinner.
Friends! It's crock pot 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 … crock pots 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 crock pot Thai chicken curry is all about. You literally put a couple 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 crock pot 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 crock pot 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 flavour 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 crock pot 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! 🙌
If you make this Crock Pot Thai Chicken Curry make sure you snap a pic and tag @theendlessmeal on Instagram so I can like and comment on your photos. I love seeing TEM recipes you create!
- 1 - 14 ounce can coconut milk, plus 1 can of water (see notes)
- 2-4 tablespoons Thai red curry paste (see notes)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce (gluten free, if needed. Sub coco aminos for paleo)
- 1 tablespoon palm or coconut sugar (or sub maple syrup or brown sugar)
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2-3 pieces
- 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
- Place all the ingredients, except for the kale, into your crock pot 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.
*I had a reader comment that she's experienced the coconut milk separating when she makes Thai curries in her crock pot. 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!)
More delicious Thai Chicken recipes:
Crock Pot Thai Chicken Soup
Sticky Thai Peanut Chicken Wings
Grilled Chicken Pad Thai
Mini Thai Chicken Satay Skewers with Peanut Dipping Sauce
Thai Peanut Pomegranate Chicken
Grilled Thai Chicken with Spicy Almond Satay Sauce
Coconut Oil Fried Peanut Chicken with Thai Honey Butter
Kristen Stevens
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Kristen is the person working behind the scenes at The Endless Meal. She takes all the pics, creates all the recipes and eats all the leftovers. 
I had such high hopes for this recipe. It looks so creamy and yummy in the video. The ingredients were all so great and it was so easy. Sadly, my coconut milk separated (I didn’t read the comment about adding it at the end until after I had put it in) and my squash (butternut) did not hold up very well. Also, as mentioned in some of the other comments, I found it to be very watery. I used the Thai kitchen red curry paste, but it was way too hot.
I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out for you. I would really recommend trying to find one of the two curry pastes I recommend in the recipe. I’ve had the same experience as you had with Thai Kitchen so I steer clear of that one now. The other two are really flavorful but mild. I’m going to make the note about the coconut milk a little more prominent so no one misses it.
Awesome recipe. You earned me huge brownie points tonight!
I’m so happy to hear that! Yay for brownie points!!
How many kale do you use? I am Trying This for the first time with a slow-cooker. Pictures look great
About 2 packed cups, or about 4 large stems of kale. 🙂
I am excited to try this recipe. My family can eat quite a bit and I’m thinking of doubling the recipe. This will also be my first ever crock-pot-meal! Should I be concerned with doubling the recipe and having everything fit in the crock-pot? I’m 90% positive I have the same brand crock=pot as you just have to check on the size of it. But, is it reasonable to double the recipe, or would it create issues in the cooking time/overflow etc.
I actually had to pour water into my crock pot to measure how big it is. Ha! You’d think they would write that on it somewhere! It’s 12 cups, so about 3 quarts.
It honestly makes quite a bit. Remember that you serve it with rice so the portion sizes can be very generous. It does fill the crock pot so I wouldn’t double it. If you’re feeling concerned you could try adding an extra piece of chicken as I’m sure that would fit. 🙂
Great recipe!!! Thai is always a hard cuisine to make and my husband normally hates it when I attempt it…. this one is an exception, he had multiple servings!!
One thing that I Did differently was blend all of the butternut squash right before putting the kale in. It made it much creamier! Next time, I’m going to try shrimp instead of chicken to shake it up!!!
Again, thanks for a great recipe!!!
I love your idea about blending the squash! I’m stealing that one next time I make this. 🙂
How do you blend the squash without blending the chicken if its all mixed together in the crock pot?
I’m worried about the coconut milk separating like the one reader said. Can you tell me which coconut milk you use that way I can avoid this problem?
I always use Aroy-D. It’s full fat and does not have any additives. You can always mix the coconut milk in at the end and just let it warm before you serve it. 🙂
Was quite disapointed with this recipe. I am an experienced cook. I used organic coconut milk, Mae Poy curry paste, and 1/3 less water and followed everything else, and it was a big pot of wateryness (the “sauce” consistency and look was like water), the taste was watered down too. Too bad.
I;m so sorry to hear you are disappointed with the recipe.
What brand of coconut milk do you use?
I always use Aroy-D full fat (60%) coconut milk in the cans. 🙂
How many does this serve?
This makes 4 generous servings. 🙂
I really liked the flavor in this dish, but mine was a little too watery. I will make it again with less added water and adding the chili peppers you suggested for more flavor and spice. I didn’t cut the chicken and after 4 1/2 hours on high it shredded quite well! I’ll make this again. Thank you!
I’m sorry it turned out a little too watery for you, but happy to hear you like the flavor!
This recipe looks delish but fyi your site or these ads have some sort of bug. This page keeps crashing my computer 🙁
Hi Nancie! I’m sorry you were struggling with the site. I’ve had a ton of people visiting over the past few days, so it’s been slower than usual. Working on that!
Hi Kristen,
I will definitely try this recipe. I agree the site is taking a long time to load still, very slow. Do you compress your images before you upload and put them on? Large images are so often a cause of websites taking so long to load, and when this happens some people will not bother to persevere and will go elsewhere.
Can I cook for 8 hrs on low setting? I’d be away longer than 4 hrs. Also, thinking of adding mushrooms and substitute white wine instead of water.
I haven’t tried cooking it for 8 hours on low. There’s certainly enough liquid that you don’t have to worry about it burning. What may happen is that you’ll have very soft butternut squash and chicken that is more like shredded chicken … which aren’t bad things at all! If you try it I’d love to hear how it goes. Good call on the mushrooms and white wine!
Hi! I really enjoyed this recipe : ) I was just wondering do I need to preheat the slow cooker before putting everything in? I wasn’t sure whether putting cold coconut milk in a warm slow cooker would be an issue so i heated up the curry sauce in a pot first, but just wanted to know whether that was necessary…
Thanks in advance 🙂
I don’t heat it up first and have never had any problems with it, but someone had commented that they’ve had curries curdle before when adding cold coconut milk. If you’re concerned about it it might be an idea to heat it first. 🙂
This was lovely. I added a stalk of lemongrass that I cut into thirds and pounded down to release the flavour. I only added 1/2 can of water and found it was a bit too soupy for me. Next time maybe only 1/4 or 1/8 can. I used butternut squash but sweet potato might be another great substitute.
Thank you so much for your feedback! Love that you added lemongrass … yum!
Can I use frozen chicken or should I wait?
I haven’t tried using frozen chicken before. I’d recommend defrosting the chicken in some cold water first. 🙂
Wow, the ads on thus blog are so intrusive…. I just wanted to get your recipe, but I accidentally clicked one of the ads after dodging 6 pop ups with X’s that was trying to force my android to download a virus (marked ad an ‘update’ km spread updated all the way),I understand wanting to make money off your blog but thus just turned me off it completely. I can’t risk my phone veins bricked over a curry crock pot recipe.
I’m so sorry that the ads have been giving you problems. I’ve recently hired a new company to take care of the ads, and clearly some adjustments need to be made. There should never be popup or spam ads. I really appreciate you letting me know about this and have already reached out to the company who manages my ads so I can deal with this.
Are nutrition facts using light or regular coconut milk? Thanks!
Regular coconut milk. 🙂
Recipe looks great! I was wondering if the nutrition facts posted include the rice as a side dish or if it is the chicken and sauce alone?
The nutritional facts are for the chicken and sauce only. If you want to switch it up, quinoa is also great with this dish!
Hi Kristen!
I just got myself a brand spanking new large sized (I previously had a teeny weeny one :P) slow cooker and have been searching for great slow cooker recipes – this looks awesome! I’m so going to try it out later this week.
Thanks for sharing!
<3
Slow cookers are the best, aren’t they?! Hope you like this one as much as I do!
Is there a point to the water? I guess I should have used half cause it tastes watered down.
Hi Andrea,
Yes, without the water the curry would be quite dry. What brand of curry paste did you use? They vary in flavor dramatically. I’ve always had great results with the two brands I recommend in the notes below the recipes.
I used Thai Kitchen. Maybe if I use less water. I have made curry on the stove with this brand and it came out well. I will try the recommended brands next time and maybe use just a bit less water.
That’s the one brand I always avoid as I find it has very little flavour compared to the others. If you’re able to find Amoy or Mae Jin I would highly recommend trying them. They’re not very spicy, but they have tons of flavour.
I used Thai kitchen as well, but I had to add 1 and 1/2 small bottles of it which is at least double what she recommends. It was delicious though!
Ya Thai Kitchen is definitely not the most flavorful brand. If you can find the ones I’ve recommended you’ll notice a big difference!
Mine tastes watered down too.
Oh no! What brand of curry paste did you use? Using one of the two I recommend has always given good results for me.
Oh, I love this 🙂 . Thai curry is the best !!! I love using my slow cooker and this is just the perfect recipe.
Thank you!!!
I have the exact same pot! I shoul make this curry; the ingredients sound delicious.
Great minds buy the same crock pots!!
This is a delicious and complete recipe ! Thanks for sharing
You’re welcome!
It’s thai and it’s made in the crockpot? You GET me.
You and I have the same taste, girl!
Beautiful curry, in the slow cooker? Double smiles here! Slow cookers are for everyone 😉 I have 2 <3
You have 2? I’m jealous!
Just so you know I do a Thai curry in the crock pot similar to yours but I use half the amount of water and add the coconut milk in the last hour. Otherwise the milk can curdle from time to time. . I look forward to trying your recipe?
Good to know … I’ve never had that happen before!
Just thinking … does the coconut milk you use have anything added to it? Like guar gum? The few times I’ve used coconut milk that has thickeners added to it I’ve had funny results, whether it’s in curries, sweets or any recipe. I wonder if that’s what happened to you??
I use organic 100% coconut milk. It doesn’t happen all the time, but enough that I now add it at the end! Love you blog !
Lynda
That’s so strange! I’m going to put a note in the post about that. I would hate that to happen to someone trying the recipe. I’d be so disappointed if it were me.
Good idea as I posted on a blog to do a Thai chicken coconut soup that I did in the slow cooker and someone wrote in that theirs separated and I had never had an issue .. Then next time I did it it looked dreadful! BTW pork tenderloin can be used instead of chicken thighs!