Thai Coconut Chicken Curry (made in your slow cooker)
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We all love an easy, flavorful dinner – enter this crockpot Thai chicken curry. This is my go-to when I have a busy week, but don’t want to skimp on tasty, satisfying meals. I’ll show you how to prep everything so the crockpot does all the work, and you can come back to a winning dinner!
This slow cooker chicken curry is everything I want in a comforting, flavor-packed dinner. It starts with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which stay juicy and tender as they simmer in a rich, coconut-based curry sauce. The sauce is built from classic Thai curry staples—red curry paste, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, and coconut milk—with a touch of brown sugar (or palm or coconut sugar, if you have it) to round everything out.
Vegetables make this curry hearty and colorful. Sweet kombucha squash (or butternut squash), yellow onion, chili peppers, and kale soften into the sauce and soak up all that bold flavor. I like to finish each bowl with fresh cilantro, extra chili, and a squeeze of lime for brightness. Spoon it over rice, and you’ve got a cozy, satisfying meal that tastes deeply flavorful and completely complete.
Ingredients to gather
Most of these ingredients are items you likely have on hand. Just grab your chicken and veggies, throw everything in the crockpot, and you’re good to go! Gather these items:
- Chicken: Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are the way to go.
- Chicken stock: Grab store-bought, or make your own. You can adjust the amount according to the consistency you like – check out the notes section under the recipe!
- Thai red curry paste: Not all curry pastes are created equal. Make your own, otherwise make sure to taste a little bit before adding it to assess the heat and flavor.
- Brown sugar: If you have palm sugar or coconut sugar on hand, both of those great options.
- Curry staples: Soy sauce, minced ginger, fish sauce, garlic, and coconut milk.
- Veggies: Kombucha squash (or butternut squash), yellow onion, chili peppers, and kale.
- To serve: I love to serve this with cilantro, chili peppers, and lime!
A few FAQs
Can I use chicken breasts instead of thighs? I prefer boneless, skinless chicken thighs as they’re more flavorful than breasts and usually more reasonably priced. But if you have chicken breasts on hand, you can definitely use those instead.
Can I cook this on low heat for 8-10 hours? Yes, but there’s a caveat. Cooking this curry for longer will make the squash very soft. At least half of it will disappear into the sauce, which isn’t a bad thing! The curry sauce will become thicker and sweeter, with a hint of squash, but it will still be delicious.
Can I make this Thai chicken curry on the stovetop? Yes! You’ll want to simmer the curry for no longer than 1 hour.
Can I use a different color curry paste? Yes! I’ve used red, green, and yellow in this recipe, and they all work well.
Store, reheat, and freeze
Store: First, let your Thai chicken curry cool to room temperature. Once it’s cooled, transfer it to a covered container and refrigerate for up to 4 days. I think it tastes even better the next day, once the flavors have had a chance to deepen!
Freeze: If you want to store it longer, freeze it for up to three months. Thaw it in the fridge overnight before reheating.
Reheat: Warm it on the stovetop or in the microwave. If it’s thickened in the fridge, you can add a splash of water to loosen things up.
Thai Coconut Chicken Curry (made in your slow cooker)
Ingredients
- 1-2 cups chicken stock (see notes)
- 2-4 tablespoons Thai red curry paste (see notes)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce (see notes)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs (cut into bite sized pieces)
- 1 large kabocha squash (cut into 1-inch cubes – or 1 small butternut squash)
- 1 medium yellow onion (chopped)
- 1-2 chili peppers (if you like extra heat)
- 14 ounce can coconut milk
- 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 coconut milk and kale, into your crockpot and stir together well. Set your crockpot to cook on high for 4 hours.1-2 cups chicken stock, 2-4 tablespoons Thai red curry paste, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon minced ginger, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, 3 cloves garlic, 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, 1 large kabocha squash, 1 medium yellow onion, 1-2 chili peppers
- After 4 hours, stir in the coconut milk and kale and let it sit while you prepare the rice, cauliflower rice, or quinoa to serve.14 ounce can coconut milk, 1 large bunch of kale
- Top with a little cilantro, lime, and, if you like it extra spicy, some chopped chili peppers.Optional: cilantro, chili peppers, and lime to serve
Last step:
- After you make this recipe, take a picture with your phone and share it in the comments section below. I love seeing it when you make my recipes!
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
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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. 🙂
Regular coconut milk. 🙂
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.
Great minds buy the same crock pots!!
Oh, I love this 🙂 . Thai curry is the best !!! I love using my slow cooker and this is just the perfect recipe.
Thank you!!!
You and I have the same taste, girl!
You have 2? I’m jealous!
This is a delicious and complete recipe ! Thanks for sharing
You’re welcome!
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!