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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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.
My family liked it.
I’m so happy to hear it was a hit!
I’m just a little confused. In the video you add water first and cook it for 4 hours and in the end you add the coconut milk. Whereas the recipe says to add everything including the coconut milk in the beginning. Which way work best to avoid curdling. Thank you 🙂
I’ve made this many times successfully by adding the coconut milk at the beginning BUT a few people have told me that they experienced the coconut milk curdling when doing it this way. To be on the safe side, I now recommend adding it at the end. 🙂