I fell in love with Indian chicken curry when I was sixteen years old. My friend treated me to lunch at an Indian buffet and from the moment we walked through the door, I was mesmerized by the mixture of aromas. My family owned a restaurant, but it was pure Americana diner style. Hamburgers, hashbrowns, and ham -- you know the type of place. I grew up on American classics, casseroles, and things that went directly from freezer to oven. Until that day, I had never had the pleasure of tasting Indian-style cooking. SIXTEEN YEARS before my first bite of curry. What was I even doing with my life up until that point?! That first taste of Indian food hooked me. My desire for a low carb Indian chicken curry recipe was strong.
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In fact, I had developed a bit of a habit. At least once a week, I would go to one of the local Indian restaurants for lunch. I filled my plate with a variety of things at the all-you-can-eat buffet and stuffed as much food into my body as possible. I'd eat until I could barely move and then go back for more the next week. This continued well into my 20's, gathering my fellow Indian food lovers from work to dine out. Along with the curries, I'd eat bread, rice, mango lassi, samosas, and god knows what else. It got pretty out of hand. Thousands of calories, too many carbs to count, rinse, repeat. I still love Indian chicken curry, but I don't trust myself enough to dine out for it anymore. Instead, I make my own versions of the food I love at home so I can keep myself in check. In my kitchen, I have full control over the ingredients and portions, plus I don't binge until I blow up like Violet Beauregarde turning into a blueberry.
What Spices are in Indian Curry?
There are so many spices used in Indian cuisine. Some you may be familiar with, some may be new to you. Curry leaves, coriander, garam masala, garlic, ginger, chili, cinnamon, pepper, mustard seeds, turmeric, nutmeg, fenugreek, fennel, poppy seeds, cloves, cayenne, and coconut just to name a few.
You don't have to use them all at once, you can experiment with your favorites, play with the quantities, and mix up the combinations. I'll never pretend I can make an authentic Indian chicken curry, but this is a good recipe to get you started playing with spices in Indian curry to develop flavors suited to your palate. A good base for an experimental low carb home cook!
Can I make Indian chicken curry in a slow cooker or crockpot?
In a crockpot, combine chicken, tomatoes, coconut milk, ghee, garam masala, ground ginger, and garlic powder. Mix well to ensure chicken breast is evenly seasoned. Cover the slow cooker and set the temperature to low for 6 hours.
This recipe would also be an excellent candidate for the pressure cooker!
Looking for other low carb chicken recipes?
I have some really popular ones you might want to check out:
- Low carb chicken tetrazzini with zucchini noodles
- Chicken meatballs stuffed with provolone
- Shredded chicken chili
- Garlic parmesan chicken thighs
- Baked cinnamon chicken
- Chicken roulade with spinach-basil pesto
- Creamy garlic chicken soup
- Keto chicken wings smoked with dry rub
- Chili lime chicken drumsticks
Low Carb Indian Chicken Curry Recipe
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken breast
- 2 tomatoes diced
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Cut chicken into bite-sized chunks.
- In a crockpot, combine chicken, tomatoes, coconut milk, ghee, garam masala, ground ginger, and garlic powder. Mix well to ensure chicken breast is evenly seasoned.
- Cover the crockpot with a lid and cook on high for 3.5 hours or low for 6 hours.
- Add salt to taste when serving.
Nutrition
Hi, I'm Tasha–nutritionist, recipe developer, and multi-published cookbook author.
Could this be made in an instant pot as well?
Definitely! I have an Instantpot and have made similar curries in it before. It has the necessary liquid required to bring it to pressure, so I think it would work really great without modification to the ingredients. You'd have to play with the time though, anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes at high pressure. Let me know if you try and I can add a note to the recipe above for other readers. (:
Omg thank you!! Craving some Indian food and this recipe is so simple! Just need to figure out where to get ghee but I have the garam masala from past (not low carb) curry i had made. Looking forward to making this!
Ghee is simply clarified butter. Drain the fat off and you have ghee. At least that is my understanding. I often just make my curries with regular butter and it turns out pretty darn good. A little bit of REAL whipping cream (no carbs, if you get it without the gums and sugars and stuff, in Canada try Avalon dairies, or check your health food stores) adds another dimension and makes it smmother and better. Not so good if you are keeping watch of calories, but worth it. Pretty good in my morning coffee too!
They have ghee at Walmart and its a good price too
Hi,
As you mentioned this can be cooked in pressure cooker as well. But for how long can you leave it in the pressure cooker for it being well cooked?
we made this last night, in an instapot set to slow cooker (so no pressure). I stirred all the ingredients before starting the cooking process. Set the instapot to low and time to 6hrs. About 4.5 hours in I came home from work and I checked on it. The chicken and other ingredients had essentially glued themselves to each other in a central cylinder surrounded by very watery liquid.
I used a wood spoon to separate the mass (it came apart very easily) and continued cooking. I went online to research instapot vs. standard crock pot and found that apparently the instapot on low is cooler than crock pot on low. So I set the pot to High and set time to 2hrs.
The sauce never "sauced" ... the end result was edible but it did not in any way turn "creamy" or anything remotely near creamy. It was far whiter than what's shown in the photo and the spices and I think the fat were visibly separated from the more watery component.
We LOVE indian food and I'd be willing to try the recipe again, we even have a regular crockpot which I could use for a second try but I thought I'd post here to see if maybe what I'm describing may be due to somthing different. My perception is that the chicken (which was thoroughly defrosted and cut up into bite sized chunks prior to cooking) must have released additional water which diluted the coconut milk. I'm wondering if coconut cream might have been a good idea... or maybe briefly browning the chicken prior to starting the slow cooking process.
Great idea! Only thing I would adjust time cooking because anything in pressure cooker will be done in one hour maximum.I'm talking about old cow meat but if you are cooking chicken 30 minutes in pressure cooker is plenty and meat will be shredded in pieces.
This was really good. I added more salt but we love salt. I cooked it on the stove top is a cast iron pan. Winner winner chicken dinner!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe!