Weeknight Chicken Curry is comforting, delicious, and perfect for those busy weeknights. It uses minimal ingredients and requires less than an hour to get dinner on the table! 

Chicken Curry is probably the most vague yet unique dish I have ever come across. Everyone has their own interpretation of a curry, it can be spicy, tomato-based, yogurt based, creamy, yellow, red, vegetarian, vegan…I mean it’s endless.  So what exactly is curry? In my head, curry is either meat or vegetables cooked in spicy, tomato gravy but if you are interested BBC has a great post about it.

If you notice, I hardly ever post non-vegetarian recipes here and I am not vegetarian or anything; It’s just that I absolutely hate dealing with raw meat/poultry/fish but I will happily eat meat-based dishes if you prepare and present it to me. Some of my Nepali readers have been requesting me to post a Nepali Chicken Curry recipe so here I am sharing my go-to recipe for Chicken Curry on days when I am brave enough to deal with raw chicken. I don’t know if this is authentic Nepali recipe, but again what’s authentic?

Every family adds their own spin to chicken curry and it’s pretty rare to find two curries tasting exactly the same. I always preferred my grandmother’s chicken curry over anyone else’s which had extra garlic and less tomato-gravy than my mom’s. I remember my cousin and I always asked our mom’s to make chicken curry like grand mother’s and no matter what they did, it didn’t taste quite the same. I think that’s the beauty of curry – each recipe has it’s own charm and uniqueness. I never paid attention to cooking while I was in Nepal, which I regret now because I have to either call my mom or aunt or just come up with my own version.

This Weeknight Chicken Curry is the latter, which was born out of necessity to make chicken curry with few ingredients, minimal spices, and less than an hour to get dinner on the table.The recipe has a pretty slim ingredient list but I need you to give little more time on certain steps – let the onion soften and brown, allow spices to cook before adding in more ingredients, and let the curry simmer rather than rapidly boil. I have found that a little patience goes a long way in this recipe.

No matter what your interpretation of curry is, I hope you will find a place for this Weeknight Chicken Curry in your kitchen. Here is a short video I made for Instant Pot if you own one. Use sautee function to partially cook the chicken, then switch to rice mode (which is preset for 12 minutes in most instant pot) if you want to cook chicken and rice together.

Weeknight Chicken Curry

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs, boneless, skinless chicken, cubed

• 1 medium onion, sliced

• 2 medium roma tomatoes, chopped

• 1 tablespoon ginger, grated

• 3 garlic cloves, crushed

• 1 tablespoon oil

• 1 tablespoon curry powder

• 2 teaspoon chili powder

• salt, to taste

• 2 green chilies, chopped, optional

• Cilantro, to garnish

Instructions

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and let it brown for 4-6 minutes Then add garlic and ginger.

2. Add chicken to the pot and mix everything together.

3. Add salt, curry powder, and red chili powder to the pot and let it cook for 5-7 minutes.

4. Add tomatoes, chilies to the pot and combine everything together.

5. Lower the heat to low, cover the pot, and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring the pot every few minutes.

6. Serve it hot with rice or naan.

Notes

The recipe can be made ahead time and reheated for later use. Store it tightly covered in the refrigerator within 3-5 days.