Easy to make with basic ingredients – Tomato Coconut Curry Chicken! All prepped and cooked in one pan in about 30 minutes! Gluten Free + Low Carb + Whole30
This recipe is for all my fellow home cooks who are:
✔️bad at meal prep
✔️ hate washing dishes
✔️ would rather be sitting on a couch somewhere else after a long day of work instead of standing in the kitchen
✔️still really want to eat something healthy for dinner
This one’s for you!
How to Make: Tomato & Coconut Chicken Curry Recipe
Altogether this curry can be made entirely in one pan in about 30 minutes with pretty basic ingredients that you layer in in stages.
Steps
Start out by frying up your onion until soft and slightly golden – about 5ish minutes. Once soften, add in the ginger and garlic and cook another minute. Make sure to stir the mixture as it cooks so the garlic doesn’t burn
Moving on, add the spices (cumin, garam masala and salt) along with the two tablespoons of tomato paste. Fry that all up and form a pasty kind of mixture. At this point the pan will start to look pretty dry so do ahead and add in a tablespoon of water just to keep things moving as you cook.
Next, stir in the coconut milk and chicken stock to the spice mixture. Mix and let it all simmer and cook for about 10 minutes to thicken slightly- stir every so often.
After about 10 minutes add the chicken to the pan. Stir well and make sure all the chicken pieces are fully covered in sauce and let cook another 10-15 minutes until it’s all cooked through.
Finally, go ahead and stir in the spinach. Let it cook and wilt – this will only take about a minute and that’s it! Taste and season with a little more salt if needed and add some fresh cilantro for a little added brightness and you’re done.
Questions & Substitutions
Can I use light coconut milk or coconut milk from a carton?
- Ideally no. At most you can use light coconut milk but I’d stay away from carton coconut milk (like the one you might use in cereal). The creaminess of the full fat coconut milk is really important for adding creaminess and silkiness to this dish.
- You can also use unsweetened coconut cream in place of full fat coconut milk.
Can I use chicken thighs instead of chicken breast?
- Yes! It’s an easy substitute – just use skinless thighs cut up in bite sized pieces as you would with the chicken breast.
Serving Suggestions
- If you’re looking to keep this low carb/paleo friendly then serve this over a bed of cauliflower rice to soak up all the extra flavour. The sauce really takes over the flavour of the cauliflower rice making it a great way to double up on veg!
- If you don’t need to keep this paleo then serve over rice or maybe another grain like quinoa or buckwheat. It’s up to you!
More Dairy Free Curry Recipes You Might Enjoy
- Butter Chicken Pumpkin Curry
- Dairy Free Butter Chicken
- Chicken Korma with Coconut Milk
- Tomato & Turmeric Shrimp Curry
- Yellow Cauliflower Chickpea Curry
- Stir Fried Broccoli Potato Curry
Tomato Coconut Curry Chicken
Easy to make with basic ingredients - Tomato Coconut Curry Chicken! All prepped and cooked in one pan in about 30 minutes! Gluten Free + Low Carb + Whole30
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1/2 large | 1 cup chopped white onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 cup full fat unsweetened coconut milk (from a can or coconut cream)
- 1 cup chicken stock (aim for a low sodium stock so you can control the saltiness)
- 1 1/2 pound chicken breasts cut into 1 inch, bite sized pieces (can also use chicken thighs)
- 3 cups spinach
- fresh cilantro for topping
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until golden.
- Add the garlic and ginger and cook another minute, stirring the whole time. Stir in the tomato paste, garam masala, cumin and salt. Mix well for about a minute until the spices are fragrant. Add a tablespoon of water to the pan when it starts to look dry.
- Stir in the coconut cream and chicken stock. Simmer on a low heat about 5-7 minutes until the mixture begins to thicken. Add the chicken and simmer another 10-15 minutes until cooked through.
- Stir in the spinach in the final minute of cooking to wilt. Top with fresh cilantro if desired and serve over rice or cauliflower rice and enjoy.
Nutrition Information
Serving Size:
1 Calories: 342Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 0gCholesterol: 83mgSodium: 500mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gProtein: 36gOther Coconut Chicken Recipes You Might Enjoy
Sammy says
This was amazing! satisfied my curry cravings while not being spicy for my partner taste. I added some fresh tomatoes and tumeric as well and didn’t have chicken stock but using chicken thighs bone in was flavorful enough, great and simple!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Sammy! So thrilled to hear you guys both enjoyed this! Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review 🙂
Carol says
I am going to try this recipe without the chicken and spinach but with broccoli florets and red bell pepper to make it vegetarian. Does that sound like it should work!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Carol! I do think that would work – I’ve made this adding broccoli and I really like how to soaks up the sauce!
Chin says
Hi Sarah,
There are so many variations of curry recipes and I’ve always been very hesitant to try them. However, as far as a beginner’s guide for trying one, this is a recipe worth repeating!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Chin! Thank you so much – that’s totally my goal here so I’m so glad to hear that 🙂
Lindy says
Although I adapted this recipe, the changes were not major and the results were delicious! I thought your proportions of spices were spot on for my taste; I did set out some additional heat for my husband (McCormick organic red curry powder), who oohed and ahhed, saying the meal tasted like something from a great Indian restaurant, and requested the leftovers for his lunch for work. My changes: I used a whole large yellow onion, chopped, instead of half a white onion; caramelized the onion in both coconut oil and ghee, and then added 1/2 of a large yellow heirloom tomato to saute with it before adding the other ingredients for the sauce. I used organic chicken drumsticks which were a great price (instead of chopped chicken breasts) and needed to brown them first while making the sauce, which took additional time, but then when I added the sauce to the browned chicken, the browning added additional depth of flavor. In the sauce, I used my homemade roasted garlic, mashed, rather than raw minced garlic, and used ginger paste rather than minced ginger. I am forbidden spinach (a favorite food but it is the top of the list of oxalates that caused me big kidney stone issues) so just used a bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped, in the sauce. We served it over jasmine rice. Yummy. I think the sauce would be great with lamb as well. Thank you for an excellent recipe.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Lindy! That all sounds SO delicious – I like the way you think! Your additions/changes are making me hungry 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind words, and for taking the time to come back and let me know how it went!
Louise says
I would like to use shrimp instead of chicken. Would that work with this recipe?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Louise! Yes you can! I would recommend adding the shrimp towards the end of the recipe along with the spinach. Bring the sauce up to a boil then add the shrimp – they should cook through within about 2 minutes. Hope you enjoy it@
Elaine says
I found this dish very hot so next time I will halve the Garam masala. Lovely flavour just that it burnt our mouths and the garam masala does have cayenne pepper in it.
Sarah Nevins says
Ooh interesting! I think the cayenne might be more specific to the type of garam masala you use. I just looked it up to double check and it doesn’t seem like cayenne is usually included in garam masala (thought I could be wrong!). At any rate I’m glad you still enjoyed it somewhat through the spice!
LB says
Do you think this recipe would work to double?
Sarah Nevins says
That shouldn’t be a problem but keep in mind that you’ll probably need let the curry simmer for longer to thicken after you add the coconut cream and chicken stock. Hope you love it!
Lindsay says
Looks delicious! Will be trying out this week. Are you sure the nutritional info accurate? Seems like the protein and calorie numbers are low.
Sarah Nevins says
Thanks Lindsay – hope you like it! And you’re totally right! I just re-entered the recipe into myfitness pal. I think I might have missed an ingredient before
Sarah says
Can I cook this, then freeze
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Sarah! It’s hard to say – I’ve found the results a bit hit and miss whenever I try refreezing/defrosting sauces that contain coconut milk. Sometimes it defrosts just fine, but often times, the milk ends up curdling a little and separating once defrosted. You can usually fix this by blending the sauce up in a blender, but then you’d have to remove the chicken first which can be a bit tedious.
Shams says
Hi Sarah,
Can’t wait to try this recipe, I know my family will love it! If I don’t use the tomato paste, is it test well?
Sarah says
I wouldn’t worry too much about the tomato paste if you don’t have it in. You might prefer making something more along these lines: https://www.asaucykitchen.com/coconut-lime-chicken/ It’s a pretty similar type of recipe without tomato