This slow cooker chicken curry recipe includes a jar of ready-made curry sauce.
Such as a ready-made korma or tikka masala curry sauce.
A perfect shortcut ingredient, when you feel like cooking up a curry. But don’t have much time to prepare, shop or fuss about. What with getting ALL the right spices together etc!
The other key ingredients in this slow cooker curry are chicken thighs, spring onions, sweet potatoes and peas.
A one-step, throw everything into the slow cooker kinda recipe!
For more UK curry recipes for the slow cooker. See my other posts, listed below.
Slow Cooker UK Chicken Curry Recipe
Based on the timings and method, in my favourite Just 5 Ingredients Slow Cooker book (See my review) and their Chicken and Sweet Potato Balti recipe. I’ve come up with my own version of their quick slow cooker chicken curry recipe, using a few shortcuts to make this recipe even quicker and easier to do!
Shortcuts and Tips
I’ve used chicken thighs rather than chicken breasts in this curry. Mainly, because the flavour is soooo much better, chicken breasts can be bland. And chicken thighs are less likely to dry out.
Also by using skinless thighs, you can skip the browning step. And just put them into the pot as is. Another cool short cut! And without the chicken skin, this makes this curry better for you as it has less fat.
My third shortcut in this recipe, is that I used spring onions, for a quick way to get the flavour. With less of the prep work required when using a normal onion.
Miss Marple BBC Radio 4 Dramas
AND yet another shortcut, don’t bother peeling the sweet potatoes. Just wash them well, and trim off any dodgy, gnarly bits. Keeping the skin on will add to the flavour as well as fibre content to the final curry dish.
If you want to make this into a veggie curry, see my recipe notes below.
Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Curry Recipe
Ingredients
- 640 g diced chicken thighs, boneless and skinless. About 8 chicken thighs.
- 550 g sweet potatoes, skin-on, cut into ¾” (2cm) cubes. About 2 sweet potatoes
- 2 fat spring onions, sliced. You can also use a normal onion.
- 500 g jar of your favourite shop-bought curry sauce. In this version I used Sainsbury’s own-brand Tikka Masala. (Shop bought korma sauce, like Patak's would also work well here.)
- 125 ml water (½ cup)
- 60 g red lentils (optional)
- 100 g defrosted garden peas
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Put the diced chicken thigh, sweet potatoes and spring onions into the slow cooker pot.
- Pour the jar of curry sauce into a small saucepan. Use the ½ cup of water to rinse out the remaining sauce in the jar, and add to the pan too. (Or you can also heat this up in a microwave).
- Heat the curry sauce just to the boil. Then pour this over the chicken and veggies in the slow cooker pot. Stir well.
- Cover and cook on High for 30 minutes.
- After this time turn it down to Low and cook for 3 hours.
- At this point, add the peas, season and lentils, if using.
- Continue cooking on Low for a further 3 to 4 hours. Until the chicken and the sweet potatoes are cooked through.
- Serve with rice, naan or a (tomato and cucumber) salad. And a dollop of cooling plain yoghurt.
Notes
- I used the red lentils to absorb any excess liquid. You need a certain amount of liquid to cook in the slow cooker, but sometimes the end result can be too runny/liquid. Red lentils help to thicken up the sauce, as well as adding more flavour to the end curry dish. (Better than using plain old cornflour).
- Make this into a vegetarian curry, omit the chicken. Replace with the same weight of vegetables. For example white potatoes and cauliflower. And/or increase the amount of red lentils.
- If you would prefer to use a homemade tikka masala curry paste recipe, made from scratch. Check out BBC GF Homemade Chicken Tikka Masala Paste – Recipe.
- I made this slow cooker jarred curry recipe in a Morphy Richards Accents Sear and Stew 3.5 L Slow Cooker (See my review).
More Slow Cooker Curry UK Recipes
Healthy BBC Slow Cooker Chicken Korma.
Chicken Curry Slow Cooker Jamie Oliver Balti Recipe.
Slow Cooker Turkey Leg and Lentil Curry UK Recipe.
See my latest Slow Cooker Curry UK Recipes for more ideas, adapted recipes and recipe reviews.
For more ways you can use ready-made jar sauces in a slow cooker. And also for more boneless skinless chicken thigh recipes! Check out my review of: Just 5 Ingredients: Slow Cooker Book.
Dick Francis BBC Radio 4 Dramas
And for another recommended all-round cook book, check out my review of Hamlyn’s 200 Family Slow Cooker Recipes Book. This also has a great range of slow cooker chicken thigh UK recipes. And also has an ‘Easy Cheats’ chapter with more recipes using ready-made jar sauces for the slow cooker.
Both of these books are included in my 10 Best Slow Cooker Recipe Books UK List.
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thanks! love this recipe and some great tips