Photo: Ben Dearnley
Clove, coriander, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, carom. Just some of the essential spices you need to make one of of our punchy, fragrant and delicious chicken curry recipes. Garam masala is a must, as are black pepper and cayenne pepper, for that welcome hit of heat. For the time poor, don’t stress: A hint of curry powder won’t go astray if you need a quick fix.
If you have time on your side, pound your own curry paste by hand à la Palisa Anderson‘s gaeng keow wan gai. For a spicy-sour hit, the Chiang Mai curry sings with ginger and tamarind; or make for the ohn no khao swè (Burmese curry chicken noodle soup) if you like your sauce earthy, soupy and noodle-y. For something a little more mellow and mild, our riff on the classic butter chicken might be for you — Greek yoghurt gives the curry sauce a gentler, creamier heat for those who love a slow burn.
Whether you serve yours with naan or rice, or if you prefer coconut milk or yoghurt. Whether you like your curries spicy or mild, we have a chicken curry recipe for you in this warming collection that’ll get you through the cooler seasons.
If you’re looking to bring the heat, check out our master collection of our favourite curry recipes.
Chicken curries to warm you up from the inside out
Chicken and bamboo-shoot yellow curry with roti and rice
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Malaysian-style spicy roast chicken (Ayam percik)
Chiang Mai chicken curry
Mild chicken curry
Thai chicken curry
Chicken katsu curry
Yellow curry of chicken
Ohn no khao swè (Burmese curry chicken noodle soup)
Palisa Anderson’s gaeng keow wan gai (Thai green chicken curry)
Malaysian chicken curry
King’s chicken curry by Peter Kuruvita
Chui Lee Luk’s chicken curry with pickled pineapple
Navy curry
There are many ways to make a chicken curry. The simplest involves store-bought curry paste and a cut of chicken of your choosing, while the more complicated could mean a day in the kitchen over a mortar and pestle (but what’s a labour of love in the name of a perfect curry?). Most of these recipes strike a comfortable middle ground: they involve decently long ingredients lists and a couple of hours’ worth of work for excellent results.
Our Malaysian-style roast chicken with a Kelantan-style curry sauce takes less than an hour and only a handful of ingredients, yielding a tender roast chicken with a rich sauce, while our simple butter chicken needs just over half an hour.
For those prepared to put in the work, our chicken and bamboo shoot yellow curry requires a few hours of work (plus an extra day for the naan, if you’re keen to commit), but the silky, fragrant dish you’ll be left with is well worth the effort.
Typically, the ingredients of chicken curry involve essential spices like clove, coriander, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric and garam masala to make the curry paste. Naturally, your favourite cut of chicken is thrown in (we recommend thigh for its extra fat content and tenderness). Then, a lot (but not all!) chicken curry recipes also call for coconut milk or cream for that luxuriously rich and fragrant sauce that gets ladled over fluffy rice or scooped up by roti or naan.
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