Slow cooker chicken curry with sweet potatoes is a tasty and simple Paleo-friendly meal with chickpeas and coconut milk. It's a stir-and-forget dinner to make in your slow cooker for easy comfort food. Then serve with homemade chutney!
Chicken dishes are so versatile! Among our other favorites are curries like Thai Red Curry Ramen 2 Ways or Japanese Chicken Curry from Scratch. And when you combine chicken with sweet potatoes you're on your way to great Paleo meals.
This is a favorite Paleo meal on the blog and at our house. It's perfect for days when you have time to start a meal in the morning rather than just before dinner.
- Sweet potatoes. ...
- Full-fat canned coconut milk.
Steps in making this curry
- In the bottom of your slow cooker, whisk together coconut milk, chicken stock, curry powder, salt and optional cayenne.
- Add chicken breasts (see note), onion, chickpeas, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. Using tongs, gently toss ingredients together to ensure all are evenly coated.
- Cook on medium setting for 7 hours or high for 3 ½ hours.
- Open the slow-cooker and remove the chicken. Once the chicken is cool enough to touch, cut it into bite-size chunks. Place chicken in the refrigerator until ready to return it to the pot.
- Stir in peas and lemon juice and set the cooker for one more hour.
- When the hour is up, return the chicken to the curry and stir well to coat with sauce.
- Serve on its own, or over rice, with plenty of fresh cilantro.
Recipe Tips & Variations
Looking for vegan or vegetarian options? Use white beans instead of chickpeas. Or, try a combination of beans such as in this Spinach and Coconut 3-Bean Curry.
Have both vegetarians and meat-eaters at the table? Use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth and cook the chicken separately as I do here. Add the chicken only to the servings for your meat-eaters.
Don't have sweet potatoes? Use Yukon Gold potatoes instead, or red potatoes. Russet potatoes tend to get mushy in the crock pot.
Coconut milk: Full-fat canned coconut milk is by far the best to use in a slow-cooker chicken curry like this. Using lite coconut milk or the type in a carton may lead to a watery curry - simply because they are higher in water.
What can I serve with this curry? Any chutney tastes great with a curry, like this Easy Apple Chutney or this How to Make Raisin Chutney You don't need rice with this because the chickpeas and beans in the recipe are very filling, but you could serve white rice or brown rice as you prefer.
Recipe FAQ
Can you use leftover cooked chicken for this curry?
This recipe is an excellent way to use leftover cooked chicken. Just add it once the vegetables have cooked. The chicken would warm up from the heat of the rest of the stew.
Curries won't thicken as much in a slow cooker as they would in an open pot becasue all the steam from cooking collects on the lid and drains back into the dish. Avoid that by using full-fat coconut milk rather than low fat or the type in the carton. If it happens to you anyway, add less broth the next time.
It is safe as long as your slow cooker is in good working order and raises the chicken pieces to the proper temperature by the end of the cooking period. If you have any doubts, use a meat thermometer to check that the internal temperature of the chicken pieces has reached 165 degrees F.
Yes, this recipe freezes well, as the creaminess of the coconut milk protects the meat and vegetables during freezing. Use frozen curry within two months.
If you make this recipe or just enjoyed the post, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo #amealinmind on Instagram. I’d love to see what you come up with. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
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Slow Cooker Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes
Equipment
- 1 Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1 medium onion thinly sliced
- ¾ cup dried garbanzo beans soaked and cooked (or a 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed)
- 2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and diced, about 4 cups
- 1 cup full-fat coconut milk or up to 1 can if you like lots of sauce
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 15 ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- ½ - 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cayenne powder optional, depending on how spicy your curry powder is
- 1 cup green peas
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- cilantro optional garnish
Instructions
- In the bottom of the slow cooker, whisk together coconut milk, chicken stock, curry powder, salt and cayenne.
- Add chicken breasts (see note), onion, chickpeas, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. Using tongs, gently toss ingredients together to ensure all are evenly coated.
- Cook on medium setting for 7 hours or high for 3 ½ hours.
- Open the slow-cooker and remove the chicken. Once the chicken is cool enough to touch, cut it into bite-size chunks. Place chicken in the refrigerator until ready to return it to the pot.
- Stir in peas and lemon juice and set the cooker for one more hour.
- When the cooker is done, return the chicken to the curry and stir well to coat with sauce. At this point, I often keep the cooker on the warm setting while I'm getting the table ready so that the chicken warms completely.
- Serve on its own as shown in my photos, or over rice, with plenty of fresh cilantro.
Notes
Nutrition
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Tamara J
My stomach doesn’t growl often when I’m looking for recipes, but it definitely did when I opened yours! This looks and sounds absolutely AMAZING! I’m going to make it for dinner this week.
Beth
Tamara, I often have the same reaction to your recipes, LOL. It's a great recipe, and I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine!
Kay
Wow this chicken curry looks fabulous, cilantro is my favourite herb! thanks for sharing x
Beth
Kay, yes I love cilantro too and it really perks up so many dishes. Thanks!
Christy Boston's Kitchen
I love curries! I have never tried a curry with sweet potatoes and it sounds delicious, so I will have to make this soon!
Beth
Christy, the sweet potatoes don't make it too sweet, but are such a nice change from white potatoes. I hope you will have a chance to try it!
Raquel
I love to use sweet potatoes in a variety of ways! This recipe sounds really good (:
Beth
Raquel, it is really good and one of those where there are hardly ever leftovers!
Erika
Curry is one of my favorite dishes. The flavors are so delicious.
Beth
Erika, curries are just about my favorite, too, right up there with Mexican seasonings. It's so much fun to play with all the flavors!
Angela
Such a beautiful and flavorful dish this is. I love that this can be made vegetarian so easily as well by just not using the chicken- a great hearty recipe.
Beth
Angela, thank you - I'm eating less meat these days while my family still prefers it, so this is a perfect solution.
Genevieve
This recipe is perfect for cold winter nights! And curry and sweet potatoes is such a unique combo!
Beth
Genevieve, thanks so much - it really is warming and the sweet potatoes keep it from being like most curries.
Lisa Ho
Your chicken curry looks delicious.
I love how you add cayenne to dial up the heat 😀
Beth
Lisa, yes, my family likes it spicier than I do, so it's nice to be able to adjust it myself!
Gari
This is such a great comfort food and looks delicious.
Beth
Gari, thank you for that, since your curries are, of course, fabulous!
Ai
Looks so flavorful and delicious, Beth! I love curries, and I love that yours comes together in a slow cooker!
Beth
Thanks, Ai. Now that I'm taking care of my 14-month-old grandson a couple days a week, slow-cooker meals that I can prep before he's with me are getting to the top of my list!
Aimee DiPasquale
How cool that you can use precooked chicken. Whats a major time saver and a great way to use up extra chicken.
Beth
Aimee, yes, I'm putting together a post with all my dishes that use leftover chicken, since I often stew one and then make multiple meals. Soon!
Simone
I'm always on the hunt for a new & interesting crock-pot recipe & this one looks fabulous! Thanks for sharing the recipe 🙂
Beth
Simone, I'm so glad to hear it's a dish you might try. We enjoy it often - and my grandson likes it, which is a win!
Jacqueline Debono
I love all coconut milk based curries. This chicken one looks yummy! I love that you have added sweet potatoes!
Beth
Jacqui, yes, I'm also a great fan of those curries as you can see from the number I make, both Indian and Thai. It's great that the sweet potatoes don't make the whole dish too sweet, but just right.
jenny D
I've made this with chicken, but this time I experimented with a pork tenderloin...and in my Instant Pot. 22 minutes on high, then 10 minutes on warm. The pork shredded beautifully. Tender and delicious! Thank you for a new main dish.
Beth
Hi Jenny, what a tasty idea to try this curry with pork tenderloin. Thanks for sharing the times and settings - I need to add this to my list, mmm.
Nisha
Ah! that looks like my kind of perfect meal . I love the variety of ingredients used chickpeas, chicken, sweet potatoes , all together must taste yum , Wonderful share .
Beth
Thank you so much, Nisha. We really enjoy the combo too.
mobasir hassan
You have described the recipe so nicely that helped me lots.
Beth
I'm so glad you enjoyed this recipe! It's one of our favorites.
suz
Making this today! Does it really cook on MEDIUM for 7 hours? Thanks!
Beth
Hi, Suz, I know that every slow cooker is a little different, and I'm using my Instant Pot's slow cooker setting of medium (my newer one has it labeled Normal). I hope that helps.