Indian coconut chicken curry in an instant pot is a quick and easy recipe cooked in the form of gravy using coconut milk or paste to serve with rice and tastes creamy.
It uses several ingredients and almost tastes like a korma with mild flavors and less spice.
Serving it with paratha, steamed rice, or any special rice makes it even more special during special occasions.
Other chicken curries to check out from the blog and to be tried are chettinad chicken curry, chicken jalfrezi, dahi chicken, indian chicken masala, Punjabi chicken curry, chicken changezi, tangdi kabab, etc…
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About the curry
The recipe is a simple chicken curry that mainly uses coconut milk or coconut paste to add to the chicken. The gravy is cooked in an instant pot and quickly without taking much time.
It is almost like a korma curry with mild flavors using fewer spices and ingredients such as sliced onion, coconut milk or paste, yogurt, and basic dry spices such as salt and red chilli powder.
The instant pot Indian-style coconut chicken curry can be made in a slow cooking method, as well as the pressure cooker method, and all the methods, give a good taste.
This special chicken gravy recipe is made quickly with readily available ingredients at home.
To make it slightly rich, adding cashew nut gravy also gives a rich taste.
Adding cashew nut paste is optional as it can be made using plain coconut without adding more creamy-rich ingredients such as almonds or cashews.
It takes less time to cook chicken in the instant pot, and the approximate time for the chicken to tenderize in the pressure cook method is 12-15 minutes, or it can also take less time if the chicken is cooked in saute mode.
Ingredients
Onion: Red onions taste delicious, but also use white onions if red ones are unavailable.
I am using one large onion, or we can use two medium-sized onions. The taste is best if we slightly brown the onions to make the curry.
Chicken: The chicken must be fresh and used with bones to get the perfect curry taste.
Coconut milk or paste and cashew nuts (optional): I have blended some coconut pieces with cashew nuts; the paste needs to be fine and smooth before adding it to the curry.
Yogurt: The yogurt balances the sour and sweet flavors of the curry and is an essential ingredient to balance the gravy flavors.
Adding homemade yogurt or store-bought is a good option; both methods taste good.
Spices: Adding dry spices such as salt, chilli powder, coriander powder, and black pepper powder gives an excellent taste to non-vegetarian curries.
Herbs: Adding some aromatic herbs is a good idea to give a good fragrance and aroma, but they can also be left as optional ingredients.
Water: To get a consistency of our preference, any amount of water can be added, but adding little to moderate water is the correct solution to get the right taste.
Does it taste well?
Making any non-vegetarian recipe in an instant pot in an instant way tastes equally good and is similar to making it in an instant pot.
The only difference in using different cooking methods is that some cooking techniques take longer to cook the same recipe, whereas some cook quickly.
I also have a few air fryer recipes on the blog, such as air fryer boneless chicken thighs .
Air fryer stir fries recipes without the need to fry deep using oil which turns out healthy and tastes good and is almost similar in taste to the deep-fry methods.
The air-fry method cooks quickly and also uses little oil. Spraying the food with oil is enough to get an excellent taste to the chicken, and the same goes with an instant pot cooker.
Step-by-step procedure
- Switch on the instant pot to saute at medium level.
- Let the display shows “on” and then “hot.”
- Add oil and heat it.
- Add sliced onion, and cook them by stirring until brown.
- Add ginger garlic paste and saute well for a few seconds.
- Add 250 gms of chicken pieces and roast until the color of the chicken changes.
- Add salt as per taste, add red chilli powder and turmeric powder, and mix well.
- Roast the chicken well.
- Add a finely blended paste of sliced coconut and cashews to the curry.
- Mix well.
- Cook until oil releases from the sides.
- Add beaten yogurt and cook until oil appears on the sides.
- Add water and stir well.
- Add black pepper powder, garam masala powder, and coriander powder.
- Also, add herbs such as chopped mint, coriander, and slit green chillies.
- Mix well.
- Cancel the saute mode.
- Close the pressure cooker lid and turn the steam release valve to the sealing position.
- Press the pressure cook mode.
- Set the timer for 10 minutes.
- Natural release the pressure when the timer goes off.
- Open the lid and serve hot with steamed rice or flatbread.
- Serve with veg pulao, chicken pulao, and it tastes well with fried rice recipes such as hibachi fried rice or plain rice.
Variations
I am using coconut paste made from desiccated coconut, but one can also use fresh coconut paste to make this indian coconut chicken curry.
Apart from the coconut paste, one can directly use coconut milk readily available in stores, which gives a good taste.
One does not need to make a paste from the coconuts to add to the curry. Buy store-bought coconut milk in case making the paste is not possible.
Adding a cup of coconut milk to the chicken curry made in an instant pot gives a distinct flavor, eases the work of making a paste, and helps make the recipe more quickly.
It is optional to add cashews along with coconut pieces and skip adding cashew nuts and use only coconut if you do not want to make it rich.
Can the curry be slow-cooked?
The curry can be made in one pot or a stovetop pressure cooker or using any slow cooker method by following the same recipe.
Here, in this recipe, we use an instant pot to tenderize the chicken after sauteing it well.
The tenderizing part can be done using any cooking technique and bring the same taste, but slow cooking methods, such as cooking using a stovetop or one-pot technique, always give the best flavor.
Instant pot
Do not use pressure cook mode in the instant pot to slow cook the curry. Cover the pot with a lid and cook on saute mode until the curry is done.
Keep sauteing mode in normal mode in the instant pot to avoid burning.
If cooking on saute mode, stir in between as the gravy may burn if not stirred in between.
On stove top
This easy indian style coconut chicken curry taste is equally good if cooked in an open pot if you do not have an instant pot.
Take a cooking utensil, make the curry as usual, add ingredients as mentioned, cover the lid, and cook the chicken until it turns juicy and soft.
Pressure cooking in an instant pot takes around 10 minutes for the chicken to cook; in the open pot, it takes around 20 minutes to cook to perfection after adding all the ingredients.
Faq’s
The milk is obtained by straining the thin liquid paste once it is blended finely or pureed. The paste is the thick paste that is added directly to the curries to obtain a thick gravy.
Recipe
Indian coconut chicken curry in instant pot (with coconut milk)
A quick method to make Indian coconut chicken curry in instant pot cooker method.
Ingredients
- 1 large onion (peeled and sliced)
- ½ teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- 250 gms chicken (washed well)
- salt to taste
- ¾ teaspoon red chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon black pepper corn powder
- ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
- 1 cup yogurt
- 2 tablespoon coconut pieces
- 4 cashewnuts
- 3 mint leaves
- 2 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves
- 2 slit green chilies
- 1.5 cups water
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Instructions
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Switch on the instant pot to saute on medium level.
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Let the display shows “on” and then “hot”.
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Add oil and heat it.
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Add sliced onion, cook them by stirring until brown.
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Add ginger garlic paste and saute well for few seconds.
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Add 250 gms chicken pieces and roast until the color of chicken changes.
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Add salt as per taste, add red chilli powder, turmeric powder and mix well.
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Roast the chicken well.
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Add finely blended paste of sliced coconut and cashews into the curry.
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Mix well.
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Cook until oil releases from the sides.
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Add beaten yogurt and cook until oil appears at the sides.
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Add water and stir well.
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Add black pepper powder, garam masala powder, coriander powder.
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Also, add herbs such as chopped mint leaves, chopped cilantro leaves, and slit green chillies.
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Mix well.
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Cancel the saute mode.
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Close the pressure cooker lid and turn the steam release valve to sealing position.
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Press the pressure cook mode.
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Set the timer for 10 minutes.
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Natural release the pressure when the timer goes off.
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Open the lid and serve hot with steamed rice or flat bread.
Notes
- You can add coconut milk in place of coconut paste. Make coconut milk at home or use store-bought milk.
Nutrition
Nutrition Facts
Indian coconut chicken curry in instant pot (with coconut milk)
Amount Per Serving
Calories 286
Calories from Fat 153
% Daily Value*
Fat 17g26%
Saturated Fat 7g44%
Trans Fat 0.1g
Polyunsaturated Fat 3g
Monounsaturated Fat 6g
Cholesterol 73mg24%
Sodium 208mg9%
Potassium 413mg12%
Carbohydrates 13g4%
Fiber 3g13%
Sugar 7g8%
Protein 20g40%
Vitamin A 411IU8%
Vitamin C 10mg12%
Calcium 129mg13%
Iron 1mg6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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