This chicken thigh curry is bursting with aromatic flavours, using staple ingredients, making it super easy.
WHY THIS RECIPE IS GREAT
This chicken thigh curry recipe is one of my go to recipes for a number of reasons. Firstly, using on-the-bone chicken thighs not only reduces prep time, as you can just chuck them in the pan, it also provides the most flavoursome chicken. Chicken thigh fillets are still a perfect option if you're fussy about bones.
Most of the cook time is inactive, making it a great weeknight dinner, after a hard day at uni/work.
I also love to meal prep this recipe, as you get 5 freezable servings which are packed with nutrients and flavour that grows over time.
INGREDIENTS IN CHICKEN THIGH CURRY
CHICKEN THIGHS
Bone in, skin on thighs for the most intense chickeny flavour. I remove the excess skin (the skin that isn’t directly attached to any part of the thigh) to reduce the calories/fats slightly.
GINGER, GARLIC AND ONION
The foundation of our simple curry recipe starts with this beautiful combo.
FRESH CHILLIES
I use fresh chillies for a well rounded spice flavour. You can keep the seeds in for extra heat or deseed them. I like to deseed the chillies to make the curry mild, and then each person can top with chilli flakes to increase the heat if they want to.
PASSATA
I wanted a smooth tomato sauce to be added to this curry, which can be achieved in a short time/without blending with passata. You can also use chopped tomatoes/plum tomatoes and then blend, if you don’t have any passata.
YOGURT
A small amount of yogurt goes a long way with this chicken thigh curry. You can add single cream if you want a creamier sauce (and can afford the calories), but the yogurt adds a tangy creaminess that cuts through the richness of the tomato.
INGREDIENT LIST AND MACRONUTRIENT BREAKDOWN
The breakdown below is for one serving to keep things simple.
- 200g chicken thighs
- 8g ginger
- 10 g fresh chillies
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1/4 onion
- 100g passata
- 50g green beans
- 60g white basmati rice (dry weight)
- 10g spinach
- 1tbsp 0% fat yogurt
- fresh coriander (optional)
- squeeze of a lime (optional)
- 0.2 tbsp mild curry powder
- 1.2 tomato puree
- 120ml chicken stock
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or ghee)
| CALORIES | 658kcal |
| PROTEIN | 43g |
| FAT | 35g |
| CARBS | 34g |
HOW TO MAKE A CHICKEN THIGH CURRY
- Start by frying the chicken thighs skin facing down in rapeseed oil on a medium heat for around 10 minutes.
- After around 10 minutes, the fats from the chicken will start to render and the skin will crisp up nicely. Rotate and cook for another 10 minutes. Season with salt.
- Meanwhile, add the peeled ginger, garlic and chillies to the blender.
- Blend together with a few tbsp of water to form a rough paste.
- Set the crispy chicken thighs aside (they are not fully cooked yet), then to the pan, add the diced onions to sweat until translucent, frying for approx 5 minutes. Season with salt.
- Next, add the paste to the pan along with the curry powder. Fry for a couple of minutes before adding the tomato puree and a splash of stock. Continue to fry until the tomato puree darkens in colour.
- Pour the stock and the passata into the pan and stir, before placing the chicken thighs, skin facing up this time in the pan. Reduce to a low simmer for 20 minutes, then set aside and take the curry off the heat and remove the chicken thighs.
- Add a tbsp of the curry into a bowl with the yogurt to prevent it from splitting then stir to combine and pour the yogurt into the curry.
- Add the spinach to the sauce to wilt in the sauce.
- Then add the chicken thighs back into the pan and top with fresh coriander and lime. Serve with white rice and an optional portion of green beans.
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR THE BEST RESULTS
Leave the chicken thighs undisturbed during the 10 minutes of fry time. When we initially fry the chicken thighs on a medium heat, we want to render all the delicious chicken fats from the skin and allow the skin to crisp up, creating the most delicious flavour.
If we constantly move the chicken thighs, the skin won’t have time to crisp up. Ensure that the heat isn’t too high though, as we dont want the skin to burn.
Season at each stage. We want each element/ingredient in this chicken thigh curry to be seasoned to ensure all of the flavours are enhanced. So season the chicken thighs in step 1, season the aromatics in step 3 etc. This will provide a better end result than heavily seasoning at the end.
Know your spice level. This recipe is adaptable to your heat preference, so adjust the chillies and whether you add the seeds or deseed depending on whether you like that heat or not.
WHAT TO SERVE WITH CHICKEN THIGH CURRY
I’ve chosen to serve green beans with this curry recipe, as we have our healthy fats, protein and carbohydrates (white rice) provided in the recipe.
All that’s left to make this recipe complete in my mind is some added greens. You could also serve:
- Tenderstem broccoli
- Grilled aubergine
- Edamame beans
- Wilted spinach
As with all of our recipes, please use this as inspiration and customise to your taste and fitness goals. The calories and macronutrient content of this recipe can be easily adapted by manipulating the amount of certain ingredients used.