One-pot Sri Lankan Chicken Curry Recipe

When the lovely people at Hello Fresh challenged me to recreate one of their recipes, I didn’t hesitate for a second. I browsed their Food for Thought section and was immediately drawn to their Sri Lankan Chicken Biryani recipe. It sounded absolutely perfect for my family and simple enough to recreate. I love working on fun projects like that!

We’ve been craving warming, spicy curries recently, I think it’s partly due to the wave of cold that’s hit the UK. The fact my girls are getting more and more keen to try food with strong flavours is helping too. If you’re after a fragrant, quick and easy chicken curry recipe, then this one-pot Sri Lankan chicken curry will tick all the boxes.

I love Sri Lankan cuisine, with its wide range of cuisines which I guess is the result of its location, rich cultural heritage, trade and colonial influences and I hope to visit the island one day.  I decided to put my stamp on the curry by making my own Sri Lankan spice mix, and it’s been a hit at home. You can get the recipe here. It’s a fragrant, warming blend of spices inspired by Sri Lankan cuisine, but please remember I am no expert!

The one-pot Sri Lankan chicken curry is full of flavours and once you’ve got all the ingredients together, it’s really quick and simple to put together.  You can make Sri Lankan curry with or without coconut milk. Because we tend to have most of our curries with coconut milk, I opted for stock instead. It makes for a more spicy curry, but we topped ours with coconut yoghurt for a cooling effect. 

The colourful curry, with its tender chicken, crunchy vegetables and fragrant basmati rice, it appealed to my children straight away. The rice is cooked with the chicken, curry powder and veggies so it absorbs the flavours of the dish and is bursting with flavours by the time you get your pot to the table.

Last but not least, our one-pot Sri Lankan chicken curry is allergy friendly (dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free) and can easily be made vegan by using Quorn instead of chicken pieces, and swapping chicken stock for vegetable stock. 

With no further ado, here is our One-pot Sri Lankan Chicken Curry Recipe!

5 from 6 votes

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One-pot Sri Lankan Chicken Curry Recipe

A fragrant, one-pot allergy-friendly curry for the whole family

Course main

Cuisine curry, Sri Lankan

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

• 1 Onion
• 1 Carrot
• A dozen baby tomatoes on the vine
• 1 courgette
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 500 g diced chicken (thigh or breast)
• salt & pepper
• 1 chicken stock pot
• 1 tablespoon Sri Lankan curry powder
• 300 g Basmati rice
• 500 ml water
• 1 handful fresh mint
• 1 handful fresh coriander
• 125 g dairy-free yoghurt

Instructions

1. Put the kettle to boil and start by prepping the vegetables.. Peel the onion and thinly slice into half moons. Peel the carrot, halve lengthways and chop. Quarter the baby vine tomatoes. Wash the courgette, dispose of the top and bottom then quarter lengthways and chop into small pieces. Peel and grate the garlic or use a garlic press.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium to high heat. When hot, add the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Brown the chicken. This should take just over 5 minutes. You may want to do this in two batches, as the idea is to brown the chicken. If the pan is too full, the chicken will stew instead of taking on a nice brown colour.
3. Add the onion and carrot to the chicken and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the tomatoes, Sri Lankan curry powder and garlic. Cook for an extra minute and stir in the basmati rice.
4. Pour the boiling water stock into the pan and add in the stock pot. Stir until dissolved then add the courgette. Give everything a stir and bring to the boil. Put a lid on the pan and turn the heat down as low as it will get. Cook for 10 mins, then remove from the heat and set aside (still covered) for another 10 mins so the rice can finish cooking in its own steam.
5. Meanwhile, finely chop the mint leaves and coriander.
6. Once the curry is cooked, stir in the coriander and season with a little more salt or pepper if required. Serve the Sri Lankan Chicken Curry and top with the dairy-free yoghurt and mint leaves. For the adults, serve the biryani topped with the herby chilli yoghurt. Enjoy!

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Disclosure: This blog post is sponsored by Hello Fresh. All thoughts and photos are my own.