Easy Chicken Curry Rice with pan fried chicken and rice cooked in coconut milk. Final cooking completed in a rice cooker.
Hi everyone! It’s Jon and I am here to share another exciting episode of Dine Solo with you. Chicken Curry is one of my favorite dishes but it is not always convenient to cook it the way Mom does it especially when I am sharing an apartment with three other guys.
The full fledged chicken curry to me is amazing but it can be a little over powering for some people. With that in mind, I had a little brain storming with Mom and we came up with today’s easy Chicken Curry Rice which I am extremely excited to share with you. The inspiration for this dish is another favorite of mine, Cilantro Lime Chicken Rice.
Easy Chicken Curry Rice
In this easy recipe, I used just two ingredients to coat the boneless, skinless chicken thighs – curry powder and salt. These coated chicken thighs were then pan fried to seal in the juices and give it an amazing golden color. I also sauteed a thinly sliced onion in the same pan which was later mixed into the coconut flavored rice studded with green peas. If you are not a fan of green peas, frozen mixed vegetables is a good alternative.
The final cooking for this Chicken Curry Rice was completed in my handy-dandy mini rice cooker for minimum monitoring. While the rice cooker was doing its thing, I went to have a shower. By the time I was done with my shower, my dinner was fully cooked. The scent was amazing! It reminded me a little of Mom’s delicious Nasi Lemak which I will probably only enjoy when I am home for the weekends. Cooking belacan in the apartment might get me booted out of there…LOL!
Tools Used in Making This Chicken Curry Rice
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Aroma Simply Stainless 3-Cup(Uncooked) 6-Cup (Cooked) Rice Cooker
Aroma Housewares RS-03 6-Cup Simply Stainless Steamer
Calphalon Hard-Anodized Nonstick 3-Quart Saute Pan with Cover
Chicken Curry Rice
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless, chicken thighs
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 rice cooker cup long grain rice (¾ cup / 150g)
- ½ cup coconut milk (120ml)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 small onion (thinly sliced)
- ½ cup frozen green peas (75g)
Instructions
- Place chicken thighs on a plate. Sprinkle ½ teaspoon salt and curry powder all over chicken. Turn with a pair of tongs to get them well coated.
- Wash and drain rice in rice cooker pot 3 to 4 times. Add salt and coconut milk. Top with water until the 1 cup mark (approximately 1 cup/240ml) on the rice cooker insert. Wipe the exterior of the pot dry. Place in the rice cooker, cover with the lid, and press the cook button.
- Heat vegetable oil in a medium pan. Pan fry chicken thighs for 2 minutes. Flip the chicken thighs. Add onion and continue to fry for 2 more minutes. Turn off stove.
- Remove the rice cooker lid. Transfer cooked onions to the pot. Add frozen green peas. Stir to get the ingredients well mixed. Place chicken on the top. Cover and allow it to cook until the cook button switches to keep warm. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Video
Nutrition
Home Away From Home
This “exotic” Chicken Curry Rice is like a “home away from home” kind of dish. It helps keep me going until I get home for the weekend to enjoy Mom’s cooking. 🙂
Update: December 15, 2017
Hi, it’s Linda here! I recently purchased an Instant Pot DUO Plus 6 Qt 9-in-1 Multi-Use Programmable Pressure Cooker and have received requests to convert this recipe into one for the ever popular Instant Pot. Since I have only used my new “toy” twice, I thought it will be fun to do another test using this recipe. The recipe below is essentially the same as the original above.
Soft and Chewy Rice
My first test was to cook long grain rice in my brand new Instant Pot. If you like your rice a little soft and chewy, then this pot can double up as your rice cooker. I, however prefer fluffy rice. As such, I decided that I should use the drier basmati rice instead for this recipe. It still came out on the soft side, which some people prefer. I also used bone-in chicken thighs because that was what I had on hand. Please use boneless, skinless chicken thighs as per the original recipe if preferred.
Some Observations
I have to say though that I am not so impressed with the Saute mode of the pot because it took a while to heat up. Even though I used “Saute More”, I felt that the heat was still insufficient for searing. The Cook/Brown mode in my old electric pressure cooker does a better job. Hence, it took a longer time to complete this recipe. That said, the result (as far as this recipe is concerned) is still pretty good.
Since this is a 6 quart pot, it is more practical to cook 2 servings instead of one. It will be better to stay with the original recipe using a small rice cooker if you are cooking for one.
Instant Pot Chicken Curry Rice
Instant Pot Chicken Curry Rice
Ingredients
- 1 rice cooker cup basmati rice (¾ cup / 150g)
- 4 bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion (thinly sliced)
- 1 cup coconut milk (240ml)
- ½ cup frozen green peas (75g)
Instructions
- Wash and drain rice 3 to 4 times. Set aside.
- Heat up the Instant Pot by pressing [Sauté] twice to get it to “Sauté More”.
- While Instant Pot is heating up, place chicken thighs on a plate. Sprinkle ½ teaspoon salt and curry powder all over chicken. Turn with a pair of tongs to get them well coated.
- When the word “Hot” appears on the display, add vegetable oil. Swirl the pot around to coat the bottom. Sear chicken thighs in one single layer for 4 to 5 minutes on each side. Remove and set aside.
- Add sliced onion. Sauté for 2 minutes.
- Stir in rice and pour in coconut milk. Stir to deglaze the bottom of the pot.
- Add frozen green peas. Place seared chicken thighs on the top of rice. Press [Cancel].
- Close and lock the lid. Turn steam release handle to “Sealing” position. Press [Rice] and allow the contents to cook. The [Rice] mode is low pressure and it takes 12 minutes to cook after the pressure builds up.
- When cooking cycle has completed, let the cooker go into “Keep Warm” mode. After 10 minutes, press [Cancel] and turn the steam release handle to “Venting” position. When the float valve drops down, open the lid carefully.
Nutrition
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