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Traditional Indian spices and coconut milk combine flawlessly with pureed pumpkin for an Autumn Chicken Curry with a warming, subtle fall flavor. (The pumpkin becomes a backdrop, not a star flavor.) It’s a THM Fuel Pull on its own, but I like to serve it over brown rice for a THM E meal. In the Notes section of the recipe below, you’ll be able to find suggestions for creating an S, E, or FP meal with this curry.
Ryan introduced me to Indian food while we were dating, and now it’s one of our favorite ethnic cuisines! I found it so fascinating because it uses spices and ingredients that I had never tasted before. I’m used to being able to taste a dish and nail down pretty closely what the ingredients are, but I couldn’t do that with Indian food. Always up for a recipe challenge (and loving what I was tasting!), I stocked my pantry and fridge with some of the traditional Indian spices and ingredients – canned coconut milk, fresh ginger root, coriander, garam masala, and more – and started experimenting. (Ryan was my happy taste tester.) You’ll be able to find a number of curry recipes in my upcoming cookbook, but I wanted one for the blog as well, and that’s how this delicious Autumn Chicken Curry happened. Ryan says it’s “restaurant quality” – I’ll take that! A word of warning: my curries are hopefully mostly authentic, but many of them probably have some Briana twists depending on what I had on hand and was hungry for. 😉 Ultimately I want to create tasty recipes that are easy for anyone to make.
This recipe makes a large batch because I wanted to have enough for Ryan and me, plus some to give to another family for dinner. The two of us enjoyed this curry over brown rice for supper and I kept enough for 2 lunch portions, then spread the rest over cooked brown rice in a 9″x13″ pan to create a “casserole” of sorts for our friends to heat up and enjoy or put in the freezer for later. Curries are always better the next day anyway, so don’t be afraid of leftovers! (But feel free to halve the recipe if you prefer.)
Note: Recipes posted here on my blog after May 2018 will not be in my second cookbook coming out soon, so if you like hard copies, print them for reference. 🙂 The second cookbook is made up of 50% cookbook exclusive recipes and also includes the recipes published on my blog from August 2016 (where Necessary Food stopped) through May 2018.
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recipe index by fuel type/allergy/theme
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Hunter’s Venison Stew over Rice
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As always, check out the Notes section of the recipe for extra info. Check out the links in and below the recipe to see the products I use and recommend. Some of the links included in the recipe and blog post are affiliate links, which means that if you make purchases through these links, I make a small commission (but your price doesn’t change).
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- 2 large onions (sliced)
- ¼ cup peeled, finely-chopped fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
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- 5 pounds chicken breast (chunked)
- 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
- 1 (13.66 ounce) can light coconut milk
- 1 cup low-fat chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons curry powder*
- 1 teaspoon THM Super Sweet Blend
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon each cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground coriander, black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- Cayenne pepper (to taste)
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- Salt (to taste)
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- Brown rice and/or spaghetti squash, cauli rice, or other steamed/roasted non-starchy veggies (for serving)
- Dry sauté the onion, ginger, and garlic in a large Dutch oven on the stovetop to start softening. (Please don't omit or substitute for the fresh ginger!) Add the chunked chicken and everything else except the salt. Stir to coat. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low to simmer until the chicken is cooked through and everything melds together, stirring occasionally. When the chicken is done, taste and add salt to round out the flavors. (I used salted chicken broth and added 2½ teaspoons salt to the curry, but adjust to your liking.) Feel free to adjust any other flavors as well. If the curry is thinner than you like, let it simmer uncovered for a bit at the end to thicken before serving.
-The light canned coconut milk adds less than 2 grams of fat per serving, so on its own this curry is a THM Fuel Pull with no significant carb or fat sources. I like to serve it over cooked brown rice with a side of baked acorn squash for a THM E meal. Serve over non-starchy veggies like baked spaghetti squash to stay in Fuel Pull mode. Use full-fat canned coconut milk for a richer THM S curry served over non-starchy veggies.
-This makes a lot of curry, but leftover curry is great! I actually layered cooked brown rice and curry in a pan as a sort of casserole to take to someone for dinner, and the leftovers made supper and 2 lunch portions for Ryan and me.
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I made this recipe today because (1) I had chicken that I needed to cook before it spoiled, (2) it was one of the few recipes that I could find for which I had all the ingredients, (3) it is dairy free, and (4) I have great success if I have a versatile/flexible FP option always on hand. I was expecting to be slightly disappointed or underwhelmed. As I put the spices into the recipe, I predicted that this would be something I would tolerate and eat, but I would not particularly enjoy. I also believed that I would dislike the sliced onions, as I prefer diced or chopped onion. I wanted to try the recipe as written before fully passing judgement. I made 1/2 a recipe (I am cooking for one person and will freeze portion sizes) and kept the other 1/2 of ingredients for another time. I used 3 pounds of chicken tenderloin because that was the size and type of the chicken I had on hand to use up.
I am pleased to report that this recipe exceeded my expectations! I ate today’s serving with Miracle (konjac) noodles. I could imagine future servings with rice, quinoa, zucchini (noodled or sliced). I will be looking forward to making this recipe again with the other 1/2 of the reserved ingredients. The flavors are subtle and well-blended, from the coconut milk to the pumpkin, to the spices. The chicken was perfectly tender and delicious.
Well that was a fun review to read! I’m so glad it exceeded your expectations – and while I love when people tweak my recipes to their own tastes and needs, I also highly applaud anyone who is willing to go out of their comfort zone in order to give a recipe a “proper” try. So glad you liked it!
Love this recipe! So yummy! Was blessed with large bounty of pumpkins in the garden. Now we have another way to use them up!
Can I cook this in the crockpot?
I’m sure you could but I’ve never done that so I’m not sure how long it would take.
Hi Briana! Would this recipe work as a hangry pocket?
Hi Allison! I don’t have any experience with Hangry Pockets so I’m not sure.
Restaurant quality, YES!
Five stars for being easy to make, using ingredients found in regular grocery stores, having superb flavor, and being so creamy and satisfying that it’s hard to believe this is a low-fat dish.
Way to go, Briana!
P.S. What does the apple cider vido in this recipe? I’ve noticed it showing up more frequently in some of your recipes.
Yay! I’m so glad you liked it! The apple cider vinegar just helps round out the flavors – to me, at least! I like a bit of “zing” to make things pop. 🙂
So I am a homeschool momma and I work some nights as a veterinarian so I have to be SUPER FAST with meal prep. I made this in a crock pot with chicken breasts on sale. I used frozen, cubed onion (my store has these for 0.79 per bag!) and mixed all the spices/pumpkin in. I did not have chicken broth so I just used more coconut milk. I was also out of time for an all day cook so I started this at noon while my little ones did science at the counter. Then after art class we came home and the kitchen smelled SO good! The teenager had started the rice in the mean time in a rice cooker. It was AMAZING!!!! In our family this is called a “repeater!” Also, I had mine with a side of not naughty rice 🙂
I can’t wait for the next cookbook!!!!
Meanwhile, how about an iced pumpkin spice cake? Something that is quick to mix up… Any ideas??
I’m so glad y’all enjoyed it, Tiff! You’re a vet? That’s so neat! (And definitely a time-consuming profession.) Growing up with a herd of horses has given me great respect for vets. 😉
If it’s pumpkin you’re looking for, I have lots of options right here in this pumpkin index. The Pumpkin Torte or Pumpkin Bars would be great! https://www.briana-thomas.com/indexes/fuel-type-allergy-info-theme/pumpkin/
This looks so good. Do you think it would freeze well? The only unknown for me is the coconut milk. Otherwise, I think it would
I’m fairly sure this would freeze fine, but I haven’t actually tried doing so.
I love Indian food and am so excited to see this recipe. Thank you!