This Instant Pot Chicken Curry is the perfect weeknight dinner for busy families! 5 minutes cooking time is all it takes to make this in your pressure cooker!
Instant Pot chicken curry is the quick and basically hands-free version of your classic stove-top chicken curry. I call it hands-free because there is not much happening after the Instant Pot lid is closed and everything is set.
The pot cooks it for you and if you follow the instructions your dinner will be ready without any effort!
If you like easy dinner ideas, check out my Sweet and Sour Chicken, Balsamic Chicken Skewers or Tomato Salsa Shrimp and Rice. These are not made in a Pressure Cooker but are equally easy to make.
How to make Instant Pot Chicken Curry
Start off with cutting mushrooms, onion, zucchini, pineapple and pepper. Dice the chicken breasts as well. Once you have done this, turn on the Instant Pot.
We will saute the chicken pieces first so press the Saute button. Add a bit of oil and throw the chicken pieces in. Sautéing will take about 2-3 minutes. After this you just press the Cancel button and add the rest of the ingredients.
The order in which you put them in, does not matter. Just make sure to leave out the corn starch. That will be added to the pot at the very end of the cooking.
IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to mix it so the seasonings are spread around evenly. Close the lid, set the vent to SEALING position and press MANUAL.
This Instant Pot chicken curry only needs 5 minutes to cook. It’s an easy to follow recipe and apart from setting your timer, you don’t really need to do much here.
By the way: When the meal is ready and you are not around, it will keep it warm until you manually cancel it. I love this function! It can keep your meals warm up to 10 hours!
Good to know when cooking in Instant Pot:
- Instant Pot makes cooking easy and quick. However, note that the cooking time stated in the recipe does not include the time needed for the pressure cooker to build the pressure as well as the time needed to release it. This will vary on what you cook inside and how much you put inside.
- Thanks to the “keep warm” function your chicken curry will stay warm for several hours. This means you can make it ahead, do shopping and when you return your dinner will be still piping hot! Isn’t it great?
- If you are interested in buying this cool pressure cooker but would like to know more about it, check out these Instant Pot tips. I’ve learned a few interesting things when reading it.
What else should I know before making Instant Pot Chicken Curry?
- I used less than 1 pound of chicken to make this instant pot chicken curry and added a lot of veggies. If you feel like you prefer more chicken then go ahead and do so. I suggest using roughly about 1 pound. You can reduce the amount of veggies or leave the same as I have in the recipe.
- This recipe can feed somewhere between 4-6 people (there will be plenty of sauce).
- Cut the veggies into larger chunks (especially peppers and zucchini as they turn way too mushy when cut into thin or tiny pieces).
Want to see how to make Chicken Curry? Watch the video!
Instant Pot Chicken Curry
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons Olive Oil
- 13 ounces Chicken Breasts , cut into chunks (a bit over ¾ pound/360 grams)
- ½ Zucchini , cut into chunks (10 ounces/300 grams)
- 1 Red Bell Pepper , cut into chunks
- 1 cup Button Mushrooms , quartered (3.5 ounces/100 grams)
- 1 Small Onion , diced
- 10 ounces Pineapple Chunks in Juice, drained (300 grams), see note 5
- ⅓ cup Raisins (50 grams)
- 3 tablespoons Mild Curry Powder
- 1 can Coconut Milk (13.5 ounces/400 ml)
- 1 tbsp Fresh Ginger , grated
- 1 tbsp Brown Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Black Pepper
- 3 teaspoons Corn Starch
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Instructions
- Turn on Instant Pot. Press the “SAUTE” button. Add oil and wait until it’s hot before adding chicken pieces in. Saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Turn off the SAUTE function and add in the rest of the ingredients, except for corn starch. Mix well. Close the lid, turn the vent to “SEALING” and press the “MANUAL” button (pressure cooking). Set timer to 5 minutes and cook on high pressure.
- When the Instant Pot finished cooking, press “CANCEL” and wait for the pressure to be released naturally. After, open the lid and press “SAUTE” button. Stir in corn starch mixed with a tablespoon of water. Cook for about a minute before turning off the pressure cooker completely.
- Serve with rice!
Notes
- This recipe was developed for a 6 quart/6-liter Instant Pot.
- The cooking time does not include time needed for the pressure cooker to build the pressure as well as the time needed to release it. Count with extra 30-40 minutes.
- I usually release the pressure naturally but you can decrease the waiting time by doing the 10-minute manual pressure release instead. Just note that when it comes to curry dishes, it’s best to wait until the pressure drops naturally to avoid juices coming out of the steam valve.
- If in doubt, I recommend watching the video that is right above this recipe card.
- I used a 20 ounce can with pineapple slices that I cut into chunks. When drained, this yields about 10 ounces of pineapple. If your local store carries smaller cans, you can use those as well.
- Sometimes, the coconut milk may curdle. If this happens, just stir the sauce until smooth (during step 3). This should solve this issue.
Lindsay says
Why have I waited so long to buy an instant pot?! This looks so quick and easy!
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
:) I love my instant pot and don’t understand why I waited so long to buy one. This dinner is definitely easy and no-fuss! :)
Amy says
I really need to get me an instant pot! This looks fab
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
:) Thanks, Amy!
Mindy Fewless says
That settles it…I’m getting an instant pot and this is the first dish I’m trying!!
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Yay! You will love it! :)
Jeni says
This looks sooooooo much better than take out! I too have been procrastinating on the Instant Pot. But I think it is time!
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Thank you, Jeni! :)
Sandi says
I love your video because it really makes it easy to understand how to use the Instant pot :-)
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
I am happy to hear you found the video helpful :)
Inci says
I love this recipe and love crockpots for the same reasons you mentioned especially during hectic weekdays
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
:) What would we do without pressure cookers and slow cookers, right? :)
Jessica says
Hi
I made this tonight and it smelled deliciousssss but when I took a bite something was missing :(
I skipped the 1/3 cup raisin because I didn’t have any on hand. Do you think that’s what made the difference?
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Hi Jessica, The raisins as well as pineapple are the key ingredients that make the flavor so I highly recommend using raisins next time. Also adding more seasoning at the end could help sort this out. Hope this helps. Let me know if you give it a go next time!
Steve says
Do I use canned pineapple? I was wondering if they wouldn’t do well under pressure.
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Yes, Steve, canned pineapple works perfectly. That is what I used as well.
Steve says
I make meals for one, so am wondering if I do half size, should I add in 200 ml of water to make up for the 200 ml of coconut milk that I don’t use? I have made this a few times with a smaller recipe and “make-up” water with great results (partial thanks to the answer you gave to the person who asked if the raisins were necessary I went to go back to the store to get them because you said it was worth it), but once I put too much water and ended up with somewhat bland boiled chicken flavor. So I would like to minimize the water and wonder if the pot requires any make-up water?
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Hi Steve, unfortunately, substituting coconut milk with water will result in bland taste (like you said yourself). Yes, you need to add some liquid to the pot so it can come to pressure. Actually, 1 cup (250ml) is recommended. Now to improve the taste, what about trying to add little bit of cream at the very end and thickening it with cornstarch?
Annie says
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I am a new user to instant pot and I will definitely make this curry one I got the curry milk.
I can’t wait to explore more of your IP recipes! Thanks a bunch!
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Glad to hear that! Let me know if you decide to try some other IP recipes or you need help with something!
Sarah says
This is so good!!! I had never made my own curry before but now have made this a handful of times and the pineapple and ginger make it so flavorful. The whole family loves it!
Tips:
I season the chicken with salt, pepper and curry while sautéing with the onions.
I only use 2 tbsp curry powder during pressure cooking since I used some on the chicken, then add the cornstarch and extra curry at the end if needed.
Thank you for the recipe!
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
You are welcome, Sarah! Thanks for finding time to write the feedback and tips :)
Megan says
Hi, do you drain the pineapple juice or add juice as well?
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Hi Megan, yes, you drain the pineapple juice first.
Carolyn Roth says
Made this tonight & it was absolutely delicious, I used lite coconut milk would full fat be better. Made cauliflower rice & roasted carrots & cauliflower with it. Really enjoyed, thanks.
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Thanks so much for your feedback, Carolyn! Glad to hear you enjoyed this curry :)
Cori says
Any idea if this would work in crockpot?
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Hi Cori, I haven’t made it myself but I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I would cook it on low for 6-8 hours. Please let us know how it turned out for you!
Victoria Veldman says
I made this last night, we enjoyed it. May I suggest you revise the order of the ingredients and the instructions? Please indicate that the pineapple is to be drained. I didn’t drain mine as you didn’t say to, but I now read in these comments where you have said it is to be drained. I had too much liquid in my pot. As well, please put the cornstarch at the end of your ingredient list and where you say “add all of the ingredients” please add “except for the cornstarch”. I added the cornstarch when all of the ingredients were added to the pot as I didn’t read all the way through the recipe prior to making it.
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Hi Victoria. Thank you so much for your feedback. Yes, I am aware of the issue you had with the recipe (the ingredient order) and I have slowly been updating the older recipes so they are easy to navigate. I will also add more information so it does not cause any misunderstanding. I apologize for the confusion and hope this will not stop you from trying some other recipes on my blog. Thanks again and I will fix this asap.
JoAnn says
I made this tonight as written except for cutting the curry to 1 tsp because hubby doesn’t like too much spice. It was amazing. We both had seconds!
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Thanks so much for your feedback and rating, JoAnn! Glad to hear you and your hubby loved this recipe!
Pamela J. Peery says
This recipe is, in my opinion, out of this world. Thank you so much for making it available. I made a couple of changes, just based on using what I had on hand: Coconut creamer instead of Coconut milk, Thompson raisins instead of currants, a few slices of chili mango, fresh pineapple, and carrots and celery in place of the veggies. I also used arrowroot as my thickener. Terrific. The family “oo’ed and ah’ed” over this one. Awesome.
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Thanks so much for your feedback, Pamela. I am glad to hear your substitutions worked well in this recipe and your family love the curry! :)
Stephen King says
Awesome dish! Will make again!
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Thanks so much for your feedback, Stephen!
Alison says
Delicious! I’m an Instant Pot novice and it was really easy to make and tasted great. I used 2 tablespoons of medium curry powder as I didn’t have mild and it was perfect for us (we like a bit of a kick but not Madras level!). Only had 1 courgette (zucchini) so added more mushrooms but would switch round other veg too next time if needed.
Thank you for a fab recipe.
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Thanks so much for your feedback and rating, Alison! I have a ton of easy instant pot recipes on the blog so if you give some of them a go, please let us know how you liked them.
Michelle says
Delicious! I’ve tried many curry recipes and this is one of the top ones. I did very few modifications. Instead of using olive oil to sauté the chicken I used coconut oil and used powdered ginger because I didn’t have fresh. I would probably omit the zucchini next time because it did turn out mushy but everything was on point. Will definitely be making this one again!
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Hi Michelle. Thank you for your feedback and thanks for letting our readers know about the substitutions that worked well for you!
Daisy says
Absolutely delicious! What a gorgeous curry!
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Thanks so much for your feedback, Daisy!
Josie says
I made this last night. It came out PERFECT! Thanks so much for the recipe! I will definitely be making it again and again!
Philip Harknett says
Hi Julia
Forgive me but I’m a little confused by this paragraph
“I usually release the pressure naturally but you can decrease the waiting time by doing the 10-minute natural pressure release instead”? Please clarify.
Thank you and have A Happy Christmas
Philip
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Hi Philip. Sorry for the late reply and I apologize for the confusion. I release the pressure naturally – I meant I wait until the pin on my instant pot drops down itself so there is no pressure anymore in the pot. Or you can wait 10 minutes and then release the pressure manually. I made a mistake – instead of the word “natural” it should be “manual”. I had it fixed already.
Jane says
I have been making this curry for the last year or so and it is delicious. All of my 5 children love it. I have no idea if it’s an authentic Thai curry recipe because I never had it but I keep on making it it and my family keeps on eating it up. I started to make extra because they kept asking the next day if there are left overs to be served for lunch.
Julia | Happy Foods Tube says
Thank you so much for your feedback, Jane!