Chicken and Chickpea Curry

Easy chicken and chickpea curry recipe, packed with flavour. A delicious hearty, healthy, chicken curry the whole family will love! Simple quick one-pan curry dinner ready in 30 minutes! No curry paste or curry base is needed!

This curry is made with tender chicken breast, chickpeas, and creamy aromatic coconut milk. Seasoned with curry powder, and a handful of simple spices. If you are making it a kid-friendly or milder version, reduce the chilli and use mild curry powder. Simply serve with fluffy basmati rice, plain naan, or chapatti.

We love curries and love to cook at home quite a lot. If you are a fan of curry, you would love to check out Ceylon chicken curry and Easy ground beef and potato curry.

This curry is originally known as ' Murgh Cholay ' and is made with bone-in chicken pieces, chickpeas, and tomatoes in Authentic Indian and Pakistani recipes.

UK Indian takeaway and restaurants, curries are usually cooked with the curry base which is known as BIR, British Indian restaurants cuisines. Very smooth and creamy curry gravy which is made from onions, garlic, tomatoes, carrot, spices, etc.

In Indian and Asian households we usually don't prepare a curry base ahead, we usually cook the curry sauce scratch. I love both restaurant-style curries and homemade curries. If you love to try BIR style curry please stay tuned. I'll share our recipe on how to make curry base from scratch very soon.

This homestyle easy chicken and chickpea curry recipe with coconut milk is easy to cook everything in one pan with minimum effort. You will find it much easier and tastier than you have imagined.

Why you should try this recipe

• A fantastic way to use up the chickpea tins left in the pantry.
• Cook everything from scratch with quick and simple instructions.
• No pre-cooked curry paste or blender is needed.
• A crowd-pleasing dish, that you can make one day ahead.
• Fridge and freezer friendly, plus budget friendly too!

Ingredients we need

Chicken - I use boneless chicken breasts in this recipe. Chicken thigh fillets or bone-in chicken pieces go well too. If you use bone-in chicken pieces, you will need more time to cook, until the chicken is tender.

Chickpea tin - I use boiled chickpea tin in this recipe as it is so fast and easy to cook and pantry-friendly. Drain the water out from the tin before adding in the curry.

Can I use dry chickpea? If you use dry chickpea, soak the chickpea in water and a pinch of baking soda for 4-8 hours or overnight. Then drain the water out, add cold water and bring it to boil. Then lower the heat and simmer until tender, for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Dry chickpea increase about 3 times when you boil it, so you will need about 120-130 gram chickpea for this recipe. You can also boil the chickpea in batches and keep it in the fridge or freezer for later use.

Curry powder - Use any mild or hot Indian-style curry powder or Madaras curry powder according to your preference. I usually use hot curry powder.

Shallot onions - If you have followed my other curry recipes you might notice that I love to use shallot onions in the curries. Shallot onions are less in moisture and easy to melt in the curry gravy, without blending with the blender. You just need to finely chop or cut thin slices and saute them until brown before you add the spices and tomatoes. If you cannot get Asian shallots, you can use small shallot onions.

Tomatoes - Curry sauce tastes best with ripened vine tomatoes, use fresh chopped tomatoes or tomato tins.

Tomato puree - I add tomato puree for a more vibrant red colour. You can skip tomato puree and add more fresh tomatoes instead.

How to make chicken and chickpea curry

• Heat the pan into medium heat, drizzle vegetable oil. Add bay leaves, cumin seeds and stir for a few seconds then add the finely chopped shallots and cook until soft and translucent.
• Next, add the fresh ginger paste and grated garlic, continue stirring until the onions become slightly brown.
• Now add the spices, turmeric, paprika, and curry powder and saute for a few seconds.
• Follow with the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and cook until the oil separates.

• Then add the chicken pieces and cook for 2-3 minutes, next add chickpea, pour the water and coconut milk in.
• Season with salt and chicken stock cube/powder. Close the lid and simmer with low heat for 8-10 minutes until the chicken and chickpea are tender.
• Turn off the heat, and stir in green chillies, garam masala and chopped coriander.
• Transfer to serving plate and garnish with chopped coriander and green chillies.

Cooking Tips

• Use fresh ginger, garlic and onions for deep aromatic gravy.
• Saute the onion until light brown before adding the spices and tomatoes.
• Use ghee or butter instead of cooking oil if you love extra rich buttery curry flavour.
• Omit paprika/chilli powder to make it milder or kid-friendly curry.
• Do not over cook the chickpea. Pre-cooked canned chickpea are soft and tender within 10-12 minutes.
• This dish taste better the next day. If the gravy is too thick, add a splash of water when you reheat it.

Frequently Asked Questions

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