This mildly spiced Kerala chicken stew is a hearty soup made with chicken, carrots, potatoes and curry leaf spiced coconut milk, making this the ultimate Indian comfort food dish.
If you’ve never had Kerala chicken stew before, think “a south Indian version of chicken soup.” Everyone loves chicken soup. It’s absolute comfort food on a cold day or when you’re under the weather. Eating a bowl of chicken soup instantly makes you feel better. Well, this coconut chicken stew does all of those same things and in my opinion, it’s even more delicious than regular chicken soup.
This lightly spiced coconut chicken stew is a dish that’s often served for breakfast/brunch in Keralite homes. I love making it for Sunday brunch because it makes the day feel a little extra special. You can make this any time though – thanks to the instant pot, this dish would even make for a simple weeknight recipe.
As someone who grew up in a North Indian family, I find the flavor of this curry to be very different from the dishes that I grew up eating. It’s unique and certainly not a dish that you’d find in an Indian restaurant, though I have no idea why.
I honestly prefer this chicken stew to butter chicken. I just love the flavor of curry leaf spiced coconut milk with chicken and potatoes. To be honest, I love curry leaf spiced anything.
I tell my husband all the time that I must have been Keralite in another life because the cuisine is my favorite – it’s absolutely for me. I learned how to make this stew after watching my mother-in-law make it many times and though my dish will never be as good as hers (because I swear she and all Indian moms switch up their recipes every time they make a dish!) – it’s pretty darn close. It’s also much easier to make and faster too – all thanks to the instant pot. My husband loves this dish and he’s super picky when it comes to Keralite food (and all food really lol), so I am sure you will love it too.
You can serve this stew with appam (lacy rice flour and coconut milk pancakes). I don’t have a recipe for appam on my blog yet because I have yet to perfect them. When I do perfect them (one day?), I’ll be sure to share 🙂 In the meantime, you can serve this with rice or another type of Indian bread. I really like this with my paleo naan. Most of the time though, I just eat a bowl of this stew by itself. It’s so, so good.
I hope you all love this stew as much as I do!
Instant Pot Kerala Chicken Stew
Yield: Serves 4–5 1x
Method: Instant Pot
Cuisine: Indian
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This lightly spiced coconut chicken stew is a dish that’s often served for breakfast in Keralite homes. I love making it for Sunday brunch! As someone who grew up in a North Indian family, I find the flavor of this curry to be very different from the dishes that I grew up eating.
I learned how to make this stew after watching my mother-in-law make it many times. I love the flavor of curry leaf spiced coconut milk with chicken and potatoes. I hope you love this as much as I do.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 20–30 curry leaves
- 1 ½ pounds skinless and boneless chicken thighs, cut into quarters
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
Spices
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon meat masala
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
- 2 medium potatoes (approx. 1 pound), peeled and cubed
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 1 (13.5 ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
Instructions
- Press sauté, add the coconut oil and when it melts, add the onion. Stir-fry for 10-12 minutes or until they turn brown. Remove some of the onions and set them aside to use as a garnish.
- Add the curry leaves and the chicken. Stir-fry for 8-9 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer no longer pink and is mostly cooked through.
- Add the ginger and ground spices and give everything a good mix so that the chicken is coated with all of the spices.
- Add the potatoes and carrots, stir, then add the coconut milk.
- Secure the lid, close the pressure valve and cook for 4 minutes at high pressure.
- Naturally release pressure for 10 minutes. Open the valve to release any remaining pressure.
- Garnish with the browned onions and serve.
Wow!! I only know how to make Gujarati and Punjabi style chicken dishes, and I’m so excited to try this Kerala chicken stew! First time making a non-veg South Indian dish!
Maneesha, I can’t wait to hear what you think of it!!
I love your recipes, and this one looks wonderful. Do you think I could substitute the potatoes with sweet potatoes – are would that change the dish completely?
Pat, you can definitely use sweet potatoes! It’ll make it a bit sweeter of course but it’ll still be delicious 🙂
It’s me again. 🙂 I just wanted to say I made this today and it is just amazing! I decided to substitute the potatoes with turnips. Anyhow – wonderful recipe. Thank you!
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Pat, that makes me so happy to hear! Thank you so much for letting me know how it turned out 🙂
Quick question: how many servings is this?
Hi Laura, it’s about 4-5 servings 🙂 I’ll update the recipe card as well with that info, thanks for asking!
Thank you, Ashley, as always your recipes are simply incomparable!
This is not the first time when I show my recipe to my students, because they are always very creative and delicious.
I have long wanted to ask, are You the author of recipes that you post in your blog?
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Evelyn, thank you so much! I’m so happy to hear that you like my recipes so much! And yup, I’m the author behind this blog 🙂
Going to try this today. Will let you know how it turns out. Drove around looking for curry leaves.
Esther, the curry leaves will be worth it! Can’t wait to hear what you think 🙂
It turned out so good and it was easy. You were right, the fresh curry leaves gave it an amazing flavor. I’m making it again today, it’s perfect for this cold weather. Question: Can this be frozen and used later? I would like to make bigger batches. But potatoes tend to taste different after freezing a curry dish with potatoes in it.
Esther, I’m so happy to hear that! I wouldn’t suggest freezing this for that reason…
Thanks Ashley for the recipe. I am new to IP, and still learning to cook in the items. When you say Natturally release pressure for 10 mins, it means after the 4 min high pressure- you need to wait for 10 mins and then release the remaining pressure? Please let me know. Thanks
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Hi Julie, yes that’s exactly what it means 🙂 I hope you love it!
Made this curry for a dinner party with friends on the weekend. I threw in leftover roasted red onions that I had on hand into this, which gave the curry subtle smokey, caramised flavour I think. Absolutely blown away by how quick and delicious this curry turned out to be. Everyone loved it! Thank you Ashley for the recipe xx
Jen, that’s awesome! I’m so happy to hear that!!
Wooow! Looks very appetizing! I love to experiment with chicken and it will be the next dish that I try to cook:)))
Have a good week!
Benjamin, thank you!! I can’t wait to hear what you think of it 🙂
Hello…what’s a good substitute for curry leaves?
There’s really no good sub – it has a really unique flavor. You can find fresh curry leaves at any Indian store and even on amazon! Though they are much cheaper in store.
Amazing
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so glad you liked it!
If the quantity cooked is double … is the pressure cook time still 4 minutes? Or do we double it?
double the ingredients but keep the cook time the same 🙂
The coconut milk – won’t it split when cooked on high pressure? Can I make this with chicken with bone? Will the cooking time be same?
Hi Sarika, I haven’t had that happen but you can definitely add it at the end! As for the bone-in, I think as long as you follow step 2 and cook until mostly done it’ll be fine – the recipe calls for that since there’s only a 4 min cook time so as not to overcook the veggies.
This turned out so delicious! Definitely take the time to patiently brown the onions and chicken.
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JS, I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Hi Ashley! Can I use yogurt to substitute coconut milk? If not, what would you recommend? Ty!
If I could give this 10 stars I would! Wow!! I love all the amazing flavors this stew has, it reminds me of being in someone’s Grandmother’s kitchen. I recently started making Indian food and your blog has been one of my favorite places to go to for inspiration and recipes. Thank you again for sharing your recipes with everyone.lots of Love from Plano, Tx 💜
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Tanvi, aww that makes me so happy to hear!! Thank you for the kind words – so glad you liked this recipe and my blog!
Love this recipe! And so excited because when I went to the store to buy my curry leaves, they had baby curry trees! I bought one. We will see how it likes the Texas heat😊.
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Ginger, that’s so great to hear! And so awesome that they had baby curry trees!!
This was absolutely amazing, made it tonight, will certainly make it again.
Only thing I changed was a bit more salt.
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James, so glad you liked it!! And feel free to add salt to any of my recipes you try – that’s usually my hubby’s only complaint lol.
Ashley, I have your awesome book and love this recipe off the website. Question: is there a way to print the recipe without all the advertisements taking up precious space in the middle of the recipe? I’d like it to print as only 1 page, but the ads bloat it to 3 pages!
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Mita, thank you! I’m sorry I’m not sure why that is happening! I will reach out to my ad company to see what the issue is – thanks for letting me know!
Hi Ashley – I am trying out each of your recipes. Just as a note in traditional ishtew as you know, we use whole spices but no turmeric 🙂 this stew’s color looks different but was delicious 🙂
Thanks Lekha! So glad you liked it 🙂
I’m from Punjab and my husband is from Kerala, and I can relate to how you feel about Kerala food. We both miss Appam and stew, and I’m so excited to try this recipe over the weekend! Any update on the Appam recipe? 😊
Neha, that’s awesome! Let me know what you think of the stew! I’m working on an appam recipe, I hope soon!
This is the second time that I made this. I served this with Appams. So so so good and easy to make. Tastes great with some rotis or even plain bread.
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That’s so great to hear! Thank you for letting me know how much you like this chicken stew 🙂
I too grew up in a non Keralite household but my best friend growing up was Keralite and her Mom made the most fabulous food. I distinctly remember her stew. I have to say this recipe is absolutely spot on! I made it last night for dinner and it took me back to my childhood. Thank you!
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Leora, that’s so great to hear! Thank you for letting me know how you liked this dish 🙂
Wow, this recipe was really delicious! The flavor profile of the meat masala, curry leaves and coconut milk was amazing – it really is the ultimate comfort food! This was the first time we tried a Kerala recipe and we can’t wait to try the others!!
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Charlotte, that’s so great to hear 🙂 Thank you for letting me know how much you liked this! I can’t wait to hear what you think of other Keralite recipes you try!