This Instant Pot Chicken Curry is made with boneless chicken thighs in a pulled chicken style. It is a great recipe for Keto as the Pulled Chicken Thighs in Curry Sauce have a good amount of fat from heavy cream. The keto chicken curry Instant Pot recipe serves like a stew and is great over a scoop of rice too (or low carb cauliflower rice).
Instant Pot Indian Chicken Curry
The Instant Pot pressure cooker makes preparing a curry from chicken thighs quick and easy. The creamy pulled chicken, like most Indian recipes is heavily spiced. The rich flavorful sauce makes this low carb chicken curry a favorite Instant Pot recipe for many.
Curry powder has a high percentage of turmeric in it along with several other beneficial spices. It makes this dish a good inflammation fighter. It is low carb and also gluten free if that is a concern.
Keto Curry Chicken Thighs
Especially in the early days of a keto diet, when you are working on becoming keto adapted high fat is important. The low carb curry sauce in this dish has a little more heavy cream, which will help with that. We embrace saturated fat in the Keto diet, so no worries about the cream.
If you want dairy-free , use unsweetened coconut milk. It is a more traditional choice anyway.
Chicken thighs were chosen over breasts, also adds a little more fat. Thighs are less expensive too, making the organic option more affordable for low carb dieters.
The keto chicken curry recipe has 5 net carbs, 24 grams of fat and 15 grams of protein per serving.
How to Make Instant Pot Chicken Curry: Guided with Pictures
Now let's make this chicken curry recipe! Find the printable recipe card below.
Cook Time 24 mins |Total Time 30 mins
What You Need to Make the Curry Chicken
Here are the ingredients you need to make this low carb chicken curry instant pot recipe.
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- salt and pepper (I use Himalayan, but sea or Kosher salt are also good choices)
- 1 tablespoon oil (avocado, oil, coconut oil or ghee)
- 1 ½ tablespoon curry powder
- 1 cup of diced onions
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger ***optional
- 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
- ½ cup of chicken broth/stock
- ¾ cup of heavy cream (or unsweetened coconut milk for dairy free)
Preparation
Start by seasoning the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Put the electric pressure cooker to the saute setting and add oil to the pan.
Then dump the chicken pieces onto the bottom of the pot and cover with the curry powder.
Let the chicken sear for about 4 minutes, then turn and mix in the onion, garlic and ginger (if you are using ginger). Cook another 4 minutes, mixing once or twice.
Dump in the canned tomatoes and add chicken stock. Stir then put on cover, manually set to 15 minutes and lock pressure valve.
After natural release, add cream and mix well. The chicken will break up easily. Leave pot on warm while serving.
What to serve with Chicken Curry?
Traditionally, the curry is served over basmati rice. Brown or Jasmine rice are also popular with it. For those of us on a keto diet cauliflower rice (pictured) is a perfect option. I like to sauté frozen cauliflower rice rather than steaming or using fresh.
Chicken Curry Instant Pot: Variations
Here are a few variations on this Instant Pot Chicken recipe.
Non-Pulled Chicken Instant Pot
I chose to prepare the curry chicken thighs in a pulled chicken style. If you prefer chicken pieces, reducing the pressure cooking time to 10 minutes and using quick release will give you thighs that hold together.
Spicy Pressure Cooker Chicken Curry
Add a ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper along with the curry powder to make the chicken hot and spicy.
Coconut Curry Chicken
To make a coconut chicken curry recipe, use a can of unsweetened coconut milk rather than adding cream to the curry. Make sure to get all the coconut cream into the pot, but you can skip the watery portion. If you just add the coconut cream part you will have a slightly thicker curry sauce.
Chicken Breasts
Yes, you can use chicken breasts instead, but pressure cooking time will have to be reduced to ten minutes rather than 15 minutes. If you want chunks of chicken breast rather than pulled, the cooking time will need to be further reduced.
Bone-in Chicken Curry
If you want bone-in chicken thighs that stay together, cook for 12 minutes. If you want them to fall apart, like pulled chicken pressure cook 17 minutes.
If you are not on strict Keto and want a delicious slow cooker chicken curry that is low carb and Whole 30 Paleo compliant try my Slow Cooker Curry Chicken Thighs with Butternut Squash recipe. My Instant Pot Salsa Chicken may be another recipe you would enjoy (and it's super easy).
Instant Pot Chicken Curry Recipe
Equipment
- Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless chicken thighs
- salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon oil avocado, oil, coconut or ghee
- 1 ½ tablespoon curry powder
- 1 cup diced onions
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
- ½ cup chicken broth
- ¾ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Start by seasoning the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Put the electric pressure cooker to the saute setting and add oil to the pan.
- Then dump the chicken into the pot and cover with the curry powder.
- Let the chicken sear for about 4 minutes, then turn and mix in the onion and garlic. Cook another 4 minutes, mixing once or twice.
- Dump in the canned tomatoes and add chicken broth. Stir then put on cover, manually set to 15 minutes and lock pressure valve.
- After natural release, add cream and mix well. The chicken will break up easily.
- Serve as a stew or over rice (cauliflower rice or Basamati).
Video
Notes
Nutrition
More Keto Instant Pot Recipes
A few more delicious low carb Keto-friendly recipes to make in your Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker.
Erica Schwarz says
Delicious! Make this for an easy keto dinner, and my husband especially loved it.
Katie says
Made this chicken curry for the family and it was a hit!
Kammy says
This looks amazing! I only have a crock pot though, could I still make it in my Crock Pot?
Robin Gagnon says
Yes, just cook it longer of course.
Lei says
This curry chicken recipe was so easy to make in my pressure cooker. I was only able to get chicken thighs this week and they are not my favorite. I enjoyed them shredded in this curry sauce though.
Sara says
So yummy! I ended up reducing the sauce on the stove (I alwasy do that with Instapot stuff) and added full-fat coconut milk and a few tablespoons of ghee to make it extra rich. Really good and froze really well!