Chicken Curry Soup is an Indian-spiced creamy chicken soup that’s comfort food with a spicy twist. This curried chicken soup is a hearty and flavorful dish that combines the best of both worlds. Whether you’re new to Indian flavors or a pro, this recipe is sure to please.
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This is one of my favorite soups and I think this chicken soup recipe will become a part of your regular meal rotation if you like Indian flavors.
The chicken coconut curry soup recipe is an aromatic blend of tender chicken, healthy spinach, creamy coconut milk, and fragrant spices, resulting in a satisfying meal.
Ashley says ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the number one request my husband has! We absolutely love it. Easy to follow recipe gets even better the next day. Thank you!
I don’t usually use curry powder because I prefer individual spices such as coriander, cumin, and turmeric. But I make an exception for this recipe.
I think you’ll agree that curry powder is the star of this delicious curried chicken soup recipe that I adapted from this Indian curry soup recipe.
If you want to try an authentic Indian recipe, give my Instant Pot chicken curry (based on my mom’s recipe) or Instant Pot chana masala a try. Or, if you want another Indian fusion recipe, try my Indian shepherd’s pie, a delicious comfort food with Indian flavors!
For some other soup recipes, Thai coconut curry soup, Instant Pot shrimp soup, Instant Pot Italian wedding soup, creamy chicken soup, and pork and hatch chile soup are all delicious! It’s not quite a soup; this Ethiopian lentil stew is awesome, too.
Ingredients and Tips
🧂 Ingredients for Curry Soup
💡 Ingredient and Recipe Tips
Here are some tips for getting the best results when making this chicken curry soup:
🧈 Butter: I use either butter or ghee for flavor, especially homemade ghee using my Instant Pot ghee recipe. For fewer calories, substitute with vegetable oil.
🌴 Coconut Oil: Use coconut oil for a stronger coconut flavor.
🌿 Fresh Spices: Fresh curry powder is essential for robust flavor. Toss any old spices, and avoid generic brands. I recommend McCormick, Spice Islands, or Simply Organic. Adjust salt based on the brand’s salt content. Increase the quantity for more intensity. Indian curry paste will also work.
🥥 Coconut Milk: I prefer full-fat coconut milk, like Aroy-D or Chaokoh. Some readers like Trader Joe’s brand. If you want a creamy alternative, use ½ cup of heavy cream as some recipes for mulligatawny soup.
🌶️ Spice Level: For heat, add more jalapeño or switch to serrano peppers, which offer consistent spiciness. Omit jalapeños for a milder soup.
🍅 Tomatoes: Canned diced tomatoes work great, but fresh tomatoes can also be used.
🍗 Chicken: I prefer boneless, skinless chicken thighs for tenderness, especially in the Instant Pot. Chicken breast is fine, too. You can use shredded rotisserie chicken; just add it after simmering the broth for 5 to 7 minutes on the stovetop or after pressure cooking. Adjust the salt accordingly.
🥦 Vegetables: Add more veggies like diced carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, and potatoes for added nutrition.
🕒 Make It Ahead: This creamy soup tastes even better the next day!
❓ FAQS
Add the tomatoes with the juices, there’s not need to drain.
Use tofu instead of chicken and vegetable broth instead of chicken broth to make this recipe vegetarian. Another option is to add some red lentils (which are quick-cooking) or canned chickpeas.
If you don’t like the taste of cilantro, you can omit it. You can also sprinkle some chopped parsley.
Add more coconut milk to the soup to make it less spicy. Start with a couple of tablespoons and add more to taste. Another option is to add diced potatoes to absorb some of the spiciness.
How to Make Coconut Curry Soup
♨️ Stovetop Method
- Saute onions, spices and chicken
- Add broth and tomatoes
- Simmer soup
- Add coconut milk and spinach
- Garnish with cilantro
- Heat a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Heat ghee, butter, or oil over medium heat. Stir in onion, garlic, ginger, and jalapenos, and saute the onion mixture until onions are light golden brown, about 5 minutes. Turn heat off and add curry powder, salt, and pepper. Stir till fragrant. If the spices are burning or the food is sticking to the bottom, deglaze with a small amount of chicken stock or broth.
- Add chicken.
- Saute chicken until chicken pieces begin to lose their pink color and start to brown.
- Stir in the tomatoes and add chicken broth. Let the soup come to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Stir in the coconut milk. *
- Add spinach and simmer until spinach wilts and soup is heated through.
- Turn off heat and stir in cilantro.
- Serve this flavorful soup over rice or with crusty bread.
* If you want to make the soup thicker, feel free to mix together one tablespoon cornstarch and one tablespoon broth and add it to the simmering soup. Stir until thickened.
⏲️ Instant Pot Method
- Turn on Saute Mode.
- Saute onions, garlic, ginger, and jalapenos in ghee, butter, or oil.
- Press Cancel and saute curry powder, salt, pepper briefly.
- Be sure to deglaze.
- Saute chicken and stir in broth. Add the tomatoes, but don’t stir them in.
- Pressure cook and release pressure using natural release.
- Stir in Coconut milk and heat until the soup thickens.
- Add spinach, select Saute mode, and heat until spinach wilts and soup is heated through.
- Press Cancel and stir in cilantro.
See the recipe card below for detailed instructions.
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I’m Neena, and I’ve spent a lifetime perfecting the recipes I share. My years of practice have honed my skills, resulting in consistently delicious and easy meals. My experience (including hits and misses!) enables me to provide valuable insights, troubleshooting advice, and innovative recipe ideas. Every recipe is tested multiple times, so you can be sure it works the first time!
Coconut Chicken Curry Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon ghee or butter
- 1 cup onion chopped
- 2 tablespoon garlic minced
- 2 tablespoon ginger finely chopped
- 1 jalapeno sliced (optional)
- 2 Tbsp curry powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste) See Note 1
- 1 tsp black pepper powder
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (1 kg) cut into 1 inch cubes
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth low sodium
- 1 cup diced tomatoes canned or fresh
- 1 cup coconut milk preferably Aroy-D or Chaokoh brand
- 3 cups baby spinach chopped
- ¼ cup cilantro chopped
Instructions
Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Instructions
- Select Saute mode and allow the Instant Pot to heat up. Once the inner pot has heated up, add the butter or ghee.
- Once the ghee has heated up, add onions and saute until light golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add garlic, ginger, and jalapeno and cook mixture until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Press Cancel. The spices will cook in the residual heat.
- Add curry powder, salt and pepper and stir till fragrant, about 30 seconds [See Note 2]
- Add chicken and stir to coat with the spice mixture.
- Stir in ¼ cup of broth to deglaze. There should be no brown bits stuck to the bottom of the inner pot.
- Stir in remaining broth. Add the tomatoes, but don't stir.
- Close the Instant Pot lid and pressure cook on High Pressure for 5 minutes.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally (NPR). If you're pressed for time, after 10 to 15 minutes, release any remaining pressure. [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods]
- Press Cancel and open the Instant Pot.
- Stir in spinach and coconut milk.
- Cook soup in Saute mode until spinach wilts and soup is heated through.
- Stir in cilantro and serve soup in individual soup bowls over rice or with crusty bread.
Stovetop Instructions
- Heat butter or ghee in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat.
- Add onion, garlic, ginger, and jalapeños to the pot. Saute for a couple of minutes or until the onion is lightly browned.
- Add curry powder, garlic and salt and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds to a minute.
- Stir in chicken broth, tomatoes, and chicken. Allow the soup to come to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Stir in the coconut milk and heat till the soup thickens. [See Note 3]
- Add the spinach and heat through till the spinach wilts.
- Garnish with cilantro.
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. chopped onions, minced garlic, diced chicken, etc.
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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Tracy Greenfield says
Very good. Really enjoyed it.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thank you, Tracy, for your comment – I’m so happy you enjoyed it.
Michele says
My family loves this! I added mushrooms and carrots too.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thank you, Michele!
John says
Made this tonight and it was a BIG hit. Even my 10 year old son who is a very picky eater (and was very suspicious as he watched me prepare it) raves about it.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Woo hoo! Happy kid is the best compliment for the chef!
Bia says
Thank you for this recipe. I happened to have most of the ingredients and tweak things just a bit for a fabulous soup. I put the soup over a bowl of orzo and could not stop eating this rich and filling meal.
This is now s a family favorite for sure 🙂 I am officially in love with curry powder now!!!!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hey Bia, I love orzo – great idea, thanks for sharing!
Kim B. says
If I used Golden curry (the kind you buy in a big block), what other substitutions do you think i would need to make other than not using the curry powder? Thanks in advance!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Kim, thanks for your question. My main concern using the Japanese curry block is that it contains fillers like flour. This could prevent the Instant Pot from coming to pressure. You might need to add the curry blocks to the Instant Pot after pressure cooking is completed. You would omit curry powder add salt to taste since the blocks have some salt.
Lynda S says
Oh. Em. Gee!!!! This was amazing and my family LOVED it! My husband went as far as to say that he could eat it once a week. That’s saying a LOT. Thanks for creating and sharing your recipe.
BTW, it was so great meeting you at the conference in California. You’re such a sweet and inspirational woman.
While we were at the conference, I checked out Paint the Kitchen Red and printed out this recipe while still at the hotel. I KNEW that it was one that I had to try. It’s a winner for sure!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Lynda! Thank you for touching base and I’m so glad you liked the recipe. It was so great to meet you too, that Turkish meal was fun! I’m sure we’ll meet again.
Allison says
We eat this almost every other week it’s so delicious! Thank you for this recipe.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hey Allison – thanks so much for your kind words! Glad you like it.
Anne says
P.S. Ate it over cauliflower rice, which soaked the curry broth too. YUM!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Oh, sounds yummy actually – I love cauliflower! Thanks for your comment.
Anne says
Made it with curry powder from somewhere in Asia (yep, I know that’s a tad broad – my parents have been traveling EVERYWHERE and bringing me spices, and it’s a blur now!) – probably Vietnam. Anyway, only used half the jalapeño and wish I had added the whole thing, but the recipe is simple and fantastic and it’s DELICIOUS!! I’m new to the IP and love how tender the chicken is – better than plain boiling in a soup. I bet it’s going to be stop-the-bus amazing tomorrow after the flavors bloom overnight!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
It will be very tasty the next day; and wow, that’s so wonderful that your parents bring you these exotic spices from the source!
Honor says
I only have Thai red curry paste but I feel like I could substitute it and it would work. I’m going to try today and I’ll let you know if it’s successful.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
I think that would work fine, just watch out for burning – you could mix the curry paste with a bit of coconut milk and fry like I do in my Thai red curry. Yes, do keep me posted!
Jen says
My whole family loved this! I made the soup ahead of time and added spinach at the last minute before serving with premade naan. To stretch the leftovers, ,we added a can of chickpeas and served over rice. Definitely adding to our regular rotation!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Jen – thank you for your comment. Great idea to add chickpeas to make it stretch out. I also add extra veggies with the spinach sometimes. Glad you liked the recipe!
Radha says
I made it today and itwas a big hit !
Thank you for sharing this recipe
Paint the Kitchen Red says
You’re welcome Radha! I’m happy that you liked it.
E.D. says
Great recipe! I used hot curry powder, seeded the jalapeno, and used a block of frozen spinach instead of fresh.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Sounds great – frozen spinach is very convenient. You probably could even pressure cook it for 0 minutes to get it thawed and cooked. Thanks for commenting!
Melissa says
This soup is amazingly delicious!! I will be adding this to our list of favorites! I cheated and used cilantro paste and ginger paste and I only had a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis but it’s so good I will continue making it that way in the future! Love love loved it!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Wonderful, Melissa! I’m really happy you liked it and thank you for taking the time to post a comment!
Nikki Isakson says
Just wondering, could you swap out TJ’s Red Argentinian Shrimp for the chicken? Would make a lovely, slightly fancier dish for a special occasion, I think?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Nikki, shrimp sounds great to me. However, you need to reduce to pressure cooking time to 0 or 1 minute. You could also just skip the pressure cooking part and cook it on saute mode. Add the shrimp with the coconut and spinach and heat till shrimp is cooked. This way you can control the cooking of the shrimp and avoid overcooking. I think it will be delicious.
Tara says
I made this tonight, just finished eating, and it is amazing! I love all the flavors. I think next time I will add some potatoes =) Thank you for your wonderful pictures and step by step guide.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
The addition of potatoes would make it really hearty, great idea! You’re welcome, and thank YOU for sharing, Tara!
Katie says
How much time to add for sweet potatoes?
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Katie, sweet potatoes (cubed) will cook very quickly. They might get overcooked if you cook them with the chicken and do a natural release. It will still taste good though…
Elizabeth says
I substituted 2 cans of chickpeas for chicken and added all the random veggies in the fridge (yellow squash, bell peppers – green and red) in addition to everything in the recipe. Cooked on high for 4 min. The flavor combination was very nice. Thanks for sharing!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Sounds great Elizabeth. Nice option for those who want a vegetarian option. Thank you for sharing!
E.D. says
Good thought. Maybe even a combination of chick peas and gold potatoes. I have a vegan potluck coming up and sauteeing in olive oil and doing this could really work.
Joanna says
I wonder with my 8 qt pot can I double the recipe for a pot luck? Thanks
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Joanna – yes, I think you can easily double it in the 8 quart. Hope you enjoy it!
Natelie Hiser says
Made this for dinner and my husband loved it. I enjoyed it too. Looking forward to more recipes from too.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hi Natelie – so glad y’all liked it, thanks for commenting.
Monica Bell says
Made this for dinner tonight. When my son came home from school he said “it smells like heaven”. I knew this dinner was going to be a hit with the family. This is a wonderful Intstant pot weekday dinner, so fast and delicious. This is another Paint the Kitchen Red staple for our family. Thanks Neena, your recipes are always spot on.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Monica, you’re welcome! And thank you so much for sharing; what a great feeling it is when your family loves what you’ve cooked!