A delicious Indian chicken stew with potatoes, tomatoes and a blend of Indian spices slow cooked for a complete and comforting meal.
If you’re a fan of dishes like Tikka Masala or Butter chicken, you will love this one! It’s flavourful, hearty, warming and spicy and a great “throw everything in a pot and let it cook all afternoon” kind of dish.
The spicy tomato and cream sauce was delicious and plentiful, great for sopping up with the naan bread. I love the addition of potatoes to this dish, too!
This stew has a great combination of spices that work beautifully together. Don’t be intimidated by the long list. They are pretty common spices, so if your spice rack is fairly well-stocked, you’ll be good. The cayenne pepper provides some nice warming heat in this dish. You may want to use the lesser amount of cayenne or leave out altogether if you’re not a fan of heat or if you’re feeding small kids.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Chicken – For best flavour, opt for the bone-in chicken breasts. The bones give great flavour to the stew! You could use boneless chicken breasts however, if you prefer.
Potatoes – Yukon Gold or other yellow-fleshed potatoes are the best choice, as they will hold their shape during cooking.
Cook’s Notes
Serve this stew with a big dollop of plain yogurt, some naan bread and a generous sprinkling of fresh mint (most traditional), cilantro or parsley. Alternately, this would be lovely spooned over warm basmati rice.
I made this dish on the stove-top in my Dutch oven, but you could very easily do it in your slow-cooker. I used a couple of bone-in/skin on chicken breasts and thighs and took the chicken off the bone before adding the potatoes.
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs would also work. You’d save the step of taking the chicken off the bone, but I do think the bone and skin probably add nice flavour to this one.
I served this stew up in my cast iron fajita pans. It’s just a fun way to enjoy a meal and they’re also great for fajitas, too :)
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Get the Recipe: Indian Chicken Stew with Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 large skin-on/bone-in chicken breasts, (or can use boneless)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 Tablespoons finely grated ginger
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoons cayennne pepper, (depending on how spicy like it or you can omit)
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth, (plus a bit more thinning, if necessary)
- 3/4 cup tomato purée
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, (can use a lighter cream)
- 1/2 pound small Yukon Gold potatoes,sliced 1/4" thick, (or small fingerlings, sliced in half lengthwise)
Instructions
- Heat vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and place skin side down in to the pan. Cook until golden brown without turning, about 8–10 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate.
- To the same pot, add onion, garlic, and ginger to pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is very soft and golden brown, about 8–10 minutes. Add tomato paste, garam masala, cumin, turmeric, coriander, cayenne and cook, stirring often, until tomato paste is beginning to darken, about 4 minutes.
- Add chicken pieces, chicken broth, tomato purée, and cream to pot. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until chicken is almost falling off the bone and liquid is slightly thickened, about 1 1/2 hours. If using bone-in chicken, remove chicken to a plate and carefully remove chicken from the bone and discard skin and bones. Cut or pull chicken into bite-sized pieces. Return chicken pieces to the pot.
- Add potatoes to the pot and cook, partially covered, until potatoes are fork-tender and sauce is thickened, 30-45 minutes. *Check and stir every so often to ensure the sauce hasn't thickened to much and potatoes aren't sticking to the bottom of the pot. If sauce is too thick, thin with a bit more chicken stock.
- To serve, spoon stew into a shallow bowl and place a large dollop of yogurt on one side. Sprinkle with some fresh chopped mint, cilantro or parsley and serve with naan bread on the side. Alternately, spoon stew over some warm basmati rice.
Notes
More Indian Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Hi Jennifer – this was super delicious, followed the recipe exact! The only thing I would do different next time is cut the chicken bite size and shorten the cooking time (I used chicken breasts). It ended up shredding a bit too much for my preference. Thanks for another wonderful recipe :-)
I get that. Did you use boneless? If so, I would definitely cut it up first. The only reason not to do that is if you use bone-in, in which case you obviously can’t cut it up first :)
Made this tonight. Easy, delicious, the house smells wonderful! I added a package of (thawed and squeezed dry) frozen chopped spinach at the end of the cooking time. A definite keeper.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much :)
Hi, I was wondering if cauliflower would be a suitable substitute for potatoes? We have been trying to avoid potatoes.
Hi Joe and yes, cauliflower would be a lovely substitute for the potatoes in this one. I feel like you could just add the raw cauliflower when you would have added the potatoes and let the the cauliflower cook in the stew until tender. If you try it, let me know how it worked out :)
I made this on Sunday and it was a HIT! This will definitely become one of my go to recipes! It’s great for the family or entertaining.
So glad you enjoyed it Jeannie :) Thanks so much!
This recipe is SOOOOOO delicious!!! Made it tonight along with some homemade naan bread, and we enjoyed it so much. I used bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, and the meat was so tender. Can’t thank you enough for all of your delicious recipes!
So glad you enjoyed it, Katie! It’s one of my favourites. Thanks so much :)
Beautiful recipe, I love your photographs, thank you for sharing..
Thanks so much :)
It smells wonderful and the chicken is super tender! I added in some carrots, as well. My one issue is that we are used to a thicker curry sauce. Not sure if it’s a restaurant thing or a regional thing, but we like it thick like gravy. So, it’s still cooking and hoping to evaporate more of the liquid. Next time, should I just add less chicken broth?? The taste is already amazing and I love it, otherwise.
Hi Monica and yes, definitely reduce the chicken broth some, for a thicker sauce. Cooking it down at the end uncovered should also thicken it up nicely.
Hi! This recipe looks amazing, though I do not have a Dutch oven!
How would you recommend adjusting for a crock pot? Using the same steps for browning/prep with a regular stock put, then transferring to the crock pot for 4-6 hours?
Thanks!
Hi Kamlyn and yes, that should work just fine. You may want to cook the last half hour in the crock pot with the lid off to thicken/reduce the gravy a bit. Enjoy!
Hi,
I havent tried it yet but it look delicious!
Is the chicken not getting burned when waiting for the top to be golden brown without turning? The chicken breasts don’t have a skin over here so i’m afraid to let them cook for so long on one side. How long does it take for the top of the chicken to get golden?
Hi Tim, this recipe is definitely written assuming skin-on chicken, so it is the skin that is intended to get golden brown. If using skinless chicken, simply cook until it is sealed on the outside.
Hello Jennifer and I hope that this message finds you well. With the colder weather, I am excited to try this recipe in the coming days. I have all of the ingredients on hand except for the tomato puree but I wanted to ask I can substitute ground/crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce to achieve similar results. I appreciate all of your time and I look forward to your response!
Hi Chidinma and yes, crushed tomatoes will work just fine with this one :) Enjoy!
If I wanted to make this in a slow cooker, how would I adjust the cooking times?
Hi Sandra, I generally follow the 7-8 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high timelines when I adapt for slow cooker. So for this recipe, just add the potatoes after about 3/4 of the cooking time.
I LOVE this dish! It is so simple but the flavors hearken back to my childhood when my grandma would make a similar Persian chicken stew with basmati rice. So so delicious, thanks so much for sharing!
So glad to hear, Jessica :) Thanks!
I made it with chicken thighs and it was great, and a lot faster than the skin on breasts. Thanks!
Yes, lovely with thighs as well, for sure :) Thanks!
Made this yesterday and we loved it. I was super busy and needed something simple to throw together while doing stuff around the house. Comforting and delicious!!!
LOVE your recipes, everything I have tried is almost immediately added to my favourites and is incorporated as part of my regular rotation. We jazz things up to suit our specific tastes, but tweaking is really not required. Restaurant worthy in almost every case depending on effort in presentation.
You have inspired me and helped me to get over a hurdle of feeling like I didnt have time to do the kind of cooking I wanted. With a little organizing on the weekend, your recipes knock it out of the park during the week.
Thanks for sharing, you have certainly made a difference in my life. Thought you should know.
So glad you enjoyed this, Kristine! And thanks so much for your kind words :) I really appreciate it! I spent many of my busy years feeling the same way, until I just forced myself to cook from scratch and found it really doesn’t take much more time at all. And it’s so much more delicious! And that’s exactly what I wanted to share here.
This recipe was awesome! We are doing the slow carb diet, so I didn’t us the cream, and I used lentils instead of potatoes. I also added chickpeas and spinach for the last half hour. It smelled amazing, and tasted even better! So homey and especially great for a cold evening in!
So glad to hear, Teresa :) Thanks!
I absolutely loved this recipe, and served it up in a giant Yorkshire pudding, a variation on the South African bunny chow.
So glad to hear, Laura and I love the idea of serving it with Yorkshire! I’m going to try that next time :) Thanks!