One-Pot Golden Chicken Curry Soup
Published 9/17/2023 • Updated 10/16/2023
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Packed with anti-inflammatory spices and feel good ingredients like fresh veggies and quinoa, this flavorful chicken curry soup is nourishing, comforting, and cozy.
This healing chicken curry soup recipe is a hearty twist on our famous coconut curry soup. Both curry soups have a flavorful broth and feature plenty of wholesome ingredients, and today’s version also includes chicken and quinoa for a double dose of protein.
Made in one pot on the stove, add this chicken curry soup recipe to the menu whenever you feel a cold coming on. It’s soul soothing and brightens any sick day.
Featured Comment
“This is absolutely a must try! I never leave reviews but this is just truly outstanding. Do yourself a favor and try this. Mind blowing!!!” – Allie
What You Need for Chicken Curry Soup
This coconut chicken curry soup recipe is nourishing and hearty with sustenance, incredible flavor, and many anti-inflammatory benefits. Here’s an overview of what you need:
- Chicken + Quinoa: For protein, we use a combination of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and quinoa in this soup. And, it’s all cooked in one pot for easy prep and clean up!
- Sweet Potatoes + Carrots: Add heartiness, beautiful color, and flavor.
- Onion + Green Pepper: Both add a savory yet sweet flavor.
- Coconut Milk + Broth: Full-fat coconut milk and chicken broth make up the liquid base of this soup recipe. Coconut milk adds creaminess and chicken broth adds lightness.
For Flavor
The combination of these spices and ingredients is what sets this curry soup apart from the rest:
- Green Curry Paste: It wouldn’t be curry soup without curry paste. We love using Thai green curry paste in coconut curry chicken and green curry chicken meatballs, too.
- Garlic Chili Sauce + Sriracha: Adds flavor and welcome spice.
- Turmeric: This superfood is anti-inflammatory and loaded with antioxidants (and why we use an entire teaspoon!).
- Ginger: Ginger soothes the stomach. A little goes a long way.
- Lemongrass: Fresh lemongrass adds flavor and is such a soothing ingredient.
- Cilantro + Lime Juice: Add fresh flavor.
Chicken Curry Soup Variations
We encourage you to customize all of our recipes to your taste preferences, but this soup, especially. It’s supposed to be a comforting, healing soup for YOU! A few ideas for chicken curry soup substitutions:
Protein: Use boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts. Just note the meat won’t be as lean.
Quinoa: Instead of quinoa, add already cooked rice or farro to the soup before serving. It won’t be a one-pot meal, but still delicious.
Broth: Use whatever you have on hand! Veggie broth or even bone broth are wonderful additions to this recipe.
Spice: For a non-spicy curry soup, omit the garlic chili sauce and sriracha.
FAQ
Absolutely! Use tofu or garbanzo beans in place of the chicken (or omit completely) and swap the chicken broth for vegetable broth for a protein-packed veggie soup.
Definitely. Lemongrass is typically found in the produce section of most grocery stores, but if you can’t find it, simply leave it out of this recipe.
Storage
This is such a great recipe to make ahead and enjoy all week long. Like all soup recipes, the flavors intensify the longer the soup sits. Store leftover soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Freezing Chicken Curry Soup
Make a batch of this healing chicken curry soup in the fall and freeze some for later in the winter. Your future self will thank you! Let the soup cool completely, transfer into freezer-safe containers, and freeze for up to 3 months. You can freeze it as one entire batch to serve a crowd, or in individual containers for easy meals. We share more about freezing soups in this how to freeze soup post.
To Thaw: Remove the container(s) from the freezer and let sit in the fridge overnight. Once thawed (or almost thawed), place contents into a large stockpot and turn heat to medium/high. Bring to a boil, turn off heat, and enjoy.
Serving Suggestions
This chicken curry soup is delicious with a sprinkle of fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice. It’s hearty enough to enjoy as a standalone meal and totally hits the spot on sick days. For more feel good soups, try our slow cooker chicken noodle soup and vegetable minestrone soup.
One-Pot Golden Chicken Curry Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 large sweet potatoes, cubed
- 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into half moons
- 1/2 medium purple onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 4 tablespoons Thai green curry paste
- 1 tablespoon garlic chili sauce
- 1 tablespoon sriracha, or more if you like it spicy
- 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
- 6 cups chicken broth, divided
- 15 oz. full-fat coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 stick fresh lemongrass
- 1 medium green pepper, sliced and halved
- 1 lime, juiced
- fresh Thai basil or cilantro, to taste
Instructions
- Heat a large pot or dutch oven over medium/high heat and add the olive oil and minced garlic.
- When the olive oil is fragrant, add the sweet potatoes, carrots, onion, and salt to the pot and sauté for 5-7 minutes. Stir periodically.
- Add in the curry paste, chili sauce, sriracha, uncooked quinoa, 4 cups of broth, and coconut milk. Mix together until combined.
- After the ingredients are combined, add the ground turmeric, ground ginger, salt, chicken, and lemongrass to the pot and mix well. Make sure that the chicken is submerged in liquid. Bring to a boil over high heat.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and cover the pot. Let the soup simmer on low for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through.
- After 30 minutes, remove the chicken from the pot and place it on a cutting board. Add the last two cups of broth. Mix well and cover the pot.
- Shred the chicken with two forks and add it back into the soup. Mix in the sliced green pepper.
- Let soup simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes. Add in the lime juice and fresh herbs right before serving.
Tips & Notes
- Storage: Store leftover soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- Freezing Instructions: Let the soup cool completely, transfer into freezer-safe containers, and freeze for up to 3 months. You can freeze it as one entire batch to serve a crowd, or in individual containers for easy meals.
- To Thaw: Remove the container(s) from the freezer and let sit in the fridge overnight. Once thawed (or almost thawed), place contents into a large stockpot and turn heat to medium/high. Bring to a boil, turn off heat, and enjoy.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Made this tonight without the chicken and with veggie broth instead to easily make it vegan. SO DELICIOUS and so very easy!
What if I am using cooked chicken?
Do you put the lemongrass in chopped up or just as is??? If you put in the stick do you take it out? I never cooked with it before so sorry if this is a dumb question
You can just put the stick in whole. We keep it in the soup the entire time (even when it sits in the fridge), but don’t ever eat it. You can also use a few teaspoons of lemongrass paste, which you can buy in a tube!
This is a great note about the Lemongrass paste. I can’t find lemongrass sticks at my store but they did have paste. Can’t wait to try it with the paste.
So yummy! One of my new faves ❤️
I’ve made this soup several times and it just gets better. We go camping slot and found that this is great frozen in the cooler and when defrosted is one of our favorite cold night meals.
THis soup is absolutely fantastic! We’re making it again for our Christmas Eve soup sharing. We love everything about it.
YAY! Glad you loved it, Stephanie!
I was feeling quite sick, low grade fever, terrible cough and I came across this recipe and decided to try it. I felt like chicken soup. The blend of flavors, texture and the warm healing feeling I got from eating this soup will make it one that I hang on to and make over and again. Thank you, it hit the spot!
So glad you loved it!! Would love it if you could give us a star-rating 😀
Excellent soup, just the right amount of spice for someone who only dabbles in spicy foods, like myself. Very flavorful and hearty. Goes great with a buttered ciabatta bun.
This looks so good! Do you know if this could be translated to an instant pot method?
Is the garlic chili sauce similar to a hot sauce? (Like cholula brand, for example?)
Hello! Yes it is and can be found in the Asian section in most grocery stores!