Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Korma

I wanted a 'throw it all in and walk away' curry meal, and this fit the bill nicely!

🍲 Slow Cooker Recipe

Ingredients for the Curry

1 kg (35 oz) chicken breasts or thighs, cubed
2 tablespoons ground almonds
1 x 400 ml (13.5 oz) can coconut milk (I'd recommend you add this towards the end of the cooking time.)
1/2 to 1 cup of (118ml to 236ml) chicken stock
1 onion, diced
1 x 400 ml can chickpeas (optional), drained and rinsed

Ingredients for the Spice Mix

(Instead of all the below, I used 1/2 a jar of “Korma Spice Paste” with a purple lid that we had in the house.)
1 tablespoon ginger, crushed
2 teaspoons garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon chili (paste, powder or fresh)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon turmeric, ground
2 teaspoon cumin, ground
2 teaspoon coriander seeds, ground
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Directions

In a large pan, heat the 1 tablespoon of oil and then add the onion, garlic, ginger, chili, cayenne pepper, garam masala, cumin, turmeric, coriander seeds and tomato paste. Fry until fragrant, taking care not to burn the spices.
In the slowcooker, add the cubed chicken, spice mix (or store-bought paste), ground almond, and chicken stock. The original recipe said to also add in the coconut milk right at the beginning, however I've read that long cooking times can cause it to curdle. I believe a higher percentage of coconut in the can means it's less likely to happen but just to be safe, I only add in the coconut milk in an hour before the end of cooking time.
Cover and cook on High for 3 hours, then add in the coconut milk, stir, and cook for another 1 hour.
If you want to add chickpeas, the original recipe said you can add them in right at the start, but since I was opening the lid anyway 3 hours in, I added the chickpeas for the final hour, at the same time as the coconut milk was added.
If you find the gravy a little thin at the end of cooking, then you can make a paste with 2 tablespoons of gram flour (chickpea flour), and add it to the curry and cook for another 15 minutes. Or, you can remove the slowcooker lid and let it simmer a while longer until the gravy has thickened up.

My Notes

I've kept the original recipe above since I do intend to blend my own spices next time, but since I had a jar of curry paste in the house, I used that instead.

My lazy method: 1/2 cup of caramelised onions that I had leftover from something else
500 grams chicken thighs, cubed
1 cup chicken stock (we like lots of gravy)
1/2 jar of Korma Spice Paste (the brand with the purple lid)
I cooked all the above on High for 3 hours, then added in:
1 can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 can of coconut milk
2 tablespoons of fresh shredded coconut cream (I buy it in frozen cubes)
2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut flakes
Covered and cooked on High for the final 1 hour.
Worth making again when I can't be bothered to spend too much time prepping a meal! 🙂