If you’ve managed to get hold of a chicken, then you’ll want to make the most of it with two meals instead of one (especially as this will help stretch out the time between food shops). While stir-fries, soups and pasta bakes are all great options, my favourite way to use up spare chicken is to transform it into this delicious leftover chicken curry.
As many takeaways are closed at the moment and the rest are super busy, now’s a great time to try your hand at a fakeaway instead – and this leftover chicken curry is a brilliant option. Healthier, cheaper and just as tasty, you may find yourself converted to fakeaways in future.
Using leftover chicken in this curry recipe is a clever way to save on cooking time – plus, it reduces waste, which is vital while we’re all trying to keep an eye on what we spend. And if you don’t have any cooked chicken going spare and feel like giving this leftover chicken curry recipe a whirl, just grill chicken breasts until they’re cooked and you can still create a flavour-packed fakeaway.
Serve it with your choice of vegetables on the side – my favourite combo is broccoli and green beans – and get curried away with our leftover chicken curry recipe!
Slimming World’s leftover chicken curry
Serves 4
Free
Ready in 35 minutes
Quick tip: If you don’t have all the spices, don’t worry. Garam masala, medium curry powder and Chinese 5-spice would work a treat – or experiment with whatever spices you do have in the cupboard.
2 large onions, 1 chopped and 1 sliced
1 level tsp ground ginger
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 level tsp ground turmeric
1 level tsp ground cumin
1 level tsp ground coriander
¼-½ tsp chilli powder
227g can chopped tomatoes
400g cooked skinless chicken, cut into chunks
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 cardamom pods, split open (optional)
2 whole cloves (optional)
2 dried bay leaves (optional)
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander, to serve (optional)
- Place the chopped onions, ginger and garlic in a blender, and blitz until smooth. Add a little water if necessary.
- Scrape the mixture into a non-stick saucepan and dry-fry over a medium heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the turmeric, cumin, ground coriander and chilli powder and cook for 4-5 minutes.
- Add 1 tbsp tomato juice from the canned tomatoes. Once the juice has evaporated, add the chicken, 175ml hot water, the cinnamon, cardamom pods, cloves and bay leaves, if using, the canned tomatoes and a pinch of salt.
- Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently, covered, until the sauce is thick.
- Dry-fry the sliced onion until soft and add to the curry. Remove from the heat, stir in the coriander leaves and serve hot.
Level up your leftovers
Whether you’re looking to use up your chicken or another ingredient you have going spare, we’ve put together lots of tasty ways to love your leftovers, and Slimming World members can log on to the member website to find even more inventive ideas. You can find out more about joining Slimming World here.
We’d love to know what you think of our leftover chicken curry recipe. And if we’ve inspired you to transform your leftovers, you can share your foodie photos on the blog or on social using #theSlimmingWorldblog.