Weekend Cooking: Slow Cooker + Ready Made Curry Sauce

Slow cooker (aka crock-pot) was an amazing find for me last year.  Truth to be told, I had my reservation at the thought of getting one. For one, I’m trying not to become a hoarder for kitchen appliances. It can be hard at times especially when you can snap one up at a really good price during the sale season.  I invested a really good ice crushing friendly glass blender years ago and I’ve only used it twice. The ice cream machine which I bought at a bargain two years ago is still sitting nicely in the box, unopened. You’ll get the idea.

What’s changed?

Four words – packed lunches at work. Not mine but my co-workers’.

I often get recipes and cooking inspirations by peering through what they bring for lunch. I’m fortunate in the sense that they enjoy cooking and food and boy, their packed lunches often smell amazing. We often talked about what we make at home and share cooking tips. And that’s where I was motivated to get myself a slow cooker.

There are many websites such as Crock-Pot Ladies and 365 Days of Slow Cooking which dedicated to cooking with a slow cooker.  And you know what, slow cooking is not limited to stew only.

 

Having said that, I have been making one particular curry with my slow cooker. Like a lot.

The Sri Lankan Chicken Curry Simmer Sauce by Passage to Sri Lanka brand has been my life saver whenever I wanted an easy meal preparation for the week.  Basically what you’ll need are a slow cooker, chicken thigh fillets, light coconut milk, and the simmer sauce. That’s it. No chopping board is necessary.

I can only wish life is as simple as this. 😉

Easy Slow Cooked (Crockpot) Coconut Chicken Curry

What’ll you need for 4 servings (pretty generously):-

• 375g (13 ounces) simmer curry sauce of your choice*
• 1kg (35 ounces) chicken thigh fillets
• 135ml (4.5) light coconut milk (I used half of the 270ml Ayam brand light coconut milk)
• A slow cooker (mine is the Sunbeam brand from Big W)

and cooking time: 4 hours

*I’d recommend you try this Sri Lankan Chicken Curry by Passage to Sri Lanka if you can find this at your supermarket. It tastes like homemade curry and I got many compliments when I made this for my friends. And yes, I entertained with pre-made curry sauce, whichever way to make cooking simpler ha! 🙂 You can buy this simmer sauce in Woolworths.

Method:-

Basically you just mix the simmer sauce, chicken and coconut milk** together in the slow cooker (crockpot). Read the manual of your slow cooker for the recommended cooking time for chicken and the heat seating. For this particular Sunbeam one, I cooked the curry on heat seating number 2 (there are only 2 heat settings) for four hours. Stir the mixture around in the last hour of cooking to ensure the ingredients do not stick to the pot. Please note that according to my manual, it says that each time you remove the lid during the cooking time, it’ll take an extra 20 minutes of cooking due to the loss of heat when the lid removed. However, all in all 4 hours is more than enough for this curry. Get ready for melt-in-your mouth chicken thigh fillets! 🙂

Note – For this amount of curry, the suggested amount uncooked rice is two cups.

** in case you’re wondering about the white cubes in the photo, they were my frozen leftover coconut milk.