Perfect Chicken And Butternut Squash Curry (Thai Style – Stove Top, Slow Cooker Or Pressure Cooker)

Why you’ll love it

I preface my recipe titles with bold words like ‘best’, ‘life-changing’ and ‘perfect’ very sparingly! But when I do, I really mean it, and it’s usually because the recipe has been tested a ridiculous amount of times.

Mr. Scrummy and I have been licking our lips over this for literally YEARS. Turns out butternut squash and chicken are a match made in heaven – especially when made into a tasty Thai style curry!

In short, this has become one of our family’s go-to recipes. Here’s why.

• Tweaked over the years, but adapted from this squash coconut curry from the popular food blog Pinch of Yum. Any recipe from this site usually gets my vote!
• The dreamy, creamy coconut curry chicken sauce is divine. Fan of chicken satay? Read on.
• It’s quick and easy. You need just 10 minutes to prep everything and 30 minutes’ cook time. The biggest job is chopping the butternut squash.
• Hidden veggies! The soft butternut squash gets squished into the chicken curry to thicken the delicious sauce. Wilt spinach in too for extra brownie points.
• It feeds a crowd! This recipe makes 8 medium portions at least, or up to 10 smaller ones with sides.
• It’s the perfect freezer meal. Have it for dinner, then freeze the rest.
• Multiple cooking options. Cook it on the stove-top (my favorite), or in your slow cooker or pressure cooker.

About the ingredients

You’ll find a full list of ingredients with amounts in the recipe card below. But here’s a summary of what you need to know.

• Butternut squash: Chopped into small(ish) pieces. Feel very free to use pumpkin instead – the overall result will be the same. My top tip here is to buy ready-chopped butternut squash or pumpkin – either fresh or frozen. It may cost a bit more, but for me it’s well worth it to save the time and hassle of peeling and chopping the pumpkin yourself (not my favorite job!).
• Curry powder, chili powder, turmeric: It’s worth adding these few few simple kitchen cupboard spices to further enhance the flavor. If you happen not to have one of them, don’t worry too much!
• Garlic (quite a lot) and ginger: I do think it’s worth using fresh garlic and ginger in this recipe.
• Chicken thighs: Chopped. I use chicken thigh rather than breast since it’s more tender, and also generally more economical. As for the butternut squash, I usually go with ready-chopped thigh here, to save yet more time and mess!
• Thai curry paste: I try to use a good quality curry paste that includes chili, lemongrass, shallot, galangal, kaffir lime, coriander, cumin and shrimp paste. Authentic brands made in Thailand tend to be a safe bet!
• Coconut milk, canned tomatoes & peanut butter: I like crunchy peanut butter for a bit of extra texture, but whatever you have is fine.
• Honey: Adds a touch of sweetness to balance the sharper flavours. If you don’t have honey, a teaspoon of sugar is fine.

And, to serve:

• Yummy garnishes: Fresh coriander and crushed peanuts (not essential but the icing on the cake).
• Yummy sides: Rice, poppadoms, plain yogurt (I like Greek).

How to make chicken and butternut squash curry

Make it in only 5 simple steps!

The first thing to do is to sprinkle the spices (the curry, turmeric and chili powder) over the chopped butternut squash. Put that aside for now.

Grab a really big pan and soften the garlic and ginger in a little oil. Then brown the chicken.

Stir in the coconut milk, peanut butter, red curry paste, and honey, then the tomatoes and butternut squash.

Now let the curry simmer until the butternut squash is soft (about 30 minutes). Then (my favorite part!), squish most of the butternut squash into the curry.

Serve with the delicious toppings and your chosen sides!

How to serve it

I recommend serving this butternut chicken curry over rice and scattered with fresh coriander and crushed peanuts. A squeeze of lime is optional, but don’t skip the coriander or peanuts!

I also never serve it without cooling natural yogurt (I prefer Greek yogurt) and a pile of poppadoms on the side for a bit of crunch!

Alternatively, serve with warm naan bread. Mmm!

Slow cooker instructions

To my delight… YES, you can make this butternut squash chicken curry in your slow cooker!

A reader helped me to figure out the best way to adapt the recipe (thank you, Paula!). It worked perfectly.

• Follow the stove top cooking instructions up to step 4 in the recipe below (if you have a slow cooker that also sautés, just sauté the spices/chicken etc in the bowl of the slow cooker).

• Reduce the amount of chopped tomatoes to just 1 can.

• Add a tablespoon of tomato paste/puree to make sure you still get the same hit of tomato-y flavour.

• If you don’t have a sauté function, it’s fine to just throw everything in the pot without any pre-cooking. You’ll still get a delicious curry.

• Slow cook for 6 to 8 hours on low.

• Squish some of the pumpkin into the curry as you would if making it on the stove top and… enjoy!

You can use whichever slow cooker you have. Just don’t use a tiny one because this recipe makes quite a lot of curry!

Pressure cooker instructions

These days I often use an electric pressure cooker to make this butternut chicken curry. I either use the slow cooker setting, or the pressure cooker setting, depending on how organised I am that day.

If you’d like to try making this in your pressure cooker, simply follow the slow cooker instructions, but cook on high pressure for 7 minutes. Choose a quick steam release setting (I use auto quick release on my Breville pressure cooker).

Don’t forget to squish the squash into the curry at the end, as with the other cooking methods!