Leftover Chicken Curry Recipe - Helen's Fuss Free Flavours (2024)

Published on July 30, 2019 by Helen Best-Shaw 26 Comments
Last Updated on September 20, 2023

This quick and easy leftover chicken curry is an old-fashioned British style curry – a comforting weekday supper that can be ready in half an hour.

Leftover Chicken Curry

The British love affair with curry dates back to the 18th century. While the ‘White Mughals’ of the East India Company fell for the rich complexity of Indian cuisine, a simplified version slowly found its way into the repertoire of the British home cook and eventually into the pub grub menus of the late 20th century.

This dish is that sort of hybrid curry. Simple, warming, and comforting, with a rich spiced thick gravy but little or no chilli heat. Using leftovers from a roast saves time and money, and avoids waste.

You only need 150g of leftover roast chicken to feed two. Making good use of the leftovers also means that you can allow yourself a classic Sunday roast for just two people.

If you need to feed more, it is easy to scale up the recipe. Alternatively, if you don’t have enough meat, you could extra vegetables or tinned pulses, such as chick peas.

This recipe is also suitable for a Keto diet if you serve with a simple salad, or cauliflower rice.

See also

• Leftover roast chicken biryani is a quick & easy one pot ideal for mid week meals that’s ready in 40 minutes.
• Keep the whole family happy by making leftover roast chicken fajitas; they’re packed with flavour and look great, with bright colours.
• Here are all my favourite leftover roast chicken recipes for fuss-free, quick and easy delicious mid week meals and more.

How To Make Leftover Chicken Curry

Step one – Find all your ingredients!

Step two – Heat a flame-proof casserole dish on the stove over a medium-low heat. Chop the onion and fry it. Crush and add the garlic, cooking it for about two minutes. Add the turmeric, curry powder, and flour along with the chicken, and then stir to coat the meat.

Step three – Cook for a further two minutes, to get rid of the flavour of the flour and bring out the aroma of the spices.

Step four – Add a littlestock, and stir until you have a smooth paste. Add the rest of the stock slowly. This two-stage process is important, because it helps to avoid lumps in the sauce. You can also use leftover gravy here – if needed make it up to volume with some stock.

Step five– Add the tomato puree and stir well.

Step six– Cover the dish and turn the heat right down. Simmergently for 15 minutes. Serve with simple flatbread or with my pilau rice or Instant Pot pilau rice.

Can I Make a Gluten Free Version of This Chicken Curry?

To make this dish gluten free, omit the regular flour. Put a teaspoon of cornflour (cornstarch) into a small bowl. Stir in a tablespoon of the stock to make a smooth paste. Add this paste along with the rest of the stock.

Don’t worry about the appearance of the white milky cornflour paste it will go clear as it cooks. You don’t need to add the stock slowly when using cornflour, but you do need to fry the spices as normal. Once the spices have cooked, simply make the paste then add it and the rest of the stock all at once.

Hints and Variations

• When adding the flour, it doesn’t matter if you’re using plain or self raising flour. To avoid lumps, add a little of the stock and stir well to make a paste before adding the rest of the stock.
• You can use up any leftover gravy by adding it at the same time as the stock. Add stock to give a total of 240ml of liquid
• Try adding some chopped fresh tomatoes with the stock. (Tinned tomatoes work too.)
• Add some cream or coconut cream to the sauce.
• For a fruity curry, add a little mango chutney to taste and/or a scant handful of sultanas.
• Freeze any open tomato puree in a silicon ice cube tray before packing into a bag or box in the freezer. Alternatively a tube of puree will keep for several weeks in the fridge.
• Make your leftover chicken go further by adding some vegetables, such as roasted butternut squash, or some pulses such as tinned chick peas. This is a good chance to use up any leftover veg from the night before.
• Slice some green and red peppers. Fry them and add just before the end of cooking.

More ideas for leftover chicken

• Leftover chicken frittata
• Healthy Coronation chicken
• Leftover chicken biryani
• Leftover chicken tagine

If you overdo the heat then a cooling lemon posset makes a great dessert to have after a curry.