This Curry Chicken Soup is ultra-comforting and loaded with veggies. I love how quick and easy it is to prepare, all in one pot!
How to Make Curry Chicken Soup
To make this flavorful soup, you’ll start by sauteing some onion, carrots, and celery, along with garlic and ginger.
I like to use curry powder to get the classic curry flavor in this soup, without relying on several individual spice jars. Stir the powder into the sauteed veggies to bring out the flavor, then you’ll add in the veggie broth, lentils, and chicken, and let it all simmer until the chicken is cooked-through, about 30 minutes.
Adding Raw Chicken to Soup
I don’t know about you, but I don’t love working with raw chicken on my cutting board– so I place the chicken thighs into this soup whole.
After the soup has finished cooking, it’s easy to grab the cooked chicken with tongs, shred it with two forks on a cutting board, and then return it to the soup.
If you would rather cut the raw chicken into bite-sized pieces before cooking, you are welcome to do that, too.
How to Thicken Soup (Without Flour)
This soup gets its thick texture from red lentils, which are one of the quickest-cooking variety of lentils. What I love about this addition, is how the lentils practically dissolve as they cook in this soup, creating a thick and creamy texture.
Eating a 1/3 cup of lentils each day may help to lower cholesterol (source) and they are an excellent source of iron (source) so I love adding them whenever I can. Plus, the fiber they contain should help keep you full for hours.
Curry Chicken Soup (Stove or Instant Pot)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 yellow onion
- 3 carrots , chopped
- 3 celery stalks , chopped
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly minced ginger
- 4 teaspoons curry powder
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup red lentils
- 1 pound boneless & skinless chicken thighs
- Fine sea salt (I use Real Salt brand)
- 1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, and saute the onion, carrot, and celery until they start to soften, about 5 minutes.
- Add in the garlic, ginger, and curry powder, and stir unti fragrant, about one more minute.
- Add in the broth and lentils, and give the pot a stir, then place the chicken thighs directly into the broth. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt, and bring the soup to a boil.
- Once boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and cover the pot, letting the soup cook until the lentils are tender and the chicken is cooked-through, about 30 minutes. (You can use a thermometer to make sure the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165ºF, or you can slice into it to check.)
- Use tongs to remove the chicken thighs, transfer them to a cutting board, and use two forks to shred them into bite-sized pieces. Return the chicken to the pot, and stir in the coconut milk. Adjust seasoning to taste, adding more salt, if needed. (I usually add an extra 1/2 teaspoon, but it will vary depending on the sodium in the broth that you use.)
- Serve with freshly ground black pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, if desired. (The lemon helps brighten up the flavor!)
- Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Try serving the leftovers over rice, too!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Curry Chicken Soup Nutrition above is for 1 of 6 bowls of soup. (Roughly 2 cups per serving)
Recipe Notes:
- I haven’t tested this recipe using chicken breasts, because I originally developed it for the Instant Pot, and the Instant Pot doesn’t create the best texture for chicken breasts cooked directly in liquid. (Check out my Instant Pot Chicken Breasts post for tips.) I imagine you could cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces, and cook them that way, if you prefer to use that instead of chicken thighs in this soup recipe.
- For a vegetarian recipe, feel free to leave out the chicken all together. You could add in a cut sweet potato for some added heartiness, and in that case the soup would only need to cook for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are as soft as you’d like them to be.
- If you don’t have broth on hand, you can use water instead and season with extra salt to compensate for the flavor.
If you try this recipe, please leave a comment below letting me know how you like it. And if you make any modifications, I’d love to hear about those, too! We can all benefit from your experience
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite soup? My Chicken Vegetable Soup is another fan favorite, and Curried Butternut Soup is another easy option for your Instant Pot!
It’s ok. I found it odd that none of the pictures seemed to show the lentils. It seems like lentil flavor dominates too much. I wanted more of a chicken curry flavor, but in my opinion the lentils made it worse.
So easy and Tastes Great! Making it a second time right now!
This turned out great! Thanks for this easy, delicious recipe. I only had yellow lentils on hand so went with that but I think red lentils would be better next time per the recipe. Also thanks for the note about not using chicken breasts- I have noticed the same thing. This one is a keeper that I will come back to often!
I loved this recipe! I’m currently under an elimination diet for understanding some causes for inflammation and this recipe was such a nice break from the foods I had regularly been eating. I didn’t add the coconut milk and just added some more broth and it was truly so delicious.
My husband made this a couple months ago and I still think about it! Making it this weekend for out of town guests.
The So Delicious Culinary Coconut Milk has been discontinued. Do you have another suggestion?
I have re-tested this recipe with full-fat canned coconut milk, which works great! I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Great soup!
I have used this many times!! I used rotisserie chicken and threw in some extra garlic, ginger and turmeric and a dash of honey. The perfect hot “cold” food!
So delicious!! I used chicken breast, I just cut them in half. Thank you
This was a really good start to an amazing soup. It needed more than 3 teaspoons of curry and maybe some diced peppers and a splash of fish sauce, but start here and use your intuition. I made a lovely dish and will use this again.
I used chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs and it worked out/tasted great! Thank you!
Better than chicken noodle soup when you are sick. This was my staple over the winter! I add extra curry and garlic.
Can’t get enough of this soup, the flavours are amazing and it is wholesome and healthy. I’m off to make another batch now!! It freezes well too.
My new favourite soup, I was searching for a hearty chicken soup without noodles or wheat flour of any type and came across your recipe. Tasty and delicious, thank you 🙂
Grocery shopping for this – are these instructions using dried or canned lentils?
I use dried red lentils in this one! Hope you love it.
Is there a good low carb for the lentils? Thanks
This was fantastic!! I made mine in a crockpot on high for about 6 hours and the chicken practically melted as I mashed it with a fork – so perfect! The flavor was amazing, as well! So comforting and cozy. My substitutions were water instead of broth, and I used brown lentils because I couldn’t find red. This might be my new favorite soup!!!! So perfect for a brisk fall day!
wow wow wow soooooo good some naan bread can’t go wring
This is a great soup. My husband loved it and he doesn’t care for spicy food! It’s a little heavy on the curry for my taste, so I doubled the coconut milk, which helped. I used only one chicken breast and it was plenty.
I did the instant pot method. The ginger gives a great flavor. The chicken was so tender all I had to do was stir the soup and it fell apart. This was so wonderful and I’ll definitely be making it again.
Made this for my parents, they loved it
This soup is amazing!! But I love lentils. It is so quick and easy to prepare. I use your recipes almost daily. Thank you so much for all your great recipes. Could you freeze this soup? I live alone and it makes a lot to finish in 3 days. Thank you Terry.
Is it possible to add potatoes to this recipe, and if so, what do you recommend in terms of when to add them to the pot, how long to cook them, etc?
I love making soups but I usually have to doctor up the recipe to make it taste good. This recipe was amazing. I did it in the instant pot. Quick easy and so good. My husband’s favorite so far! Thank you
Subbed curry powder for 2 tsp garam masala and 2 tsp of chat masala and this was divine! A bit too salty, I’d recommend starting with 1/2 tsp and adding more if needed. Delicious!
I used chicken with bone, added potatoes, and substituted the full fat coconut milk with soy milk. I will definitely make this again, thank you for this delicious recipe!