Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken Curry

I got really ambitious a few weeks ago and decided to make recipes from Pinterest for an entire week. It was fun to try new recipes. Some recipes were really good, some were just ok. Luckily, there weren't any that were so bad that we had to throw it away and go out to dinner.
 
We really like curry at our house. This recipe is really easy and super yummy. The only thing that was complicated was trying to find the Garam Masala spice mixture in my grocery store. There really isn't a whole lot of ethnic diversity in the grocery stores here. Trying to find more than one option of taco sauce, which is considered Mexican food here, is next to impossible. So you can only imagine my delight when I found Garam Masala in the store and didn't have to make a special trip to the international market.

The ease of making this in the slow cooker was great. The chicken was so moist and tender. One minor side note, if you have never used coconut milk before, there are 2 things you should know. First, there is a difference between coconut milk and coconut cream. Coconut milk is just that, the milk of the coconut, unsweetened. Coconut cream is sweetened and thicker. You use coconut cream in pina coladas. You do not want to use coconut cream in your curry. I don't think it would taste very good. Secondly, somewhere printed on the can it will tell you which end to open (usually the bottom.) There is some really gross (in my opinion) looking 'fat' in the coconut milk can that separates out and if you open the wrong end you will have that 'fat' sealing in all the coconut milk. If you open the wrong end of the can, like I did, this will not be an issue seeing as how the coconut milk and the greasy 'fat' stuff all goes into the curry. You just scoop it out and throw it in the food processor. But if you were to only need the milk and not the fat, it would make your life much easier to open the right end of the can. Now that I have probably turned you off from wanting to make this recipe, trust me that it is really delicious and just go ahead and make it.

Slow Cooker Coconut Chicken Curry
From Barefoot and Baking

2 pounds chicken breasts, cut into large cubes
1 medium onion, peeled and halved
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 red pepper, seeded and quartered
1 can tomato paste (about 4 oz)
1 can coconut milk (about 14 oz)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon curry powder
1 Tablespoon Garam Masala (Indian spice mix)
2 Tablespoons water
1 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 bunch cilantro

Place chicken cubes in slow cooker.

Place the remaining ingredients, except cornstarch, water and cilantro, in a food processor and process together until smooth. Pour sauce mix on top of the chicken, mix well. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.

An hour before serving, mix together water and cornstarch until the cornstarch is completely dissolved. Add to the chicken curry and mix well. Place the lid back on for the rest of the cooking time.

Serve on top of steaming white rice (something aromatic like jasmine or basmati.) Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Enjoy!