Curry is international. It belongs to so many regions: India for sure, Southeast Asia, Caribbean Islands, British pubs… and, frankly, appreciated everywhere. This Slow Cooker Mango Chicken Curry is a bit of an Australian variety.
The use of the slow cooker in this recipe allows the flavors to meld well in the dish. The sweet and the offsets. And, of course, the slow cooker is convenient.
Notes on Ingredients
Getting a balance of sweet and tangy flavors is key to this recipe.
Mangos
Mangos are flavorful, but a bit sweet. Around Christmas and in the middle of the Queensland Australian summer, it is not unusual to have a selection of 4 or 5 varieties of mangos. Most of us are not that lucky, but if you have a choice a less sweet variety is likely your best option for this recipe. The suggested volume range of mangos in this recipe allows for flexibility, enabling you to tailor the sweetness to your preference. Should your mangos be exceptionally ripe and sweet, feel free to use a smaller quantity.
Offsetting Tastes
To counter the sweetness of the mangos this recipe uses heat (from pepper), acid, and salt. For success with this recipe, it is important to taste at the end of cooking before serving.
Summary of Offsets
| Curry Powder | Depending on your preference use a hot or medium curry powder. |
| Acidic | This recipe uses two types of acid: vinegar and lemon/lime. Fruit vinegar is best, apple cider works just fine, but feel free to experiment. Lemon or lime is added after cooking, to taste. |
| Salt | One teaspoon of salt is called for. More is likely needed. Again, that can be done after cooking. |
Notes on Technique
Slow Cooker Options
Cookers such as Instant Pot® and equivalents have changed the idea of slow cooking. These cookers have a saute setting allowing for the browning of meats and sweating of onions. It is now much more efficient to saute before slow cooking since it uses the same container. If you have a traditional slow cooker, perform the saute step in this recipe in a separate pan on the stovetop and transfer to the slow cooker.
Slow Cooker Temperatures
The USDA provides a bit of advice about using slow cookers. They report that slow cooker settings can vary between 170°f and 280°F. They advise that the low setting should be safe, but suggest the higher setting should be used for the first hour, if possible.
Clearly, there is a bit of range between those two reported values. It has bothered me that slow cooker directions and recipes are vague about temperature. I decided to fix that.
My Recorded Temperatures
As discussed I use an Instant Pot brand cooker. But like all other cookers, it does not indicate cooking temperature — only, low, medium, and high. I decided to fix that by testing the Instant Pot filled with water and running for a few hours. I learned my low setting was not as low as some and the range was not as large as I expected. The 180° is hot enough for the cooking required here. So I am not going to concern myself with the first hour of higher cooking.
| Setting | Temp °F | Temp °C |
|---|---|---|
| Low | 180°F | 82°C |
| Medium | 187°F | 86°C |
| High | 200°F | 93°C |
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Slow Cooker Mango Chicken Curry
Balance is the Key
Ingredients
- 6-8 ounces (170-225g) of mango flesh (from about 2 medium mangoes)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 13 ½ oz (400ml) can coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 4 chicken thighs (roughly 1 ¼ pound or 650g, boned and skinless, diced to medium size pieces
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 teaspoon medium or hot curry powder
- 6 ounces (170g) green beans, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt (more if needed)
- Juice of 1 whole Lemon or lime, to serve
- Cilantro, to serve
Instructions
- On the saute setting, lightly brown the chicken on all sides for 5 to 7 minutes. Add the curry powder and turmeric along with the garlic and onion. Continue to simmer for 3-5 minutes until the onion and garlic are translucent.
- Add mango, carrots, garlic, vinegar, and coconut milk to the sauteed items in the slow cooker. Stir to combine.
- Cook on low for 4-6 hours until chicken is tender. Add green beans during the last half hour.
- Taste the curry and add salt if needed.
- Just before serving, add lemon or lime juice to taste, and garnish with the cilantro.
- Serve with steamed rice.
