Slow Cooker Chicken Bhuna

Tender pieces of chicken in a thick and intensely flavoured sauce are the signature notes for a Chicken Bhuna. This recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken Bhuna doesn’t disappoint! Full of flavour from tomatoes, chillies and onion coated in a medley of spices; this medium heat curry isn’t just tasty but also amazingly quick to prepare.

Bhuna is a dish that we would order frequently when eating out at Indian restaurants. It’s got bags of flavour but it also tends it to be a lighter option as there isn’t fat or cream added to the sauce.

It’s usually a simple base of tomatoes, chillies and onions. I say usually, because rather like a Balti, it’s a dish that is open to some interpretation! There is no specific recipe which is widely followed.

A bhuna is more about encapsulating the key flavours and creating a beautifully spiced sauce that lets the ingredients really shine.

In fact, the recipe here was one of the first we had on Slow Cooker Club and has been a reader favourite for some time!

What ingredients are in a Bhuna?

Like many curries, the name Bhuna doesn’t foretell the ingredients of the dish, rather the method by which it is cooked. Bhuna is Urdu and literally means ‘to be fried’. It’s famous for being served with a sauce of fresh green chillies and onions.

The ingredients for slow cooker chicken bhuna are below. As you can see, the spice mix includes turmeric, garam masala, cumin, and fenugreek with extra zest from fresh ginger, green chillies, garlic and lemon. Delicious!

Green chillies are preferred as they give the sauce a mild sourness which blends perfectly against the tomatoes and spices. Chicken thighs are used as they stay really tender when cooked for longer in the slow cooker.

Why make a Chicken Bhuna in the Slow Cooker?

For starters, it’s really quick to produce a great tasting curry with very little effort. The prep of the ingredients takes little more than ten minutes and the sauce is a simple base of tomatoes. So it couldn’t get much easier!

Secondly, a crockpot chicken bhuna tastes fantastic after cooking for hours allowing the chicken to turn tender and the flavours to infuse. An important process for creating that authentic intensely flavoured sauce!

How spicy is Chicken Bhuna?

Bhuna is a medium heat dish, so you want a bit of a kick without numbing your mouth and not being able to taste the rest of the flavours!

In this recipe only fresh chillies provide the heat. As such, it’s a good idea to taste a tiny bit of the chilli raw before starting to cook. This avoids issues with either too much, or not enough spice later on.

If you find that your chillies are not up to the job of bringing fire to the pot, then you can also add in a little ground hot chilli – I would suggest starting with 1 teaspoon.

Steps to making the perfect Slow Cooker Chicken Bhuna

1. Start by cutting the chicken thighs into thirds and adding to the pot.
2. Add sliced onions to the chicken.
3. Cover everything in the herb and spice mixture.
4. Add the ginger, garlic, chopped chillies, tomato paste, and finely crumbled stock cube.
5. Sprinkle over the cornflour and mix everything through well. This will help to create that thick glossy sauce!
6. Now pour in the wet ingredients- chopped tomato and lemon juice. Stir through once more and cook!