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
- Start by cutting the chicken thighs into thirds and adding to the pot.
- Add sliced onions to the chicken.
- Cover everything in the herb and spice mixture.
- Add the ginger, garlic, chopped chillies, tomato paste, and finely crumbled stock cube.
- Sprinkle over the cornflour and mix everything through well. This will help to create that thick glossy sauce!
- Now pour in the wet ingredients- chopped tomato and lemon juice. Stir through once more and cook!
More Hearty Slow Cooker Recipes
If you like the look of this meatloaf recipe, try these other hearty and delicious recipes:
Yes for up to three days in the fridge in an air tight container or three months in the freezer.
Chicken Bhuna goes well with freshly cooked basmati rice and naan or roti breads.
Slow Cooker Chicken Bhuna
Equipment
Ingredients
- 500 g (1 lb) chicken thighs – cut into thirds
- 1 large white onion – or 2 small white onions
- 400 g (14 oz) tin chopped tomatoes
- 100 ml (0.5 cups) water
- juice of ½ lemon
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 garlic cloves – minced
- 2 green chillies – seeds removed
- 2 tsp dried or chopped coriander – (cilantro)
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1.5 tsp fenugreek – ground
- 1 2cm (1inch) piece of fresh ginger – finely chopped
- 1 chicken stock cube – crumbled
- 2 tbsp corn flour
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Cut each chicken thigh into 3 pieces and place in the pot, then add the sliced onion.
- In a bowl mix together the garam masala, tumeric, fenugreek, coriander, salt, and cumin.
- Add the spice mix, sliced green chillies, garlic, ginger, sugar and tomato paste. Finely crumble the stock cube into the pot and mix everything together well.
- Sprinkle the cornflour to the pot and stir well.
- Add the water, lemon juice and chopped tomatoes and mix through.
- Cook on low for 5 hours or high for 3 hours.
My cooker doesn’t have a searing option. I see you don’t recommend searing of the meat and onions before slow cooking. Will this affect the overall flavour of the dish?
We wanted to keep this easy to prepare – and it tastes great how it is! There are a lot of strong flavours in this recipe – sweating the onions and/or searing the chicken before you add everything to the slow cooker will add a small element of flavour that will more than likely go unnoticed. So in our opinion – it’s not necessary.
This recipe sounds great and I can’t wait to try it. What would the timings be if the quantities were doubled?
Hi Peter,
If you are doubling up the quantities I would add an hour onto the cooking time and then check and ensure everything is cooked through thoroughly and the sauce has thickened. It just needs time to heat up the additional volume of ingredients. There is always some degree of variance in cooking times across the different sizes and types of slow cookers that needs to be accounted for, so a bit longer may be required. Hope that helps and you enjoy it!
Rebecca
This dish looks delish! Questions…what is fenugreek & is there a substitute? Can I use liquid chicken stock instead of the cube?
Hi Tammy, Fenugreek has a very distinct taste and there aren’t really any good substitutes in our opinion. If you do some research you’ll find that people recommend mustard seeds, curry powder and even maple syrup (!) – we haven’t tested any of these, so can’t recommend quantities or how it will taste.
Liquid stock is fine – use 100ml in place of the stock cube and water.
Hope you enjoy!
This curry was lovely. It was really tasty and better than a takeaway. I will definitely be making this again!
First recipe I have tried on this web site and it was brilliant. My wife said it was my best curry ever, better than our local takeaway. Highly recommended.