Leftover Chicken Curry

Dec 29, 2025 | 0 comments

What do I need to make this leftover chicken curry recipe?

various vegetables cooking in a large pan.

I use ordinary, cheap vegetables for this, but it’s extremely flexible and you can use, more or less whatever’s in the fridge.

Typically, for 4 servings, I will use

a pepper, red, yellow or orange, not green, chopped into walnut sized pieces
a medium potato, chopped into walnut sized pieces, I don’t peel it
a medium onion, peeled and sliced
half a pack of green beans, chopped, or the equivalent amount of white cabbage
a tin of tomatoes
either 2 medium chicken breasts or about 300g of cooked meat from a roast or poached chicken , cut into chunks
30g butter to fry the vegetables in. It adds flavour, you could use any fat left from a roast, or a splash of oil for economy
sometimes I’ll add half a tin of coconut milk (I actually use Maggi coconut milk powder which I buy in bulk from Approved Foods when it’s cheap enough)
80g of any Patak’s curry pastes – I like these as they have depth of flavour and last forever in the larder.If you don’t want to buy one of these, a tablespoon of your favourite curry powder will do the job, and will be cheaper
for each person, I find 50g of brown basmati rice is about right
also serve with a nan bread, pickles and mango chutney if you like

Use white cabbage, it’s the cheapest vegetable
Use oil instead of butter to fry the vegetables
Omit the coconut
Use curry powder in place of curry paste
Replace the pepper with carrots
You could even replace the meat element completely with a tin of beans, juice and all – this would also mean that your curry is vegan (if you use oil instead of butter)

leftover turkey curry in a blue bowl.

Prepare all the vegetables – cut them into walnut sized pieces
Saute them slowly in the butter until cooked through. Do not add the tomatoes until the vegetables are cooked through as the acidity in the tomatoes makes it difficult for the vegetables to soften.
Add the curry paste
Add the tomatoes and stir well
Now add the chicken breast. If the meat is not cooked yet, bubble the curry until it is white all the way through.
If you are using coconut milk or powder, add it now
Taste and adjust for seasoning if necessary
Too much liquid? Bubble fast, with the lid off, until reduced down
All done, leave to mature if you have time, otherwise serve with rice, nan and pickles if you have them, also delicious just as it is, on its own

leftover turkey curry in a blue bowl, on a blue striped plate.

Leftover turkey curry is one of the best things about Christmas week! Simply substitute turkey for the chicken
Or use any other leftover roast meat from a Sunday roast
Swap and change the vegetables, keeping the total quantity about the same.
- use swede, carrot, parsnip, sweet potato, pumpkin / squash, frozen mixed vegetables etc
- add a big handful of fresh or frozen spinach
Add a tin of beans, kidney beans, cannellini beans, butter beans or black beans. Juice and all