High protein Yellow Chicken Curry Bowls with juicy marinated chicken, a creamy yellow coconut curry sauce and fluffy rice. Each serve has 47g protein and only 515 calories!

High Protein Yellow Chicken Curry Bowls

There is something about a yellow curry that just feels like a treat. It’s warm and creamy and a little bit sweet, and it’s the meal I want on a cold night when I cannot be bothered thinking. The problem is that takeaway curry usually comes in somewhere near a thousand calories a serve, and I’d rather eat mine and still have my macros intact.

So this is my version. Marinated chicken breast that goes crispy in the air fryer, a silky yellow curry sauce made with light coconut milk, fluffy basmati rice cooked in bone broth, and pak choy on the side. It comes to 515 calories with 47g of protein per bowl, it makes four serves, and it genuinely tastes like the curry you’d order in.

Why you’ll love these Yellow Chicken Curry Bowls

• 47g of protein per bowl
• 515 calories a serve – this version uses light coconut milk instead of full fat and honestly, you won’t even be able to tell!
• Tastes like takeaway – aromatic, creamy, and satiating!
• Meal prep friendly – makes 4 bowls that keep in the fridge for 4 days, and the sauce freezes beautifully.
• Everything cooks at once – rice cooker on, chicken in the air fryer, sauce on the stove. Dinner’s done in about 35 minutes of actual work.

Macros per bowl

*Not including crushed nuts. Add roughly 50 calories and 2g of protein per tablespoon if you’re topping with peanuts or cashews.

Cooking Tips for Yellow Chicken Curry Bowls

• Marinate the chicken properly. Thirty minutes minimum, an hour if you’ve got the time. This is the difference between good chicken and just cooked chicken.
• Cut the breast into smaller fillets first. Whole chicken breasts are too thick – the outside dries out before the middle is done. Four to six smaller fillets cook evenly and give you more surface area for the marinade to cling to.
• Sauté the pastes before anything liquid goes in. Curry paste, chilli paste and stock paste all need a minute or two in the hot oil until they smell aromatic and start to darken. This is the step people skip, and it’s the one that decides whether your sauce tastes flat or like it’s been made properly.
• Let the sauce simmer the full 20 minutes. It will look thin at first, but it’ll eventually reduce, thicken slightly and turn glossy!
• Cook the rice in bone broth paste. Optional BUT It turns plain basmati into something elevated and packed full of goodness. My go to bone broth paste is Best of the Bone
• Taste and adjust at the end. Curry pastes vary enormously between brands. Yours might need more fish sauce for salt, more lime for brightness, or a touch more sweetener to balance.
• Don’t overcook the pak choy. A couple of minutes steamed or a quick sear in a hot pan.

Storage & meal prep

Fridge: Store for up to 4 days. I’d recommend keeping the sauce in a separate container from the rice and chicken. If you’re prepping grab-and-go bowls, layer rice on the bottom, chicken on top, and sauce in a small separate pot.

Freezer: The curry sauce freezes brilliantly for up to 3 months. Cooked chicken freezes for around 2 months. I’d cook the rice fresh rather than freezing it, but if you do freeze rice, cool it quickly and reheat it thoroughly.

Reheating:

• Microwave: 2–3 minutes on high, covered. Add a splash of water to the rice first to bring it back to life.
• Stovetop: reheat the sauce gently in a small pan and pour it over hot rice and chicken. Best result by a mile.
• Air fryer: 160°C for 5–6 minutes for the chicken alone if you want the edges crispy again.

Add fresh toppings at the last minute – green onion, crushed nuts and a lime wedge all want to go on right before you eat, not four days earlier.

More high-protein bowl recipes you’ll love

• Creamy Lemon Garlic Chicken Bowls
• Beef & Creamy Gochujang Brothy Rice Bowls
• High Protein Cottage Pie Bowls

Yellow Chicken Curry Bowls

Juicy marinated chicken, a creamy yellow coconut curry sauce, fluffy bone broth rice and pak choy. 47g of protein and 515 calories per bowl, and it tastes just like takeaway.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Course dinner, meal prep

Cuisine thai inspired

Servings 4 Bowls

Calories 515 kcal

Ingredients

  

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Chicken

• 700 g chicken breast cut into 4–6 smaller fillets
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2-3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tsp chilli paste
• 1 tbsp bone broth paste optional
• 1 lime juiced

Yellow curry sauce

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp yellow curry paste
• 1 tsp chilli paste
• 270 ml light coconut milk
• 500 ml water or chicken stock
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sweetener I use allulose, sub for monkfruit, stevia, brown sugar, etc
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar or lime juice

Rice

• 1 cup basmati rice rinsed
• 2.5 cups water
• 1 tbsp bone broth paste optional but highly recommended

Sides

• Pak choy steamed or lightly pan fried
• Crushed nuts optional
• Green onion sliced
• Lime wedges

Instructions

 

• Combine all the chicken ingredients in a bowl or bag and mix well to coat. Cover and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Rinse the basmati rice until the water runs mostly clear. Add to a rice cooker or saucepan with the water and bone broth paste and cook as usual.
• For the sauce, heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the yellow curry paste, chilli paste and chicken stock paste and sauté for 1–2 minutes until aromatic.
• Add the coconut milk, water or stock, fish sauce, sweetener, soy sauce, curry powder and rice wine vinegar. Bring to a gentle simmer and let it simmer for about 20 minutes until slightly thickened and glossy. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
• Meanwhile, air fry the chicken at 180°C for 22 minutes, flipping halfway, until cooked through. Alternatively, pan fry over medium-high heat for 5–6 minutes a side. Rest for a few minutes, then slice.
• Steam or lightly pan fry the pak choy until just tender and still bright green.
• Build the bowls: rice on the bottom, sliced chicken on top, pak choy alongside, and ladle over the curry sauce. Finish with green onion, crushed nuts and a lime wedge.

Notes

Bone broth used: Best of the Bone

• Curry pastes vary a lot in salt and heat between brands. Always taste the sauce before serving and adjust the fish sauce, lime and sweetener to suit.
• The bone broth paste is optional in both the chicken and the rice, but it adds a real depth of savouriness. 
• Chicken thigh works instead of breast -juicier, but higher in fat.
• To make it gluten free, use tamari instead of soy sauce and check your curry paste label.
• Leave the chilli paste out for a mild version.

Nutrition

Calories: 515kcalCarbohydrates: 45gProtein: 47gFat: -4g

Keyword high protein bowls, thai food, yellow chicken curry, yellow chicken curry bowls

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