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My slow cooker beef coconut curry is a luscious, mild crowd-pleaser. We’re talking super tender beef in a creamy coconut-tomato sauce. There’s minimal upfront prep, then the slow cooker does the hard work while the house smells incredible and you leave it to cook to perfection.
I’m using store-bought curry paste to keep this recipe as simple and easy as possible.
“Thank you so much! Wonderful recipe and easy… rich and flavoursome! Now one of my go to’s!”
Nicky’s Notes
I love a beef curry, but it’s got to be cooked long and slow to make that beef flake and fall apart. The bonus to this, is that we can use casserole steak/beef (braising beef) – which is reasonable inexpensive.
I’m building up my collection of beef curries on the site. We’ve now got:
- A Lighter Beef Curry – always popular when you’re trying to steer clear of the coconut milk and cream
- Massaman Beef Curry – using a homemade curry paste cooked with potatoes too
- Spicy Beef Rendang – with beef that’s caramelized on the outside and tender in the middle
This particular curry has all that rich flavour, but is pretty mild, and made simple, using store-bought curry paste.
Table of Contents
📋 What do we need?
***Full recipe with detailed quantities in the recipe card below***
Note on the Curry Paste
I use a shop-bought Tikka Masala curry paste for this recipe – which is usually quite mild. You could also use balti, jalfrezi or rogan josh pastes – which tend to be fairly mild too. If you’re after something hotter, use madras or Thai red curry paste. **Be sure to use curry paste, NOT curry sauce. The paste is concentrated – used for the base of a sauce, whereas the sauce is usually a finished version of a curry sauce**.
Best cut of beef to use
I use fairly inexpensive braising/casserole or stewing steak – often known as chuck steak, which comes from the forequarter. Usually, this consists of parts of the neck, shoulder blade, and upper arm. It’s a tough but very flavourful cut of meat. It has a lot of connective tissue, which needs long slow cooking to break down and become tender.
The Coconut Milk
I recommend using full fat as it won’t split during the cooking process.
Note on the tomatoes
I use finely diced tinned tomatoes, which will result in a thicker sauce (without big chunks of tomato). You can replace with passata if you prefer, but try to go with a thick passata (Mutti makes a good one), rather than anything too runny.
Abbreviated Recipe
***Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card below***
Sear the seasoned beef; soften onions and peppers, then bloom garlic, ginger and curry paste in the same pan.
Add tomatoes, tomato purée, sugar and coconut milk; bring to a simmer, transfer to the slow cooker and cook until the beef is fall-apart tender (5–6 hrs high / 7–8 hrs low).
If needed, thicken with a cornflour slurry; serve with rice, coriander and warm naan.
Pro Tip
- If you’re serving to people with different spice palates, serve up the mild portions first, then stir in a teaspoon of chilli flakes and serve to the people who like it a little hotter.
Simple ingredients that come together quickly, then we can leave the slow cooker to do its work – all resulting in a rich beef coconut curry.
🍽️ What to serve it with
- Easy Pilau Rice , Onion fried rice or Boiled Rice
- Homemade Naan Bread or Chapati
- Some homemade mango chutney – the kids LOVE this
- Tomato & Onion Salad < My favourite side for a curry
📺 Watch how to make it
Slow Cooker Beef Coconut Curry
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil or ghee
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) braising beef
- 1 large onion peeled and chopped
- 2 red bell peppers deseeded and roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 2 tsp minced ginger
- 2 heaped tbsp curry paste*
- 1 beef stock cube crumbled
- 400 g (14 oz) tin finely chopped tomatoes
- 2 tbsp tomato puree paste for US
- 2 tsp sugar
- 400 ml (14 oz) tin full fat coconut milk
Optional:
- 3 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) mixed with 6 tbsp cold water
To Serve:
- handful of chopped coriander (cilantro)
- pilau or boiled rice
- naan
Instructions
- Preheat your slow cooker to high.
- Season the beef with salt and pepper.½ tsp salt, 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) braising beef, ½ tsp black pepper
- Heat 1 ½ tbsp of the oil in a large pan over a high heat.2 tbsp sunflower oil or ghee
- Add the seasoned beef to the pan. Sear until lightly browned (about 6-8 minutes). You may need to do this in two batches.
- Once seared, add the beef to the slow cooker, using a slotted spoon.
- Add the remaining ½ tbsp of oil to the pan and turn the heat down to medium.
- Add in the onion and red pepper and cook for 4-5 minutes, until the onions have softened.1 large onion, 2 red bell peppers
- Add in the garlic, ginger, curry paste, and crumbled stock cube. Stir and cook for 1-2 minutes.4 cloves garlic, 2 tsp minced ginger, 2 heaped tbsp curry paste*, 1 beef stock cube
- Add in the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar, and coconut milk.400 g (14 oz) tin finely chopped tomatoes, 2 tbsp tomato puree, 2 tsp sugar, 400 ml (14 oz) tin full fat coconut milk
- Stir, bring to the boil, then pour into your slow cooker, stir once more, place your slow cooker lid on and cook for 5-6 hours on high or 7-8 hours on low.
- If you want to thicken the sauce a little, slowly pour in the cornstarch and water mixture whilst stirring – until the sauce is thick enough.3 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) mixed with 6 tbsp cold water
- Serve over rice, sprinkled with some coriander (cilantro). I like to serve mine with some naan and tomato and onion salad too.handful of chopped coriander (cilantro), pilau or boiled rice, naan
Video
Notes
Check every hour or so to ensure the sauce isn’t running dry. Top up with a splash of boiling water if it’s starting to look dry. Can I make it ahead? Yes, this recipe can be made ahead, then cooled, covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Reheat in a pan, over a medium heat, stirring occasionally (be careful not to break up the beef too much), until piping hot throughout. Can I freeze it? Yes, make the recipe, then cool, cover and freeze.
Defrost overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat, as per the make-ahead instructions above. Ingredient swaps
- Swap the Tikka Masala curry paste for your favourite curry paste. Jalfrezi, Madras, Balti and Thai Red curry paste all work well.
- Add in extra vegetables. Mushrooms, courgette (zucchini) and baby new potatoes can all go in when you add everything to the slow cooker. Broccoli and green beans can be added in for the last 30-45 minutes of cooking, and baby spinach can be stirred in right at the end.
- Don’t want to use coconut milk? replace the 400ml (14 floz) coconut milk with 160ml (2/3 cup) beef stock plus 120ml (1/2 cup) double (heavy) cream.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This Slow Cooker Beef Curry was first posted in May 2022. Updated since with recipe improvements and for housekeeping reasons.
🍲 What to try next?
Here are some more fantastic Slow Cooked Beef recipes (some cooked in the slow cooker, some in the oven):
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You are a genius and I absolutely adore this recipe! I make it exactly as stated and have served it to company with rave reviews. This is restaurant quality cooking with warm, textured, depthy undertones. Thank you so much for sharing, there are never any leftovers!
Lovely but don’t recommend putting the coconut milk in at the start as there was a sour dmell and taste. Will leave this until the end next time