This pineapple mango chicken curry recipe is one of my favorite things to make and probably my best rice dish. 

I don’t usually like creamy meals, as they tend to be heavy on my stomach. But replacing heavy cream or crème fraîche, cheese with simply coconut milk is wonderful: it still satisfy the silky, creamy craving without forcing you to take a nap after dinner. It mixes extraordinarily well with spices, and preserves the full taste of your ingredients. Paired with steam cooking, it makes for deliciously wonderful meals everyone loves. 

Enjoy this silky, fruity, Thai cuisine inspired colorful meal made of only fresh ingredients – except coconut milk. It satisfies sweet cravings, protein needs, is fiber loaded thanks to the fruits and veggies, and brings in all the nutrition of spices, herbs and healthy oils. By the way, mango and pineapple together is not only original, its scrumptious! Served best over black rice. But if you can’t have rice, it will still fill you up! 

Neither one pot nor instant pot

This meal is neither a one pot meal nor an instant pot meal. Everything is steamed, to some extent, before mixing ingredients. 

No instant pot

Firstly, you do not need an instant pot or a rice cooker to cook rice. I cook my rice in a stainless steel bowl in my steam cooker. Read this article to learn why and how to steam rice. There also is a video on my Youtube channel.

Not strictly One-Pot

Secondly, I use my steam cooker to pre steam all my ingredients. It preserves nutrients, cleanses them like in a sauna, and cooks them to perfection without sacrificing flavors. Learn here why steam cooking is the healthiest cooking method, and my best ally for quick daily cooking. Thanks to my steam cooker, I make a very quick chicken curry.

Therefore, I use two pots, if you count the process of pre steaming ingredients. However, that allows me to go quicker. I wouldn’t mind a one pot curry chicken but i’m afraid it does not preserve and cleanse ingredients like the steam cooker does. It also requires boiling the vegetables with the spices. Since I value vegetables for their nutritional value, I dislike boiling them because it kills vitamins and degrades fibers. I use more fruits and vegetables in my recipe than most, so it is all the more important for me to preserve their nutrients and fibers.

It is a very easy recipe, even for steam cooking beginners.

Tips for the perfect chicken curry

Use a good effective food steamer. It will cook your foods fast, preserve and cleanse your nutrients. For my ratings of best steamers in 2025, check my article.

Steam vegetables for a short amount of time, before you cook chicken in the steam cooker. Firstly, your vegetables will not touch chicken residues remaining after cooking in the steamer basket. Second, the chicken will finish cooking in the sauce, while the vegetables do not overcook in the pot.

Ingredients notes:

Here is the list of ingredients I use:

Spice

 My favorite is organic curry powder by frontier coop. I usually buy bulk and refill my existing hars. Curry powder I use is a yellow curry powder. I also use powdered turmeric (I use it a lot so I buy in bags).

Rice

I love basmati rice and jasmine rice. It does not matter which one you use: I made this dish equally delicious with white rice, brown rice, and even black rice ( rare but sometimes, you can find some at Costco!) I do like basmati because of its grain, because it is very flavorful, and because it can remain slightly crunchy. But jasmine rice smells real nice. If you want less carbs and more fibers, you can also try cauliflower rice ! I never tried, but I hear it is easy and delicious.

Produce

Plenty of veggies with the fruit: I add one whole leek including the green part, sometimes diced zucchini, which bitterness is balanced by the fruit. I Use fresh fruit: it is healthier, contains less sugar, and has a lower glycemic index than canned fruit. Pineapple makes for a very tender chicken

Coconut

• Creamy coconut milk : Don’t use the one from Trader joe’s, it often is solid and does not work well. My favorite brand is this one. (thai). 
• Unsweetened shredded coconut. Gives a little more creamy texture and more coco-nutty taste.

Chicken breast

You can use any chicken you can afford. However, I prefer buying antibiotics free in any case. Despite the fact that steaming gets rid of a lot of toxines in chicken, it does not get rid of all of it, and chicken raised with antibiotics expose you to antibiotics, which is bad for your gut health. Chicken feed is often grain based and vegetarian. It means it is sugar heavy, which fattens chicken quickly, but also makes it into a sick animal. Grain is probably GMOs based, which is usually contaminated by pesticides, also bad for the animal and its predator: YOU. Best eat organic, or/and pasture raised chicken that can pick their own food in the field – like and are fed non-GMO feed. I personally can’t always afford the best chicken, so I do my best with what I find, and rest assured that my food steamers also cleanses a good part of the toxins present in my chicken.

Learn more about steaming chicken here: Why it is healthier, and how to steam it, whole or in slices.

Leek

Leek is a great , nutrition dense vegetable. It is milder than onion, so it pairs well other types of bitter vegetables. It also pairs ideally with fruit ! I use the whole leek, and cook it for a short time so it remains crunchy. The longer it cooks, the more bitter it gets!  Same applies to zucchini, which becomes more bitter as it becomes mushy and looses flavors and fibers.

Spices

– Fresh ginger or powdered ginger. I usually use powdered ginger here, but if you have fresh ginger, know that ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger is equivalent to 1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger.

– Spice level: I use 2 tsp of curry powder for light spicy result, and 3 tsp for very spicy. I add the spices to the coconurt milk sauce just before adding the vegetables. The coconut sauce only heats on low heat for about 10-15 minutes. The more and the longer you heat your meal, the spicier it gets!

To eat with little kids, i would not go over 3 tsp curry. My older kids ( 8-10 yo) like it when I make it with 3 tsp. But the 4 yo isn’t too happy and the 2 yo can’t eat it.

Bay leaf

Oils

I do not use vegetable oil : they are highly chemically processed, and not made of vegetables but of  – olive oil and coconut oil. If you want neutral oil use avocado oil. To learn more about vegetable oils, I can’t recommend enough this book:

Fresh garlic

Grey salt and black pepper

Cooking process

I use my food steamer as an ally to maintain nutrition and speed up cooking. Therefore, contrary to most cooks, I do not cook chicken first, but last. Firstly, it makes it easier for vegetables not not be in contact with steamed chicken residues that inevitably stay in the food steamer. Hence I don’t have to rinse the steamer basket and change the steamer water: the cooking processed isn’t slowed down. Second, it takes only 5 minutes to precook chicken in the steam cooker, hence the vegetables do not overcook in the sauce, which is cooking on very low heat. After precooking, chicken pieces finish cooking in the sauce with all other ingredients and stays very tender. 

To learn more about steaming, read this article: How Gentle Steam cooking is the healthiest cooking method 

Interested in procuring a food steamer? learn about how to chose it, and read my ranking of the Best food steamers in 2025 !

Step-by-step instructions 

Assuming you cooked your rice the day before. For steaming rice, refer to next section on rice cooking.

Step 1: Steam cooker prep

Fill the tank of your steam cooker, and turn on high heat.

Step 2: Prep ingredients

Cut produce, cut chicken and salt on both sides.

Step 3: Prep sauté pan

In a sauté pan, add olive oil, coarse grey salt and garlic. Turn on heat low. Do not burn the oil or garlic.

Step 4: (optional) Steam fruit

When steamer heats with abundant vapor, place fruit in the steamer basket, cover. steam 2 minutes.

Note: I only do it because the fruits are rarely organic, so I like them to get a little steam bath for detox. But don’t cook too long, or you will lose some nutritional benefits! This step is, however, optional.

Step 5: Make the Curry Sauce

Open the cans of coconut milk and pour into sauté pan, add spices, coconut oil, and shredded coconut. Transfer fruits to the pan and mix.

Step 6: Cook Veggies

Add veggies to the steamer basket, cover. Steam 3 minutes then transfer to the sauté pan.

Step 7: Place chicken into the steamer basket.

Cover 2 minutes. Open and mix, cover. Cook 3 more minutes. Then transfer into the sauce and mix. Cover the pot.

Optional:

• Add a handful raw cashews for crunch.
• Add Cut green onions. Since there is leek in this meal, it is not necessary, but it adds a little bite.
• For deco, I add a little bit of black sesame. Add pepper, some chopped parsley if you like.
• Serve over rice. Best over black rice. Bon appétit! 

Meal prep tips: Steam your rice ( 15′)

According to how much you need. In a stainless steel bowl, add 1 cup of rice for 1.5 cup of water. Adding water heated at 175-195°F will speed up the rice cooking process.

After turning on your steam cooker with a filled tank, wait until vapor is abundant, then place the stainless steel bowl in the steamer basket. It is cooked in 15-20 minutes depending on volume and wether you use warm water to cook the rice or not.

Learn more on steaming your rice in my article: Steam Your Rice!

Substitutions and variations

– You can easily use chicken thighs. Just make sure you remove the fat and bone pieces, and just cut each thigh in 3.

– Add diced bell peppers for more color. I prefer red.

Spices:

– More spicy: add one more tsp of curry powder!

– If you prefer curry paste: replace 1 tsp curry powder for 1tbsp yellow curry paste. Be careful though: the longer the curry paste or powder cooks in the coconut sauce, the spicier it will be. – – Keep cooking short if your eaters are little and unused to spicy foods.

– Do not replace with yellow curry powder by red curry paste as it is spicier. I have not tested this recipe with red curry. Not only would it taste different, it would also be much spicier.

Other recipes you may like:

• Fried Rice, Steamed Cuisine Style,
• Easy Steamed Cabbage & Carrots Stir Fry with Sesame Dressing
• Gentle Steam Cooking Guide to Healthy Coconut Mango Chicken,
• Pineapple Chicken over Basmati Rice
• Lemon and Olive oil almond cake
• Steamed Bread: Einkorn sandwich Sourdough bread
• and many more!

Chicken curry recipe card. 

Happy cooking and bon appétit!