I Make This 4-Ingredient Trader Joe’s Chicken Curry for Dinner Once a Week

Welcome to Fearless Meals, a column where we help you get through your busy week with speedy, easy, low-stress dinner recipes that call for 5 ingredients or less from our favorite grocery store, Trader Joe's.

As a college student, I often wish I could snap my fingers and dinner could appear right in front of me. While juggling classes, work, clubs, and friends, I have learned the key to always having food on the table: meal prep.

Through trial and error and many hours pacing up and down the Trader Joe’s aisles, I found my favorite recipe that makes enough to last all week: this 4-ingredient Trader Joe’s chicken curry.

This dish came together once I discovered the magic of Trader Joe’s Thai Style Yellow Curry Sauce. It’s sweet and coconutty and packs a savory punch with lots of turmeric, onion powder, and ground ginger. 

All I do is sauté strips of chicken in a pan, add in TJ's Frozen Fire Roasted Bell Pepper and Onions, stir in the curry sauce, and serve it over a bed of jasmine rice, and voila, done! By using the entire package of each ingredient, I make enough for three meals in just 30 minutes. 

How To Make 4-Ingredient Trader Joe’s Chicken Curry

For three to four servings, you will need the following ingredients. I'm counting oil as a freebie.

• 1 cup Trader Joe’s Jasmine Rice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 bag Trader Joe’s Fire Roasted Bell Pepper and Onions
• 1 package Trader Joe’s Fresh Organic Chicken Breast Strips
• 1 bottle Trader Joe’s Thai Yellow Curry Sauce 

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a medium pot with a lid. You'll use it to cook the rice.

While you wait for the water to boil, set a large saucepan over medium heat. Add one tablespoon of olive oil and, once hot, tilt the pan so it spreads evenly across the bottom. Add the chicken strips to the pan, making sure they aren’t lying on top of each other.

By this time the water should be boiling, so add 1 cup of rice in. Cover with a lid and simmer, cooking according to the package directions.

By now you may be wondering, “Abby, why chicken strips?” This is why: Once I have the chicken in the pan, I like to take kitchen scissors and cut them up into thirds or fourths depending on their length. It’s way lazier and easier than cutting breasts up beforehand. 

Cook the chicken on each side until you can’t see any pink, 2 to 3 minutes, then add in the frozen peppers and onions. Once the veggies are hot and entirely defrosted, add the curry sauce. I use almost an entire bottle, but you can taste it to determine how strong you want your curry to be. Cook just until heated through and hot, then serve over rice.

How To Store and Reheat This Curry

I store leftovers in the fridge, packing the rice and curry in separate containers. They will both keep for up to 4 days.

To reheat, I scoop a portion of rice and curry into a bowl and microwave it for about 2 minutes, stirring once or twice, until heated through. If I have any extra curry sauce left over, I add more to the bowl just before I put it in the microwave to make up for any lost moisture.

The Many Uses for Trader Joe’s Fire Roasted Bell Pepper and Onions

There is nothing more handy than a bag of frozen veggies in your freezer. These roasted peppers and onions are great to scramble into eggs, sauté with the Trader Joe’s Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage and toss into pasta, or throw into a homemade taco bowl.