Anna Louise Coronation chicken was created in 1953 for the coronation banquet of Queen Elizabeth II — a cold chicken dish in a curried cream sauce, created by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume of the Cordon Bleu cookery school.
Over seventy years later, it remains one of Britain’s most beloved and recognisable dishes — served in sandwiches, on jacket potatoes, in salads, at buffets, and at every royal celebration since.
Mary Berry’s coronation chicken recipe is the version that earns its name — properly made, not a shortcut version.
The sauce is made from scratch: mayonnaise, a little creme fraiche, curry powder bloomed in butter with a little tomato puree, a splash of wine and lemon juice, and enough mango chutney to give the characteristic sweet-savoury note.
The result is a sauce that is mildly spiced, slightly sweet, perfectly creamy, and completely distinctive — nothing else tastes quite like it.
This dish is wonderful for celebrations — it is naturally make-ahead, serves a crowd easily, and looks beautiful piled onto a platter with fresh herbs and flaked almonds.
What Makes a Great Coronation Chicken
The curry sauce must be made properly. The original recipe cooks the curry spices in butter with tomato puree and wine before combining with the mayonnaise. This step blooms the spices, cooks out any raw flavour, and gives the sauce its characteristic deep, rounded flavour. Stirring raw curry powder into mayonnaise is not the same thing.
The right spice level. Coronation chicken should be mildly spiced — the curry note should be present and pleasant but not dominant. This is not a curry. It is a creamy, mildly spiced chicken dish. Adjust the curry powder to your preference but err on the lighter side.
Poached chicken, not roasted. Poaching the chicken gives a tender, moist result that suits the creamy sauce perfectly. The cold poaching liquid can be used as a light stock.
Ingredients for Mary Berry Coronation Chicken
For the Poached Chicken
- 1.5kg whole chicken or 800g boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 onion, halved
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 black peppercorns
- 1 lemon, halved
- 1 tsp fine salt
For the Coronation Sauce
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 small onion, very finely chopped
- 1 tbsp mild curry powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp tomato purée
- 100ml dry white wine or apple juice
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 2 tbsp mango chutney
- 250g good quality mayonnaise
- 100g crème fraîche
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
To Finish
- 50g toasted flaked almonds
- Fresh coriander or flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 75g ready-to-eat dried apricots, roughly chopped (optional — adds sweetness and texture)
How to Make Mary Berry Coronation Chicken — Step by Step
Step 1 — Poach the Chicken
Place the chicken in a large pan with the halved onion, bay leaf, peppercorns, lemon, and salt. Cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes (whole chicken) or 20 to 25 minutes (chicken breasts) until completely cooked through.
Remove the chicken from the liquid. Leave to cool completely. Once cool, strip the meat from the bones (if using a whole chicken) and shred into generous pieces — not too fine. You want distinct chunks of chicken in the finished dish.
Step 2 — Make the Coronation Sauce
Heat the sunflower oil in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Add the finely chopped onion and cook for 5 minutes until softened. Add the curry powder and ground cumin and cook for one to two minutes, stirring continuously, until the spices are fragrant and cooked through.
Add the tomato purée and cook for one minute. Pour in the white wine or apple juice and let it bubble and reduce for two to three minutes until the liquid is almost completely evaporated and you have a thick, fragrant paste.
Add the lemon juice and mango chutney. Stir to combine. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely — the spice paste must be cold before it goes into the mayonnaise or the mayonnaise will split.
Step 3 — Combine the Sauce
Once the spice paste is completely cold, stir it into the mayonnaise along with the crème fraîche. Mix until smooth and well combined. Taste and adjust — add more mango chutney for sweetness, more lemon juice for sharpness, or more curry powder (stirred in raw in very small amounts) for more spice. Season with salt and pepper.
Step 4 — Combine and Serve
Add the shredded chicken and dried apricots (if using) to the sauce and fold gently until everything is well coated.
Transfer to a serving platter or bowl. Scatter the toasted flaked almonds over the top and finish with fresh coriander or parsley.
My Top Tips For Mary Berry Coronation Chicken
Cook the spices properly before adding to the mayonnaise. Raw curry powder in mayonnaise tastes harsh and uncooked. Cooking the spices in butter with onion and tomato purée, then reducing with wine, gives you a rounded, deeply flavoured spice base that is the foundation of great coronation chicken.
Cool the spice paste completely before adding to mayonnaise. Warm spice paste will cause the mayonnaise to split. Cool completely — the mixture must be at room temperature or below before it is stirred into the mayonnaise.
Shred the chicken into generous chunks. Coronation chicken should have distinct, satisfying pieces of chicken throughout the sauce — not a fine, almost smooth paste of shredded meat. Tear it by hand into pieces about 3 to 4cm in size.
Make it the day before. Coronation chicken is genuinely better the next day — the flavours meld and the sauce develops a more rounded, integrated character overnight. Make it the day before your gathering and refrigerate.
Use good quality mayonnaise. The mayonnaise is the base of the sauce and its quality is immediately detectable. Hellmann’s or a similar good quality brand is far better than budget supermarket versions.
Add dried apricots. The original recipe used apricot purée in the sauce. Roughly chopped dried apricots in the finished dish add sweetness, chew, and a flavour that is completely characteristic of the original. They are not compulsory but they are very good.
Serving Suggestions
In sandwiches with good white bread and a little rocket — the classic way. On jacket potatoes with a side salad. On a buffet platter with a green salad, rice, and naan bread. On a bed of dressed watercress for an elegant starter. At a picnic — it travels perfectly and keeps well in a cool box.
How to Store Mary Berry Coronation Chicken
In the fridge: Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. The flavour improves over the first day.
Freezing is not recommended — the mayonnaise-based sauce does not freeze well and the texture suffers significantly on defrosting.
Mary Berry Coronation Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Place chicken in a pan with onion, bay leaf, peppercorns, lemon, and salt. Cover with cold water. Bring to the boil then simmer — 1 hour 15 minutes for whole chicken, 20–25 minutes for breasts. Cool completely. Shred into generous chunks.
- Cook finely chopped onion in oil 5 minutes. Add curry powder and cumin — cook 1–2 minutes. Add tomato purée — cook 1 minute. Add wine or juice — bubble and reduce until almost evaporated. Add lemon juice and mango chutney. Cool completely.
- Stir cold spice paste into mayonnaise and crème fraîche. Mix until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Add shredded chicken and apricots if using. Fold gently until well coated.
- Transfer to serving platter or bowl. Scatter toasted almonds and fresh herbs.
Notes
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use rotisserie chicken instead of poaching my own?
Yes — this is a perfectly reasonable shortcut. Strip the meat from a rotisserie chicken and use in exactly the same quantities. The sauce makes a bigger difference than the cooking method for the chicken.
Can I make coronation chicken less spicy?
Yes — reduce the curry powder to half a tablespoon. The result will be very mild and more about the creamy, slightly sweet sauce than the spice. This is perfectly valid and many people prefer it.
Can I use Greek yoghurt instead of crème fraîche?
Yes — Greek yoghurt gives a slightly tangier, lighter result than crème fraîche. Use the same quantity.
Can I add sultanas instead of dried apricots?
Yes — sultanas are an equally traditional addition. Use about 50g of sultanas in place of the apricots. Both add the characteristic sweetness that makes coronation chicken distinctive.
Why has my mayonnaise split?
Almost always because the spice paste was not fully cooled before being stirred in. The heat caused the emulsion in the mayonnaise to break. Make sure the spice paste is at room temperature or below before combining.
Can I make coronation chicken vegetarian?
Yes — replace the chicken with cooked chickpeas, roasted cauliflower, or a mixture of both. The sauce works beautifully with vegetable-based alternatives and the result is excellent.
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