: Chicken texture after precooking starts to break Sometimes when pre-cooking chicken for a curry week, the chicken cuts doesn't keep its shape. It starts to get a bit stringy and losing the "smooth" shape that it was cut with,

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This doesn't always happen - it could be anything but most likely is the amount of time and water used. Not to mention the ingredients as certain ingredients can destroy meat.

Try any of these options:

At the very beginning when frying your spices and/or onions, fry the chicken pieces and then take them out so they're sealed. Add water to the pan and whatever else you're using and bring the water down until it's like gravy. Put the chicken pieces back in - cover on low heat for ten minutes. Stir, then cover for a further ten minutes.
If you don't want to do something fidly, try to use a wide pan and put only enough water to just cover the chicken - cover for twenty minutes then uncover and cook until it looks yummy.

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Hi there is no need to pre-cook chicken. If you put pre-cooked chicken in curry it will become over cooked and chewy like rubber.

Put chicken pieces in the prepared curry base, make sure you do not add any water in it. Chicken releases its on water which gives a good flavor to the curry so let it cook own its own. Cover it with a lid while its cooking. Once chicken looks set add little water only if required. Remember chicken does not take much time to cook. Few minutes and it will be done to perfection. Once it looks tender turn it off. Don't let it fall apart.

Also I prefer to marinate raw chicken at-least an hour in advance with little yogurt and garlic ginger paste and kept in fridge ( my mom used to keep it overnight). It makes chicken nice and tender for cooking.