on Sep 15, 2021 Not your regular chicken curry, but with almost the same ingredients, we are transforming chicken into a stellar dish today. Karahi Chicken is on the menu at pretty much every restaurant and it always makes the top #5 list of favourites. For good reason. The flavours of this dish are unbeatable, and work so well when you want chicken curry but different. There is some work that goes into this dish, and the list of ingredients will feel slightly long. But when you break this down step by step like I’ve done here for you, you’ll realise that it’s pretty simple actually. And the entire dish takes 45 minutes from start to finish, which is a winner when you want something special.
Ingredients for Karahi Chicken
Chicken: I like to use ‘curry cut’ chicken which is basically a whole chicken cut into 1.5 inch pieces. You can easily use only thighs and drumsticks if you like. I do recommend using bone in chicken for best results because the chicken stays juicy. Curd: Used to marinate the chicken along with some spices. I prefer using thick curd or greek yogurt and spices. This step helps tenderise the chicken and pack it with flavour. Karahi Masala: Karahi Masala is the backbone of this recipe. In addition to using regular ground spices, we are making a fragrant, flavourful spice mix with cumin (jeera), fennel (saunf), peppercorns (kali mirch), coriander seeds (dhaniya) and whole dried red chillies (khadi lal mirch). Roasted Onion Capsicum: I’ve used pearl onions but you can easily use whole shallots or onion petals, whole red chillies and cubed capsicum. We roast them together in ghee on a really high flame till they char around the edges. This is added towards the end for sweet, spicy, smoky flavours. Karahi chicken gets its distinct flavour and aroma from these.
How to make Karahi Chicken
- Onions: Cook onions till they are soft and translucent. We don’t want to brown them too much, just soften them.
- Ground Spices: Add ground spices and ginger garlic paste. Saute this well to cook the spices and ginger garlic paste – about 2-3 minutes
- More Ginger Garlic: This dish is flavour packed and we want it to have strong flavours. The extra ginger garlic is added at this stage to keep the flavour robust and fresh
- Tomato Puree: Tomato puree is just fresh tomatoes ground to paste. I recommend fresh over store bought because store bought puree is tangier. Add the tomato puree, mix well and cook with the masala for a few minutes till you start seeing oil separating from the sides. Thats a sure shot sign that your masala is cooked through.
- Dry Roast Chicken: Add the marinated chicken and then on high flame, keep tossing it with the masala for 2 minutes. This will cook the marinade and seal the flavours.
- Simmer: Add some water and simmer the chicken 25 minutes
- Onion Capsicum: Final stretch. Add the roasted onion and capsicum along with kasuri methi and garam masala. Mix and cook this for another 5-7 minutes. The smokiness and sweetness from roasted onions and capsicum will make this a stellar dish!
- Serve: Lots of chopped coriander, some butter and you are ready to serve!!
Top Tips To Make The Best Karahi Chicken
If you follow my recipe for the karahi masala, it’ll make about 4 tablespoons of masala. We only need 2 1/2 tbs for karahi chicken. You can easily store the rest in an airtight container to be used later in curries or another batch of karahi chicken. Make sure to dry roast the spices until you see them releasing oil (you should be able to smell their sweetness and that’s when you know they are ready). Even though this recipe is originally made with chicken, you can easily make it veg by using paneer or even vegetables of your choice. However, making a veg/paneer karahi will mean reduced cook time, so be mindful about that. You can easily prep the capsicum and onions before you start making the curry to help save time and make the process more hassle-free.
Karahi Chicken tastes best with parathas, tandoori rotis or chapatis. The gravy is thick and jammy, and the chicken remains juicy and tender. The bits of onions and capsicum help cut through the spice because of their sweetness and smokiness. Towards the end of the meal, I also enjoy mixing any masala on my plate with some basmati or jeera rice. It’s just my thing. So whatever you decide to serve with it, it always makes a phenomenal meal.
Watch the Recipe Video
