Chicken Korma Recipe is traditional and involves cooking of the cuisine at low flame.
Chicken Korma Recipe is divided into two – North Indian Korma and South Indian Korma. South Indian Korma is made with tomato gravy, whereas the north Indian style has the onion and other spices in the rich gravy of curd.
Chicken Korma is one of the dishes that my mother would make especially when we had guests at home or on any special occasion. Usually, the Korma or Kurma made at my home is slightly reddish in colour as we put Kashmiri Mirch in it and is spicy. The reddish colour could be the sign to indicate your family members that this dish is hot and spicy That’s my assumption!
I love the flavour of the thick aromatic gravy of Chicken Korma. And if you have the homemade curd of full-cream milk, the Korma gets a creamy taste. The flavours of dry fruits too leaves you wanting for more.
How to Make Chicken Korma at Home
For this Chicken Korma Recipe all you need is curd, chicken, spices and dry fruits. You can take chicken with or without skin. This Chicken Korma recipe is mild spicy, you can always make it more spicy or less, depends on you.
Time Taken – 50-60 minutes; Serves – 3 people
Ingredients you need for your Homemade Chicken Korma
For Chicken Marination
- 2 tsp Lemon juice
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 tsp Black pepper Powder
- 1 tsp Ginger-garlic paste
For Gravy
- 450 gm Chicken pieces
- 2 tbsp Almonds
- 2 tbsp Cashew Nuts
- 1 2-inch square of dessicated coconut
- 1 tsp Shahjeera (Caraway seeds)
- 2 tbsp Kashmiri Mirch
- 1 tsp Red Chilli powder (optional)
- 3 tbsp Refined oil
- 2 medium-size Onion, finely chopped
- 6 tbsp Curd
- 1/4 tsp Haldi (Turmeric) powder
- 1 2-inch Dalchini (Cinnamon Stick)
- 6-7 Black pepper
- 2 Tejpatta (Bay Leaves)
- 1 tsp Garam masala
- 2 green Chillies, thinly sliced
- 2 Elaichi (Cardammom) Pods
- 4 Laung (cloves)
- Chopped Green Coriander For Garnishing
- 2 Red Chillies
- Salt to taste
- 2 pinches of nutmeg grated
- 1 inch ginger piece
- 4-5 cloves
How to make the perfect Chicken Korma yourself
Take the washed chicken in a bowl and add all the ingredients mentioned for marination – lemon juice, black pepper powder, salt and ginger-garlic paste. Keep it aside. By the time let’s prepare gravy for Chicken Korma.
Take a wok or Kadhai and put it on high flame. Add almonds, cashews and coconut to it and roast it till light brown. Let it cool for 5 minutes and then grind them in fine powder. Keep this dry fruit powder aside.
In the same wok, add refined oil and heat it. Now add the dry spices red chillies, laung, elaichi, shahjeera, tejpatta, black pepper, dalchini, nutmeg powder and roast them for 15 seconds. Add onion to the wok and saute till light brown. Add ginger piece and garlic cloves and saute for 10 more seconds.
Put off the flame, let this masala cool for 5-10 minutes. Take out the onion masala in a grinding jar leaving the rest of the oil in the Kadhai. Grind the onion masala into a coarse paste.
You can remove the tejpattta from it. I didn’t removed tejpatta as I wanted the aroma plus flavour of all the spices in Korma.
Back to our kadhai. Put the kadhai back on flame, heat the remaining oil in it. Put the onion paste in the Kadhai. Lower the flame and let it cook till the fat separates.
Add the dry fruits’ powder, we had already made and kept aside, to the onion masala and stir. Let it cook for 1 minute. Now add haldi powder, red chilli powder (optional) and salt. Mix well and cook for 1 minute.
In the same grinding bowl, put curd and just blend it for 15 seconds. This will make it smooth. Add this curd to the onion masala for Chicken Korma.
Add green chillies, kashmiri mirch powder and garam masala to it and stir for 2 minutes. Close the lid of Kadhai and let the gravy cook for 5 minutes.
Add the marinated chicken pieces now in the gravy. Mix well. Add 1 and half cups of water. And close the lid of kadhai and cook for 25 minutes.
Chicken Korma is ready! Take it out in a serving bowl and garnish it with green coriander. Have it with lachha paratha or butter naans, like I did This is just an awesome combination. Warning: Watch your weight
If you stop by this Chicken Korma Recipe and decide to make it, do share your experiences.
Enjoy eating and have a great weekend!
Recipe and Images Shared by Sara Khan