Chicken Korma Recipe

There are hundreds of chicken korma recipes about but sadly most of them seem to miss the purpose. Korma and particularly chicken korma are very fashionable dishes in the UK and other westernized Indian restaurants. Unfortunately, sort of a lot of other dishes, what you get in these restaurants bears little relationship to the first dish of Northern India.

Kormas probably originated in some form in Persia and were delivered to India by the Moghul Empire within the 16th century. The name springs from the Hindi word for braising and what defines the dish is that the meat or vegetables are braised during a sealed pot with small amounts of liquid which might be stock or cream or yogurt or simply plain water.

The UK restaurant 'chicken korma' is invariably mild, creamy and typically has nuts, like almonds or cashews, and it often isn't braised; It is often quite a pleasant dish but it isn't really a korma.

An authentic chicken korma recipe can produce something mild but also can be extremely popular, it needn't necessarily be creamy (though the chicken korma recipe I give here is sort of creamy). It really covers a wide range of dishes (so there will be a few optional extras at the end). Rogan Josh and Dopiaza are the two variations of korma dishes. 

Lamb and chicken korma recipes are probably the 2 hottest - cf. my Lamb Korma Recipe.

The traditional cooking technique would have involved a pot with a lid over a coffee fire and doubtless with coals on the lid to heat the dish from all angles. Today we've pans with tight-fitting lids, sealing the pot is important and would often are done using dough as a sealing ring.

Basic Ingredients

1lb (450g) chicken

1 medium onion

2 large cloves garlic

½" (1cm) root ginger

½ pint yoghurt

red or green chili

Oil for frying

1 black cardamom

¼ teaspoon turmeric

Seeds from 2 cardamom pods

2 cloves

½ teaspoon peppercorns

1"(2.5 cm) stick cinnamon

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon poppy seeds

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

About a handful of fresh coriander leaves

Notes on Ingredients

Chicken Korma Recipe

Chicken Korma

Chicken. I even have used different chicken bits, on behalf of me chicken breasts are the simplest but you'll use any joints of chicken really.

Onions, Garlic and Ginger. This is essentially a Muslim version of chicken korma recipe, most Hindus would eat a vegetarian version and Hindu Pandits wouldn't use onions or garlic. This would be subbed with about ¼ teaspoon of asafetida. 

Chilli. this is often optional, korma is often a really mild dish I prefer it to possess some bite and use one medium-strength chili during this quantity. It would still be a korma if you used a lot of chillis and made it really hot.

Oil. Ghee is best for this dish and groundnut oil is additionally excellent, you'll use butter, mustard oil or, if you've got none of those, then plain vegetable oil is ok.

Basic Method

Heat a dry frypan and roast the coriander, cumin, poppy seeds, cloves, peppercorns, and cinnamon.

Allow to chill and grind these alongside the cardamom seeds, turmeric, and nutmeg to a fine powder

Chop the chicken into 1½" (4cm) cubes

Coat the chicken with the spices, over and leave for a few hours (or within the fridge overnight)

Finely chop the onion

Crush and chop the garlic

Finely chop the chili

Peel and very finely dice the ginger

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Put the onions, garlic, stew, and ginger into the dish 

After a couple of seconds, turn down the warmth and continue cooking until the onions are nicely browned

Remove from the pan and set aside

If necessary add a touch more oil to the pan and convey back to frying temperature.

Put within the chicken with the spices and fry until the chicken is sealed and has all turned white

Now reduce the warmth to low, stir to stop sticking.

When the warmth is reduced, add the yogurt a touch at a time stirring it in.

Include the onion, garlic, stew, and ginger and mix this in 

Now cover with a decent fitting lid and slowly cook for a minimum of 45 minutes

Hack the coriander leaves and either embellish else you can mix these into the dish

Notes on Method

A fairly straight forward chicken korma recipe. The only thing to notice really is that the meat must have cooled right down to simmering before adding the yogurt or it's going to split.

Options

This is a chicken korma recipe which I even have cooked often and is basically good. There are many variations on this though and that I will do more recipes later.

You can use cream or thick coconut milk rather than (or whilst well as) the yogurt to form it even more creamy.

You can also add a few dessertspoons of ground-up almonds towards the top which can make it quite just like the UK restaurant-style korma.

An option I even have used is to feature ½ teaspoon of garam masala about 15 mins before finishing.