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Chicken Korma
Curry

Chicken Korma

Deep-fried onions blended into yogurt build the backbone of this North Indian korma — no cream, no tomatoes, just slowly coaxed sweetness from the onion and heat from a carefully balanced spice list. Patience at the frying stage is the whole secret.

1 hrServes 5 medium

Method

  1. Deep-fry the sliced onions in oil until deep golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper. In a blender, combine the fried onions with the yogurt and blitz to a smooth paste. Set aside.
  2. In the same pan, discard the frying oil, add ghee and warm over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces with the ginger-garlic paste and fry until golden all over, about 8–10 minutes .
  3. Add all the whole spices (bay leaves, cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, cumin seeds, black pepper) and fry for another 3–4 minutes .
  4. Add the powdered spices (cumin, coriander, chilli, turmeric), the almonds and salt. Mix well.
  5. Pour in the onion-yogurt paste, reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 15 minutes , stirring every 5 minutes. Add a splash of water if the gravy thickens too much. The chicken should reach an internal 74 °C / 165 °F — cut into a thick piece to check it's white throughout with no pink.
  6. Serve hot with naan or pulao.

Cook's note. Whisk the curd well before adding — adding un-whisked yogurt over high heat causes it to split.

The story

Korma descends from the Mughal court kitchens of the 16th century, where slow-braising in spiced yogurt was a technique for transforming tough meat into something fit for an emperor. The word itself comes from the Urdu for 'braising', and the fried-onion base — fried until almost blackened, then pounded to a paste — is the signature that separates the real thing from lesser imitations.