Chicken Karahi or Karahi Chicken is among the widely popular curries in Pakistan and India. This dish is frequently cooked at homes, dhabas, and restaurants. Pakistani Chicken Karahi is a restaurant-style karahi that can be prepared easily and quickly without any hassle.
Karahi chicken is simple and easy to cook, yet very delicious, spicy, and flavorful. The authentic Pakistani chicken karahi is prepared with tomatoes, ginger, garlic, green chilies, and fresh ground spices.
In North Indian cuisine, the chicken karahi spelled as Kadai chicken uses onions and capsicum whereas the original Pakistani version does not use any of them.
What is the Chicken Karahi?
Chicken Karahi gets its name after the pan in which it is cooked. Karahi is actually a wok that all the restaurants and dhabas are using to prepare the meat in it. It is believed that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan is the origin of this karahi, where in the Pakhtun Cuisines, we find an enormous use of meat and black pepper.
In the open kitchens of the restaurants, you can see a number of woks sitting in lines on the stovetops, containing chicken, mutton, or beef being cooked in them.
Fumes and rich aromas coming out of these karahis, tempt us to go inside the restaurant to have a splendid meal or get the karahi packed and take-away.
Chicken karahi is a tomato-based thick masala curry. For any type of meat karahi, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, and green chili are the key ingredients. The real taste and fragrance of the karahi come from these defining ingredients. Also, the Karahi gets fragrance from the blend of certain spices.
While cooking this dish, most of the time is spent sautéing out the chicken and tomatoes juices. The karahi is like a stir-fry, you are to stir a lot, almost constantly, to keep the curry from sticking at the bottom.
Onions in Authentic Chicken Karahi
The original and traditional karahi chicken does not have onions as its essential ingredient but the traditional Karahi has undergone pretty major variations over time. The major alteration is the inclusion of onions like most other main courses that have onions among their main ingredients.
If you want to get enough of karahi’s masala then you can use onions. Nowadays the restaurants are frequently using onions to bulk up the gravy. It is totally your choice whether you want to add onions to your dish or not.
Chicken Cuts for Karahi
Usually, karahi is made from the small cuts of the whole chicken, also called karahi cuts. Large chicken cuts are not used in a karahi.
Instead of the whole chicken, you can use the meat of any part of the chicken as you like, bone-in or boneless. I prefer to use bone-in to enjoy the dish to its fullest.
Key Ingredients of The Chicken Karahi
Tomatoes: Tomatoes are the part and parcel of this dish. Use fully ripened tomatoes to get the original taste of karahi. Although for our convenience we can use tinned tomatoes for real taste, I always prefer to use the fresh ones.
Ginger & Garlic: The second key ingredients are ginger and garlic. We use ginger in the gravy as well as to garnish the karahi in its raw form. Garlic is also a defining ingredient of our karahi. The frequent use of both ginger and garlic has many unhidden health benefits, well-known to us.
In Chicken karahi, we can use ginger and garlic as much as we desire. But the key instruction or tip is to use fresh ones. Although there is a trend of using packaged jars of ginger-garlic paste, yet fresh ones are the best choice.
Fresh Green Chili and Coriander: Fresh green chilies and coriander are also important ingredients. We can use the green chili into curry as well as garnish our karahi with its slices. Use milder chilies, as we use them only for fragrance, not for heat. Coriander also adds a fresh greenish look and fragrance in addition to the green chilies.
Spices: Simple kitchen spices are used in this dish. The karahi gets a nice fragrance with the blend of spices mixture (garam masala), red chili powder, salt, red chili flakes, turmeric, dry coriander seeds (crushed coarsely), crushed peppercorn, and dried fenugreek (qusori methi). Fenugreek is optional, but it has great health benefits.
How to Cook Chicken Karahi?
First method:
Take a wok, pour ghee or oil into it. When hot enough, add onions and sauté until lightly golden color. Add garlic, ginger, and fresh green chilis whole or sliced and sauté for a while.
Add tomatoes and spices and sauté for a minute. Then add chicken and cook till the water in the curry is dried and the curry starts releasing the oil.
Second method:
Take a mixing bowl. Combine all the ingredients. Coat the chicken with marinade and set aside for half an hour.
After marination, place a wok on the stovetop. Pour oil and let it heat. Now pour the marinated chicken along with the marinade and sauté it till the water dries completely and oil starts appearing at the edges. It will take from 15 to 20 minutes to be cooked through.
I used the second method as the true essence of tomatoes, ginger, garlic, green chilies, and a blend of spices gets absorbed well into the interior of the chicken meat. This method works well for me. Try this method, surely you will give a thumb!
Note: if you are using the second method, try not to cover the pan while cooking. If you will do this, the chicken may fall off and you can’t enjoy the true chicken karahi.
How to Garnish and Serve
For fragrant finishing, garnish the chicken karahi with julienned ginger and finely chopped coriander leaves. You can also add slices of fresh green chilies to it.
Traditionally, the chicken karahi is served directly in the karahi. Chicken curry is not shifted to the serving dish. Once it is cooked, just remove from the stovetop, garnish it and serve it hot.
Usually, it has a minimal gravy and it is served with tandoori nan, roti or chapati, and raita. Salad of raw onions also paired well with it.
Chicken Karahi Tips
- You can use light spices as the chicken karahi gets its overwhelming taste from tomatoes, ginger, garlic, green chilies, and coriander.
- In the chicken karahi, all the fresh preparation is the key to the authentic chicken karahi flavors. Do not use pre-ground spices kept in your kitchen or bought from the store. Always use freshly ground spices in the karahi. You’ll feel the difference.
- Chicken karahi is cooked in the juices of the chicken and tomatoes. No additional water is needed. In case you need more gravy, you can add some hot water at the end. Then again cook for some time till the gravy thickens a little bit.
- Onions and dried fenugreek leaves are optional. It’s up to you to use them or not. They are not part of authentic chicken karahi but if you like you can add them. The dried fenugreek has its own specific fragrance.
Chicken Karahi Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken
- 2 tsp red chili flakes
- ½ tsp red chili powder
- ¾ cup yogurt
- 200 gram onion
- 1 tbsp minced ginger, garlic, and green chili
- ¾ cup tomato puree
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp crushed peppercorns
- 1 cup cooking oil
- 2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1 tsp mix spices (garam masala)
- ¼ tsp dried fenugreek leaves powder
- 1 & ½ tsp crushed coriander seeds
Instructions
Preparation for Karahi
- Prepare tomato puree. If you want to include the onions, fry them till golden brown color and set them aside.
- Mince fresh green chilies, ginger, and garlic.
- Grind the spices at the time of cooking. Use of freshly ground spices is an essential step for karahi.
- Take the chicken meat and make karahi-cuts. Wash the meat in running water to clean it. Do not immerse it in water.
- Take a mixing bowl. Combine tomato puree (prepared at home), yogurt, fried onions, minced ginger, garlic, and green chilies, salt, red chili powder, mix spices (garam masala), red chili flakes, turmeric, coriander seeds (crushed into halves), crushed peppercorn, and dried fenugreek leaves (qosuri methi).
- Mix all the ingredients well to prepare a consistent mixture.
- When a consistent mixture is ready, add chicken cuts to it and make sure that the chicken has been coated well. Now keep it aside for at least one hour.
Making the Chicken Karahi
- Now pour cooking oil or ghee into the karahi or wok. Put the marinated chicken into the wok.
- Initially, the chicken will leave its water. Cook on medium flame and do not cover the pan. Stir casually as needed to make sure it doesn’t stick to the edges and bottom of the pan.Cook it till the water in the curry gets dried and it starts releasing oil around the edges. It will take 15 to 20 minutes to be cooked through.
- Now the yummy and spicy chicken karahi is ready to serve. Garnish it with julienned ginger and green chili slices. Serve it hot with tandoori naan or chapati.
