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Chicken korma served in a red bowl with rice on the side.
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Quick Chicken Korma - Indian Chicken Korma Recipe (South Indian Style)

Chicken korma is a beautifully balanced and delicious dish where meat is cooked with various spices in a yoghurt-based sauce and ground almonds-cashew paste.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Course: Main Course / Side dish, Pressure Cooker Recipe, Side Dish / Curry
Cuisine: Indian, Indian (South Indian)
Keyword: Chicken Korma, Chicken Kurma, Kodi Kurma, Kozhi Kurma, Shahi Murgh Korma,
Servings: 3
Calories: 350kcal
Author: Padma Veeranki

Ingredients

To Marinate:

  • ½ kg Chicken Clean & Cut as desired
  • 2 tsp Red Chilli Powder Adjust to taste
  • ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
  • 1 Cup Yoghurt
  • 1 tsp Salt

To grind:

  • 1 inch Ginger
  • 6 Garlic Pods
  • 1 cm Cinnamon Stick
  • 4 Cloves
  • 1 Cardamom
  • 2 tsp Poppy Seeds
  • 1 tbsp Desiccated Coconut
  • 4 Green Chillies
  • 5 Cashews
  • 5 Almonds
  • ¼ cup Hot water for grinding Or as required

To season:

  • 2 tbsp Oil
  • 1 cm Cinnamon stick
  • 3 Cloves
  • 1 Cardamom
  • 2 Bay leaves

Other Ingredients:

  • 1 Onion Finely chopped
  • 1 Tomato Roughly chopped
  • 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder Optional
  • ¼ tsp Turmeric Powder Optional
  • Salt to taste
  • Few Curry leaves
  • ½ cup Coriander Finely chopped
  • ½ teaspoon Garam Masala Powder

Instructions

Marinating Chicken:

  • Marinate the chicken with ingredients under the section “To marinate” and set it aside for at least 20 minutes.

Masala Paste:

  • Grind all the ingredients under the section "To grind" in an electric blender to a fine paste.
  • First powder them finely without adding water. Then use slightly hot water, soak for a min and grind to a fine paste. Soaking in hot water aids easy grinding of the poppy seeds.

Making Chicken Korma:

  • Heat oil in a pressure pan over medium heat.
  • Season with dry masalas under the section "To season" stir for a min till you can smell the aroma of the spices.
  • To this add chopped onions and sauté till they are slightly brown in colour.
  • Now add chopped tomatoes.
  • Add marinated chicken and sauté for 2 min.
  • Add the ground masala paste, remaining red chilli powder and turmeric powder under the heading “Other ingredients”. Fry till the raw smell goes off. This will take about 5 minutes.
  • Now add required water till the chicken immerses. You can adjust the consistency of the gravy to suit your requirement.
  • Close the lid of the pressure pan and cook over medium-high heat for about 3 whistles. Turn off the heat.
  • Open the pressure pan once the pressure subsides.
  • Finally sprinkle garam masala powder and garnish with coriander.

Serving Suggestions:

Recipe Video

Notes

  • Marinating chicken with turmeric and salt helps reduce the smell of chicken as well as tenderises the chicken well.
  • Also addition of mint and coriander leaves add to the aroma and taste. Do not skip using them.
  • You can go ahead and adjust the spices to suit your taste and preference.
  • You can also add mint leaves (optional), which gives a different flavour to the korma.
  • Use hot water to grind the paste, it eases grinding of poppy seeds.
  • Cooking in pressure cooker saves time. You can also cook in a skillet following the same method. For this cook over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes with occasional stirring. Then simmer and cook for 5 minutes till the chicken is fully cooked, soft and tender. When the oil starts to separate, turn off the heat.
  • Vegetarians can replace chicken with Potato, cauliflower, kohlrabi or Mushrooms. You can also try with Paneer or Tofu.