Chicken Korma
Preparation time : 45 minutes : serves 6 persons

Korma is a traditional dish in South Asian cuisine and is prepared either by using beef or chicken. Korma is cooked for mostly special occasions. Here chicken korma recipe is shared in which the addition of almond and coconut enhances its taste. Due to this addition, this dish becomes very light. It is also called shahi korma or badami korma. Also have a look the the book 660-Curries for getting exposure to enormous amount of dishes made in the Indian Cuisine.

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken pieces 9medium size with bones)
2 tbspn ginger garlic paste
1.5 cups crispy fried onions (crushed)
1/2 cup onion paste
1 tbspn red chili powder
1 tspn turmeric powder
3 cinnamon sticks of 2 inches
4-5 cloves
4-5 green cardamoms
2 black cardamoms
2 bay leaves
2-3 star nuts (baadiyani phool)
8-10 black pepper seeds
1 tbspn cumin seeds
300 gms yogurt
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 cup ground coconut (khopra)
1/4 cup milk
1 cup oil
1/4 tspn nutmeg and mace powder
Salt to taste

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From Mom with Love – A Complete Guide to Indian Cooking and Entertaining (Hardcover)

Procedure:

1. Marinate chicken pieces in yogurt, crushed fried onions, cloves, cardamoms, black pepper, cumin, star nuts and cinnamon sticks. Leave for at least 15 minutes at room temperature.
2. Make a smooth paste of almonds, coconut and milk in the blender.
3. In a sauce pan, saute ginger garlic paste in oil for just a minute and remove the pan from stove. When the temperature of oil drops add turmeric powder and red chili powder with bay leaves and mix in the oil. Always try to use best quality sauce pan so that gravy would not stick to the pan and the color of your food looks good and tastes great.
4. Now turn on the flame and add onion paste with half cup of water, let the mixture cook on medium flame for 5-8 minutes until it becomes reddish brown in color and oil starts to separate from the gravy.
5. After that add the marinated chicken pieces in the gravy along with almond coconut paste. Stir well and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes.
6. When the oil appears on the surface of gravy and chicken become tender, add nutmeg and mace powder and cook for further 2-3 minutes.

Servings:

Delicious chicken korma is ready to serve with pulao or naan.