Kadai Chicken / Chicken Karahi

Kadai Chicken / Chicken Karahi

Kadai chicken is one of the most popular North Indian chicken curries, especially in restaurants. Addition of freshly roasted ground spices and green bell pepper is what makes it different from other chicken curries. The gravy of kadai chicken is very thick and tomatoey with dominating flavors of ginger and capsicum. Kadai chicken is a beautiful curry to look at, awesomely delicious in taste and the aroma of freshly roasted spices can make anybody hungry. 

Kadai Chicken / Chicken Karahi Recipe

Recipe by Neha NairCourse: MainCuisine: IndianDifficulty: Medium
Servings

6

servings
Prep time

25

minutes
Cooking time

55

minutes

Kadai Chicken / Chicken Karahi is a very popular curry in which chicken pieces is cooked in aromatic blend of Indian spices and green bell pepper or capsicum.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg chicken, skinned and cut into small pieces

  • 2 big onions, thinly sliced

  • 2 Tbsp of finely chopped garlic

  • 2 Tbsp of finely chopped ginger

  • 4 medium chopped tomatoes

  • 1 medium green bell pepper, cubed into bite size pieces

  • 1 Tbsp of coriander seeds

  • 1 tsp of cumin seeds

  • 5-6 dry whole red chillies

  • 8 black peppercorns

  • 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder

  • 1 tsp of red chilly powder or to taste

  • 1 Tbsp of Kashmiri red chilly powder(optional, for color)

  • 2 bay leaves

  • 1 small lemon, juiced

  • Handful of fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

  • 2 Tbsp of oil

Directions

  • Mix turmeric, salt, half of the red chilly powder and lemon juice to the chicken and let it marinate until the onion-tomato mixture is ready for chicken.
  • Dry roast whole dry red chilies, peppercorns, coriander and cumin seeds till it release nice aroma and gets light brown in color. Let it cool down and then grind it to a semi coarse powder.
  • Heat oil in a wok and add bay leaves. Let it sizzle for 30 seconds, then add sliced onion, ginger and garlic and cook till the mixture is light brown.
  • Then add ground spice mixture with turmeric and both of the chilly powder and saute for a minute. Now mix in the tomatoes and put on the lid.
  • When the tomatoes are all cooked and the mixture starts to release oil, add the marinated chicken and mix. Put on the lid and let it cook over low-medium heat for 50 minutes, stirring in between.
  • Now add the green bell pepper and cook further for 4-5 minutes( don’t let the pepper gets all mushy. It taste better if it still holds its crunch). Lastly add in the cilantro and kadai chicken is done.

Notes

  • Serve kadai chicken with hot chapati/naan/tandoori roti or rice.
  • You can either stir fry green pepper in a separate pan and add it to chicken curry when it is done or just add it during the last five minutes of cooking.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *