Chicken Korma Recipe

Chicken Korma originated in Persia. It is a mild dish made with aromatic spices, yogurt and saffron

What is Korma

Unlike modern day curry, it has no tomatoes or turmeric. For economy, you may substitute saffron with a hint of turmeric.

Normally, a whole roaster is cleaned, skinned, cut up into regular eight pieces and used. Organs and skin are discarded.

In India, the marinate is saved and returned to the cooking dish to adding to gravy. In United State, the marinate is discarded for food safety. We will discard the marinate.

We will make a very simple yogurt/fat/acid/salt marinate. The marinate will have a lots of salt, so don't use the marinate. This recipe is formulated to marinate for minimum four hours to overnight in the refrigerator

Ingredients

Marinate

1. Whole-milk Yogurt: 2 Cups

2. Salt: 2 teaspoons

3. Lime juice: 2 teaspoons

4. Fresh minced ginger: 1 Tablespoon

5. Canola oil: 1 teaspoon

6. Sugar: ¼ teaspoon

7. Chicken Skinless pieces: 2½ pounds

Korma Cooking

1. Ghee: ½ cup

2. Onions finely chopped: 2 cups

Preferably ground onions

3. Salt: ¾ teaspoon

4. Minced Garlic: 1½ teaspoon

5. Ginger finely chopped: 1"x1"

6. Ground white pepper: ½ teaspoon

7. Cumin powder: ½ teaspoon

8. Coriander powder: ½ teaspoon

9. Black Cardamom cracked open: 4

10. Cinnamon: 1x3" broken into 2 pieces

11. Cloves: 6

12. Bay leaf 2

13. Powdered blanched Almonds: ¼ cup

14. Dahi (Yogurt): 1 cup

15. Water: ½ cup

16. Saffron: 1 teaspoon

Method

Marinate

1. Mix al the ingredients except chicken together to make a paste.

2 Cut one or two gashes in each piece of chicken with a sharp knife

3. Rub the marinate into the each chicken piece.

4. Put chicken and marinate in a Glass or Stainless steel. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours to overnight

Korma Cooking

1. Heat Ghee in a heavy bottom pan.

2. Remove Chicken from marinate. Fry chicken till it turns opaque white to slightly brown. Remove browned chicken and set it aside.

3. Add Onions and salt. Fry till water is gone and they start to turn brown, about 5 minutes

4. Add Minced garlic and ginger. Fry 1 to 2 minutes

5. Add Cumin, Coriander, White Pepper, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves, and Bay leaf. Sauté about 2 minutes.

6. Add ground blanched Almonds. Fry one minute.

7. Add yogurt slowly ¼ cup at a time, till it is all incorporated

8. Add the browned chicken and water. Bring to a boil. Cook covered on low heat about 20 minutes. Water is mostly dissipated. Chicken is almost done.

At this point, you may remove the Bay leaf, Cardamoms, and Clove. I normally leave them in.

6. Crush Saffron in between fingers. Sprinkle saffron on chicken.

7. Turn down heat. Cook on simmer for about 3 minutes

Cooking uncovered, or on high heat may make the sauce to stick and burn on the bottom of the pan.