White Karahi Chicken

A few weeks ago on our WhatsApp group, my cousin was asking about how to make a tomato-less karahi chicken. Sometime back, one of us had found a recipe we all really liked, but unfortunately we couldn’t find that link anymore. My cousin went ahead and made the Handi chicken dish instead, but I kept trying to look for that old ‘White Karahi’ recipe, but was unable to find it.

So I decided to look around at a few other similar recipes and ended up making my own version instead. My oldest daughter dislikes the regular tomato based Karahi chicken so that gave me another incentive to make up this dish. The curry is not technically ‘white’, more golden, but gets the name from the yogurt that is used. And since we are trying to eat more healthy, I kept the oil I used in check for this. Freshly grinding the spices gives it a lovely flavor and aroma. Back home, my dad loves using the mortar and pestle, and generally uses it to crush garlic and chillies. Something about the way it’s done by hand makes it taste so much better than when using a grinder. Serve this chicken with naan or rice, the ginger infused curry will really tickle your taste buds.

Here’s how the White Karahi Chicken is made :

1. In a mortar and pestle, grind 1.5 tbsp coriander seeds, 2 tsp cumin seeds, 4 green cardamoms and 2 black cloves. 

2. In a wok, heat 3 tbsp of oil and brown 1 cup of onions, or use 1/4 cup of golden brown onions.

3. In a blender add the golden brown onions, 1/2 cup of yogurt and 1/2 cup water. Blend till smooth.

4. Heat the same wok,  pour in the blended mix, and cook on high, stirring every few seconds, for about 5 minutes, until the oil separates from the curry and tiny bubbles form on top. Add ground spices and 2 dried red chillies. Mix well.

5. Add 1/2 a chicken cut into small pieces or 2 cut chicken breasts into the wok. Now put in 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper and 1.5 tbsp chopped ginger. Stir well and bring the curry to boil. Cover, lower heat and cook for 20-25 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Add up to 1/2 cup more water if needed.

6. Garnish with cilantro and grated ginger and serve hot.