29 CHICKEN KURMA

Chicken Kurma. Goes well with chapathis/paratha/pooris and as well as chicken biryani or ghee rice.


This is one of the version of making chicken kurma by my mom. Some of the spices are lightly roasted and ground to a paste with other ingredients.


Chicken - 2 lbs Cleaned and cut into medium pieces
Onion - 1 large chopped fine
Tomato - 2 small chopped fine
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic - 4 or 5 flakes
Chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala or chicken masala powder - 3/4 tbsp
Coconut - 1/2 cup grated
Fennel seeds - 1 tbsp
Poppy seeds - 3/4 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
Clove - 6
Cinnamon - 2 1 inch pieces
Cardamom - 2
Coriander leaves - few sprigs
Curry leaves - few if available
Oil - 3 tbsp
Salt as needed


Dry roast fennel seeds, 4 clove, 1 piece of cinnamon, half of cumin seeds and poppy seeds in a medium flame. Remove before they turn dark.
Grind these along with coconut and few coriander leaves to a fine paste. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in a frying pan and add the remaining cumin seeds, clove, cinnamon, cardamom and curry leaves.Waitor few seconds and add chopped onions. Fry till onions turn light brown. Next add ginger garlic paste ( or ginger and garlic chopped very fine or grated- I chopped them into very fine bits). Fry till raw smell leaves for about a minute and next add chopped tomatoes. Mash and cook till they are pulpy and water has drained. Then add chicken pieces and reduce flame and cook for another 15 minutes stirring now and then ( till chicken is almost 3/4 th cooked). Next add all the powders and mix well. Then add the ground masala and cook everything together in medium flame for another 10 -12 minutes. Remove and garnsih with remaining chopped coriander leaves.