Chicken Korma

This is arguably the classic dish of Mughlai cuisine; mild, rich and bursting with luxurious flavours – it’s the perfect curry to serve people who ‘don’t like curry’ or who are scared of the heat, because the yoghurt and almond take all the bite out of the spices and turn them into a pleasure rather than a pain.

Ingredients

• 500g chicken breast, cut in 3 cm pieces
• 4 tablespoons yoghurt, beaten
• 2 medium sized onions, sliced finely lengthwise
• 3cm piece ginger, finely grated
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 2 green cardamoms
• 2 cloves
• 4 peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp garam masala
• Pinch powdered nutmeg
• 3 tbsp ghee
• Pinch of saffron
• Salt to taste

Melt the ghee in a pot and fry the onions till golden brown (Do not overfry, otherwise they would give the korma a bitter taste). Take them out and grind them. In the same pot put the cardamoms, cloves, peppercorns, bayleaf with the chicken pieces and fry all of them together till the ghee begins to appear on the surface and the chicken pieces start to look white. Now add the ground ginger and garlic and again fry for 3-4 minutes. Reduce the heat and add the beaten yoghurt. Keep it well stirred. After 5 minutes add the chilli powder, coriander powder, ground onions and salt. Add one and a half cups of water and let it cook till the meat becomes tender. When the gravy thickens add the garam masala powder and saffron and keep stirring till the ghee appears on the surface. Remove from the heat and serve with piping hot rotis or parathas.