Kadai Chicken is a delicious Indian chicken curry with spicy and smokey flavour. An easy to prepare chicken dish is cooked with freshly ground spices for a special flavour. This restaurant-style spicy karahi chicken goes well with naan or any other Indian bread.
Why We Love This Recipe
This Kadai Chicken is,
- Delicious
- Easy to make
- Just like the restaurant kadai chicken but simple to make.
- Perfect for weekend meals.
Jump to:
- Why We Love This Recipe
- Why is it called kadai chicken?
- Key to the perfect kadai chicken
- Why we love this recipe
- Ingredients
- Instructions
- Substitutions
- Variations
- What's the best way to give it a smoky flavour?
- Kadai Masala from the store vs. homemade Kadai Masala
- Recipe Notes
- Serving suggestions
- Storage
- More Such Recipes
- Watch Video
- 📖 Recipe
Why is it called kadai chicken?
Kadai Chicken, also known as Karahi Chicken or Karahi Murgh, is prepared in an Indian vessel known as a Kadai, which is a heavy-bottomed pot or a wok. A special kadai masala is used in cooking karahi chicken. You can also prepare Kadai paneer or kadai mushroom with this same masala.
Key to the perfect kadai chicken
The masala, which is produced fresh by roasting and grinding a few common spices, is the key to preparing a great Karahi Chicken.
To cook this dish, always use fresh masala, as the flavour of freshly ground spices is always superior to the store-bought masala. However, if you don't have these spices on hand, you can use store-bought Kadai Masala instead.
Why we love this recipe
- Delicious and super easy to prepare
- Excellent source of protein
- Just like the restaurant one
Ingredients
- Chicken: Boneless chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes.
- Kashmiri red chilli powder For lovely colour of chicken gravy without making it overly hot.
- Onion and Capsicum: onion and bellpeppers cut in to cubes. Onion is separeted into layers.
- Spices: Coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, black peppercorns, dry red chilies, salt, turmeric.
- Tomatoes, Ginger and garlic (pureed)
- Fresh Cream: to make the gravy creamy and rich, making it even more delicious.
- Oil
- Butter
See the recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
- On medium low heat, dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, black peppercorns, and dried red chilies until aromatic and browned.
- To make a powder, cool the roasted spices and ground them.
- In a pan, melt the ghee or heat oil.
- Add cumin seeds and allow them to crackle.
- Tip in chopped onions and fry them.
- Fry the onion until light brown in colour.
- Add slit green chilli.
- Now add turmeric powder and mix.
- Add freshly pureed ginger, garlic, tomato.
- Cook on high heat for 5 minutes then add freshly ground kadai masala.
- Add 2 tablespoons of water and cook the masala
- Next add in chicken .
- Cook chicken and masala for a few minutes.
- To the pan add 1 cup of water and salt to taste.
- Add fresh cream and mix the gravy nicely.
- Reduce the heat to low and cook the chicken until it is almost done.
- Cook for another 2-3 minutes after adding the capsicum, onion cubes, butter and freshly crushed kasuri methi.
- Mix the gravy and serve immediately.
Substitutions
- You can even use red and yellow capsicum instead of green capsicum in this recipe.
- For this Kadai Chicken, I always use boneless chicken pieces since they are more juicy and soak up the marination flavour better than boneless chicken. However, bone-in chicken can be substituted if desired.
Variations
You can use Paneer or tofu instead of chicken in this dish, however, keep in mind that paneer or tofu cooks faster. As a result, the cooking times for both recipes will be different.
What's the best way to give it a smoky flavour?
If you want a smokey flavour, you can incorporate it into this recipe as well. Simply insert red hot charcoal in a steel bowl in the centre of the pan's chicken gravy. Cover the pan with a lid and pour some ghee on the coals.
Allow it to cool for 5 minutes before opening the cover and removing the coal bowl from the pan. Your smoked Kadai Chicken is now ready to eat.
Kadai Masala from the store vs. homemade Kadai Masala
Unlike store-bought masala, I always prefer homemade Kadai Masala since it is freshly produced and employs high-quality ingredients.
Furthermore, the homemade masala lacks artificial colours and preservatives, making it superior to the store-bought masala.
Recipe Notes
Always make your own Kadai Masala at home to get a unique and refreshing flavour that you won't get from the store-bought masala.
I included onions and capsicum to give it a restaurant-style flavour, but you can leave them out and just cook it with chicken.
Cooking the onion and capsicum over high heat imparts a smoky taste to the chicken, which is amplified by the smokiness.
Serving suggestions
This flavorful and visually stunning curry mixes great with any Indian bread, including Naan, Tandoori Roti, Phulka, Tawa Paratha, Laccha paratha, Missi Roti, Rumali Roti, and any other bread you want.
It doesn't work well with Rice or Pulavs because it's a little drier. So, if you're serving it with rice, keep it on the semi-gravy side.
Storage
When refrigerated, it lasts 2 to 3 days, but if you want to extend the shelf life of this prepared chicken curry, freeze it for 2 to 3 months in a freezer bag or an airtight container.
More Such Recipes
Watch Video
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📖 Recipe
Kadai Chicken Gravy
Ingredients
To Marinate
- 400 grams Chicken Curry Cut
To Roast and Grind
- 1 tablespoon Coriander Seeds
- 1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
- 1 teaspoon Fennel Seeds
- 2 teaspoon Black Peppercorns
- 3 Dry Red Chillies
For the Gravy
- 2 tablespoon Oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon Ginger for puree
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 teaspoon Garlic for puree
- 3 tomatoes for puree
- 2 Green Chilli Slit into half
- 1 Salt
- 1 Capsicum Cubed
- Onion Cubed and separated
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- ¼ cup Cream
- 1 teaspoon Kasuri Methi
Instructions
- On medium low heat, dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, black peppercorns, and dried red chilies until aromatic and browned.
- To make a powder, cool the roasted spices and ground them.
- In a pan, melt the ghee or heat oil.
- Add cumin seeds and allow them to crackle.
- Tip in chopped onions and fry them.
- Fry the onion until light brown in colour.
- Add slit green chilli.
- Now add turmeric powder and mix.
- Add freshly pureed ginger, garlic, tomato.
- Cook on high heat for 5 minutes then add freshly ground kadai masala.
- Add 2 tablespoons of water and cook the masala
- Next add in chicken .
- Cook chicken and masala for a few minutes.
- To the pan add 1 cup of water and salt to taste.
- Add fresh cream and mix the gravy nicely.
- Reduce the heat to low and cook the chicken until it is almost done.
- Cook for another 2-3 minutes after adding the capsicum, onion cubes, butter and freshly crushed kasuri methi.
- Mix the gravy and serve immediately.
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