Chicken karhai

I’m a little ashamed to admit that after 3 years of cooking I still don’t know how to make masalay-daar chicken. Everytime I make chicken it turns into a quorma (with lots of shorba?). I dont add water to the chicken when I cook it. How do I make it more dry and less soup-y?

What I normally do is:

fry the onions, then the garlic and ginger, then the masalas and finally the tomatoes. If I have yogurt, I add 2 tablespoons as well.
I bhoon this all together until ti becomes a paste and then I add the chicken. I fry it on high heat for about 5 minutes and then lower the heat and cover it for another 20-30 minutes. By the time its done the chicken has given off alot of water. To dry it up, I leave it on high heat uncovered for about 10 minutes.

So where am I going wrong?

Re: Chicken karhai

Simple recipe for chicken karhai:

Marinate chicken in 1 cup dahi, garlic ginger paste, salt and haldi.
Fry 3-4 med tomatoes that have been chopped along with some kutti mirchain.
When tomatoes are mushy and oil separates, add the marinated chicken.
Cook on medium, half covered pot until chicken is tender and water had evaporated.
At that point, add bhuna huwa zeera+dhaniya whole that has been coarsely ground. Stir fry until oil has separated. Garnish with slit green chillies and dhaniya leaves and a few slices of lemon.

Re: Chicken karhai

I used to experience the same issue ... until someone told me to fry the chicken in oil first and then start adding ginger garlic etc and tomatoes ....

Frying the chicken in oil until it slightly browns, dries the chicken ... and later to get a really soft chicken , just cover the pot and cook the karhai on low heat .... you will easily attain the dry karahi texture ...

Re: Chicken karhai

Yeah frying the chicken in oil with a bit of g/g paste is a good idea. Once its white in color add tomatoes. LOTS of it for more masala. let it cook until tomotoes are soft and chicken is a somewhat tender , not fully. Add masalas. Let it cook. Karahi is cooked in lots of oil and to make it more masalay daar put lots of tomatoes. I put big Italian peppers.. in the end. Leave it on low heat for few minutes. Yum!

Re: Chicken karhai

Yougurt and tomatoes do not go together except in biryani.

Re: Chicken karhai

it helps to make the masala in a different pot. when done, combine it with the chicken you cooked earlier and let it simmer. i've never really marinated chicken beforehand for chicken karhai, but i will try that.

Re: Chicken karhai

Also, if you use yogurt then I would use more than 2 tablespoons. I think I use about 1/3 t 1/2 a cup. But I like lots of curry.

thats it!!! i am trying that tomorow first thing in the morning before going to college!! lol...i am going downstairs and guna marinate the chkn ryt now!! lol

sounds like a really nice recipe!!:)

Re: Chicken karhai

^ will try that as well!

covering the chicken is while its cooking will increase the water content of your curry. you are not adding water or too much yogurt, which is great for having a dry-ish curry. i dont know how many tomatoes you are using, but the more tomatoes you add, the more the water content of your curry will be. when you are bhooning the chicken, do so on medium-low heat (which translates to 4 or 5 on my stove, out of 10), and leave it uncovered. keep stirring, so it wont start to stick to the pot. it will be thoroughly cooked, tender, but no soupy salans.

Re: Chicken karhai

hey.., i made this last night and i must admit it was so yummy....i never knew that karahi main actually onion nahin dalte...lol....but it was yummy thnxxxxxxx :)