CHICKEN KARAHI RECIPE + STEP BY STEP PICTURES + TIPS

 

Growing up, Sunday night dinner was a cultural event that definitely happened. Dad would come home from work early on Sunday and he and Mum would start in the kitchen, cut the weights and weights, cut down the garlic and the large slices of ginger. You can come in and back with a nice, fresh scent of pure freshness and a large amount of ingredients.

Sunday night was always Karahi night.

And my Father was a Karahi Master.

Every Sunday, Father cooked a huge Karahi family meal for our entire family. We all got together, chatted and bit each other in Karahi together, next to slices of salad, fresh roti and lots of Coca Cola.

I use the past tense when I talk about this because this practice sadly no longer happens. Commitment to work has changed, people have left, practices are less predictable. But the Sunday Night Karahi season is definitely a time I will always look forward to with love.

Is a Real Karahi Chicken Please Stand Up?

I'll go straight to the chase here, no bend in the woods. I really like the red chicken curries that make Chicken Karahis.

When I was 17, my mother gave me a job cooking Chicken Karahi for dinner as she went out for a day. I was the daughter of Karahi Master, have I really learned anything about making a decent Karahi you can imagine? Alas, I did not. So maybe this is my frustration with the deceptive Chicken Karahis chicken that when I was cooking ‘Goog Karahi’, I hit a recipe that required me to add large pieces of onion to the chicken broth and boil it for 40 minutes. Blindly, I followed that recipe and Dad came home to be completely spoiled by my red chicken.

Whatever the reason, Karahis definitely hit me off because they were such a big celebration for my family.

In life, I tend to tolerate very low things. I have a very low tolerance for sub-parr Karahis, or curries called Karahis but they contain a lot of onions, canned tomatoes and a light hand in ginger and garlic. Sorry. I am a Karahi purist #sorrynotsorry.

So What is a Chicken Caravan?

In terms of curry, Chicken Karahi is a tomato and ginger, a heavy masala curry even though it comes from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. The real, authentic way to make it so special. As a general rule, Karahis is made on the basis of ginger, garlic and tomatoes and contains green chillis, julienne-cut green ginger and coriander. It is an extremely dense, jammy broth and concentrated in taste - yum!

The traditional Karahi has undergone major changes over time. In order to collect masala tails and reduce costs, onions are often added to restaurants that most people do not know that the real recipe does not contain onions. I have also seen the variety using large slices of red onion and very capsicum like Chicken Jalfrezi. Modern-day utensils such as canned tomatoes and pre-packaged ginger and garlic pots are also common.

The recipe and instructions I share with you today is for REAL DEAL Chicken Karahi. No chopping onions, everything is fresh, creamy and easy. It’s as close to a real deal as you can get, really. I want to break EVERYTHING for you before proceeding to the recipe, because if you can’t say it, I’m totally against getting Karahis right!

Main Components of Karahi

To put it bluntly before we move on to more details, this is what Karahi contains

Your Meat - This could be lamb, mutton, beef, fish etc. In this case we are using chicken obviously. Depending on the type of chicken you can get, any medium chicken will suffice. In this recipe, I used a very small chicken that was only 550g total weight. If your chicken is overweight, please make adjustments in the amount of tomatoes, spices and oil

Fresh Ginger - this is something that most describes any Karahi. We use ginger in both curry gravy and in garnish with its raw form. Ginger is a very special flavor of Karahi, so this is definitely not something you can do! Use a heavy hand for this!

Fresh Garlic - another important ingredient of Karahi, but its flavor definitely takes up the back seat compared to its brother mentioned above, ginger. Use a heavy hand with this too! We use a lot of garlic in Karahis to help grow the residue too, because there are no onions here.

Fresh Tomato - Karahi is a tomato-based curry. The real, traditional recipe has no onions. I will repeat this (and again and again) - onions are included in the standard Karahis for the sole reason that it enhances the cheap masala. My recipe does not use onions because to be honest I am a Karahi purist and if it contains onions, it is not Carahi for me!

Fresh Green Chilli + Coriander - adds another new flavor to Karahi that plays into the natural, delicious taste of Karahis and also adds a delicious aroma.

Spices - The spices in Karahi are simple. This allows the natural taste of tomatoes, ginger, garlic etc all to shine!

How to Make Chicken Karahi

The following is the basic framework for what we do to make the FLESH FACE real, authentic. Don't worry, there are many detailed instructions, photos and a specific price at the end!

We start by frying the chicken in an open proportion of fat. We can't really get out of the oil here, soz.

We are more than just adding to the LOT of ginger and pork. Please do not have any of those pre-made, molded items. Ginger and garlic FRESH KEY here. Do you remember me saying that the Karahis strongly emphasizes the scent and taste of nature? These two ingredients are a big part of that. We want to fry this enough for the green aroma to go