This creamy, spiced Chicken Korma recipe is the stuff dreams are made of. Loosen up those pants and make this delectable Indian dish at home!
In the interest of full disclosure, I feel that I must confess to you that this is NOT a “light” or healthy recipe.
But it is worth it.
Seriously, you guys. Trust me on this one.
Chicken Korma Curry is one of those magical dishes that seems to fill up 95% of my plate whenever I visit an Indian food buffet.
It is rich, creamy, full of spices and flavor, and just begs to be soaked up by a piece of fresh naan.
If you’ve never tried your hand at making Indian food at home, this should definitely be your starter recipe.
It’s much easier than you’d think, as long as you have a few basic Indian spices in your pantry.
The korma chicken does like to marinate for a while, so get it set in the morning before heading to work.
I know that the ingredient list looks a bit long but DON’T FREAK OUT.
Most of it is spices, and if you are missing any of them I’d highly suggest investing a few dollars into a bottle so you can cook more international meals at home!
Here’s what you will need:
- Garam Masala
- Curry Powder
- Ground Turmeric Root
- Ground Coriander
- Quality Ground Cinnamon
- Ground Cumin Seed
- Ground Cardamom
- Freshly Ground Nutmeg
A few readers have commented that the korma came out bitter. I’ve made this lots of times with no issues, and so have the majority of readers. I suspect that any problems were because the spices used were either bitter to begin with, or over-toasted.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of using quality spices! I love Simply Organic / Frontier Co-Op brand, which you can find in the organic foods section of most stores or order from Amazon.
Nothing will open up your kitchen to more possibilities than a well-stocked spice cabinet!
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Here’s the Chicken Korma Recipe!
Indian Chicken Korma
Creamy, spiced Chicken Korma is the stuff dreams are made of. Loosen up that belt and make this delectable Indian dish at home!
Ingredients
For the Chicken Marinade
- 3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 2 teaspoons curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the Sauce
- 2 white onions, peeled and cut into quarters
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled
- 4 teaspoons curry powder
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 large tomatoes, diced small
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger root
- 1/2 cup ground raw almonds
- 1 cup unsweetened canned coconut milk
- 1 1/2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
- 1/2 a small red chili, de-seeded and minced
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar (packed)
Optional Garnish
- 1/4 cup of chopped chives
Instructions
- Drizzle the chicken with the oil and sprinkle on the garam masala, curry powder, salt and pepper. Massage into the meat and cover, leaving to marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Instead of a bowl, use a 1 gallon zip lock bag to marinate the chicken for a more even distribution of the marinade and easier clean up.
- Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat.
- Grill the chicken for 5-6 minutes per side, until cooked to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Meanwhile, make the korma sauce: place the onions, garlic, and 1 cup of water in the bowl of a blender. Puree until smooth.
- Measure out the spices (curry powder through nutmeg) into a small bowl.
- In a large saucepan heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the pureed onion mixture and cook for a 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly, until it begins to darken in color.
- Add the tomatoes, ginger, ground almonds, coconut milk, yogurt, red chili, pre-measured spices, and brown sugar. Stir well.
- Turn the heat down to low and simmer 30 minutes.
- Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add to the pan; simmer for an additional 15 minutes.
- Serve with steamed basmati rice and/or naan.
- Optionally garnish with chopped chives.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 6 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 736Total Fat 33gSaturated Fat 12gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 18gCholesterol 204mgSodium 906mgCarbohydrates 29gFiber 5gSugar 17gProtein 80g
Nutrition information has been auto-calculated for your convenience.
Old photo (just for fun):
Comments
It is easy to follow. Make exactly is too much onion with my family. Anyway, thank you so much for sharing it!
Fantastic sauce recipe. Tasted amazing.
Took a while to make but definitely a keeper for the recipe book. Be warned, unless you are really, really hungry or don’t have a veg to go with this, it feeds a lot more than 6.
To those that have found this to have a bitter taste… Do you like cilantro? Coriander is the seeds of the cilantro plant. Many people find cilantro to taste bitter or even soapy because of a certain chemical compound that it contains.
Perhaps you may have even used cilantro instead of coriander as it is often referred to as either name.
Thank you so much for the recipe. Yes, I change things up to my liking and families liking, and it sure is helpful to have people like you to place your recipes here for people like me to create from. I cannot have salt, so that is always something I remove and then replace with an acid, in this case it was a fresh squeezed lime. I also toasted the whole spices and then grind them in a spice grinder as my family does not care for whole spices. (Sissies). I tend to sauté onions, garlic, and fresh ginger in ghee. But this sure helps me make much better food having your recipe to guide me! I have made a few of your recipes now and have loved them. So thank you so much!!
Sherri,
Thank you for the kind words and for sharing the adaptations for your family.
– Linda
Too much onion. Recipe tasted like nothing but onion and bitter
Very true. Korma varies from place to place and color depends on the amount of turmeric, coriander cayenne pepper. If you want to enhance the taste and almond paste too. Its awesome.
Decided to make this for my weekly lunch meal prep. It did not disappoint! Very easy to make and super delicious!
For those who are commenting that this recipe is bitter. The thing that has worked for me is dicing the onion and cooking before blending. Cook them low and slow and don’t let them brown.
Hi Darrell,
Thanks for your tips!
– Linda
I think where you have gone wrong in the recipe is saying to cook the onions and a cup of water for two minutes. Hence the bitterness. It would take way longer for onions and water to start to brown. Hope this helps
Yes I agree. 2 to 3 minutes still leaves a whole bunch of water and nothing turning golden brown in my pan
Hi
The bitterness could also be due to the paste of raw onions. Some onions do not like to be mashed!
I agree. I don’t blend my onions, I make the sauce first with chopped onions then blend the sauce with a stick blender. No bitterness then
To combat the bitterness, add some more sugar and half a cup of double cream. Then it tastes 👌
Made it and it tastes amazing but added extra ground almonds, brown sugar then for thickening I used cornflour mixed in with the reminder of the coconut milk tastes similar to a restaurant I eat at that’s done it for over 25 years
This recipe rocks!! I tweaked it a wee bit depending on what I had on hand, but it’s got so much flavour!!
Can you use 400g tin tomatoes if you don’t have fresh it wouldn’t be too much?
Korma is one of my favourite. It’s always so delicious! Btw, I prefer your old pictures xo
– Natalie Ellis
I followed the recipe almost exactly except for putting an extra teaspoon of demerera sugar in and creaming the sauce off the heat with a knob of butter at the end. Finally! I’ve been toying with korma recipes for years and this gets it right. If you want your chicken to be extra succulent don’t cook it through at the start, just seal it and let rest for the 30mins before adding to the sauce and make sure the sauce is on a low simmer. Regarding people’s comments about it being bitter, I think this likely from not browning the onion & garlic puree enough at the beginning. Next time I’ll add a few roasted cashew nuts and dried raisins. Thanks for the recipe, delighted.
I have never yet found a good korma recipe that did not contain ground cashews; unfortunately this recipe was not an exception to the rule and was not very good. It was quite bland and lacked the depth of flavor and the creaminess of a good korma. Using coconut milk adds a very different taste than when you make a korma with heavy cream, and I feel like this recipe could benefit from the added complexity that cream and cashews provide. The balance of spices is nice, there’s just nothing left to back them up. I enjoyed trying the recipe, and will probably adapt some parts of it for use as a basic curry sauce but it does not rank highly as a “Korma” for me.
Seriously, where do we add the cardamon and nutmeg?
Oops, a typo in there! It goes in with the rest of the spices. Fixed now! My apologies.
Thank you
i was very excited to make this as i love a good Korma. The flavour is good but i didnt get mine as yellow as your photo and not as creamy looking either. mine had a very redish hew and it just have punch like i woud have at an Indian restaurant. I even used Korma Curry Powder but somewhere i lost flavour. Not sure where
I’m confused when the cardamom and nutmeg are added? Pre-measuring the spices says curry powder through cumin. Cardamom and nutmeg are further down in the ingredients list?
I can’t seem to find garam masala anywhere!! Where would you recommend I find It?
Hi Anetta, So happy to have stumbled upon your site.
I MADE FISH KORMA and also made a few adjustments that I thought may be useful to others …
I USED RAW CASHEWS INSTEAD OF ALMONDS I ground them until they were VERY VERY FINE in my trusty food processor. To those who don’t have a powerful food processor, that may be why it turns out too gritty.
This is the curry powder I use – https://www.savoryspiceshop.com/blends/curmed.html
Because it already has a lot of the necessary spices from the recipe, I didn’t feel bad omitting anything that I didn’t have on hand. For example, I didn’t have any cumin. No prob since there is plenty in that curry blend.
Also, because of this, I ONLY ADDED 1 TEASPOON OF TURMERIC INSTEAD OF 2.
Here are the other tweaks I made:
I MADE IT WITH OVEN-BAKED MOUNTAIN TROUT AND SERVED THE TROUT ON TOP OF THE SAUCE (OFF THE SKIN).
I USED YELLOW ONIONS.
I ADDED A FEW DICED POTATOES (PAR-BOILED), MUSHROOMS, AND GREEN PEAS.
I ADDED FRESH CILANTRO.
I ADDED A TOUCH MORE COCONUT MILK THAN IT CALLED FOR.
I USED HEAVY CREAM INSTEAD OF YOGURT.
I DID NOT PUT THE CHILI.
The result was amazing. It’s funny because I have a terrible cold and actually could not taste the flavor, but my boyfriend said it was out of this world. It was my first time making a curry sauce from scratch and just want to say thanks!
I get VERY frustrated when I see recipes like this that call for “2 white onions” and “6 cloves garlic’. Can people please leave a real measurement like in cups, or better yet, a weight (in grams preferable). Considering here in Colorado, US, an average white onion weighs almost a pound, and garlic cloves are about half an ounce, it is very difficult to try and get the right proportions. Using this recipe’s instructions, I would be using close to a kilo of onions and 3 ounces of garlic. Hardly reasonable! According to web searches, there is a great variation as to how much an onion weighs throughout the world. In one extreme case they said an onion will give you 4/10 of an ounce while my average onion weighs close to 50 times that. I don’t even try to cook recipes that are written this way because onion, or garlic, can throw the flavors off a LOT … and I’d rather wing it on my own than try and follow any recipe without some idea of proportions presented.
I think then maybe winging it on your own may be a great place to start, that way it is exactly ether way you want it and don’t have to brother with recipes, as you so put it. I have always used recipes as a mere guide as I know what I like and don’t like and adjust it accordingly. That may just be the Avenue you will have to take. Cheers!
Hi!
Cooked today, followed your instructions very precisely and yes it was goooooood!
However, 2 large onions and cup of water worked a bit too waterish, i don’t know if my onions were too small or my cup of water was too large.
Otherwise all great!
I love your website by the way and photo’s are truly amazing!
Have you in my favourites,
Warm regards,
Eva
Could you add potatoes to it?
Hi Anetta
I will be making this on Friday, I have just one question though, whenever I have had Korma in the past it seems as though there is desiccated coconut in the sauce. Is that something that you think would enhance the flavour.
Wonderful recipe! I agree that 2 white onions made it pungent so will substitute sweet onions next time. Followed the recipe exactly, except felt it needed more salt so I increased it to taste. Made this for an Indian-themed pot-luck and everyone like it.
Great recipe, but I reduced the 1 cup of water for the garlic/onion puree/sauce to 1/2 cup and it was still too much. It didn’t make sense to me to add water to shimmering oil. Still it took a while for the water to burn off. I noticed some tartness (other commenters have referred to the taste as bitterness) but once I added the brown sugar, nutmeg, and let it simmer the flavors melded together into a very tasty dish.
I’m looking forward to the left overs tomorrow.
This was not good. Was a waste of time and food. Gritty and gross.
Hi, Rachel – I’m so sorry you had a bad experience with this recipe! I make it quite often and really enjoy it. Did you perhaps use roasted almonds instead of raw?
Love this recipe. Thanks for sharing this. Tasted awesome. Simon
Hi when I made this the other night (jan 2017) it was really tasty but grainy. is that due to not blending the onions enough in the blender or may there be another culprit?
If I had to guess, I’d blame the almonds. Do you know if you used roasted almonds or raw almonds? I use raw, and the cooking time softens them. I’m updating the recipe right now to clarify so others don’t have this problem in the future!
Thank you for posting this question! I also have the same grainy issue each time I make this. How “ground” do the almonds need to be? Could I use almond flour or freshly ground almond butter instead? Thanks for the help. I make this about once a month and it is always fantastic, even with the grainy texture 🙂
It might be that the sauce is too hot when coming into contact with the yogurt. Are you using full fat yogurt?
I adapted this a bit and actually made it a bit lighter. It was so delicious though.
http://wp.me/p6i0Mk-fb I think it I’d a very forgiving recipe and I look forward to using it as inspiration again!
Simcha
thank you so much! i made this tonight and it really was fantastic. really delicious
Tried this yesterday, and while you say it’s not a “light” recipe I must have burnt a lot of calories making it.
I didn’t have powdered clove, cardamon or nutmeg – but I did have the whole versions, so grating bashing and grinding till I worked up a sweat and there we go (Who needs a gym when you have a kitchen).
Just to add to the workout I made my own Naan to go with it.
I didn’t add the sugar as I’m trying to avoid doing that whenever I cook. The tomatoes I used were very ripe though (as in going soft) so that probably added enough sweetness.
Lovely dish – thoroughly enjoyed it!
Made it a couple nights ago and followed the recipe exactly – it was WONDERFUL and everyone had seconds! Thanks for the recipe!!!
Made this tonight and it was a hit! Took longer than I anticipated but the flavours are totally worth it, will definitely make it again!
Is this really supposed to be six servings? I followed your recipe exactly and have WAY more than 6 servings for it. When I was cooking, I had to use a second pot because I had too much sauce when it came time to add the chicken. We had six servings tonight between us, and I still have probably a good 10 servings left, even with us eating large portions.
That’s not exactly a bad thing, since it came out well, though a bit over-oniony. It just seems like a huge amount compared to the number of servings you stated. Next time I try this, I’ll be using only one onion, and half the chicken.
Hi, Alli! I usually assume about a half pound of chicken per serving, so using 3 pounds of chicken should produce about 6 servings. Although, I’ve stretched this recipe to 8 servings once before. Might you try using a sweet onion instead of yellow onion? Sometimes I get really pungent onions this time of year :/
I just ran out of yogurt but I have all the other ingredients to make your delicious dish. I’ll have to make a quick trip to the market in the next couple of days and try this.
Thank you for sharing this recipe, Anetta! It truly is wonderful. I didn’t have coconut milk on hand and ended up adding a little chicken stock instead and it turned out delicious!
Ooh that sounds tasty!
I made this for the first time last month for a crowd of 100 at one of our dances. It was a complete hit!!! People were coming back for seconds and thirds!! Cooking Indian food for a large crowd is a bit risky, but this was a no-brainer. I did make some substitutions. Instead of ground almonds, I used canned cashews (inexpensive at Sam’s Club), soaked overnight and then drained and pureed with some of the coconut milk, high quality canned whole tomatoes sliced up (instead of the fresh) and added heavy whipping cream at the end to smooth it out. It took me a while to find this recipe. I have NO IDEA why it doesn’t come up at the beginning of the search . . . IMHO it should come up first!!! Thank you!!!
Wow, that is AWESOME! Cooking for a crowd that size must have been stressful! I’m so glad you liked this recipe 🙂
My husband and I made this for dinner on somewhat of a whim (we had a free evening in case it look a long time) so the chicken only ended up marinating for about 15 minutes. We also cooked it on the stove since we don’t have a grill. Still delicious! It worked out that we had almost all the spices on hand except the cardamom and red chili, so we used 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper, which turned out to be plenty as I am somewhat of a spice wimp! I especially loved the texture; in most of my curry-making experience they turned out thinner than I wanted, but not so with this recipe. I’m already looking forward to making this again!
I’m so glad you and your husband like this, Kat! It’s one of my very favorites 🙂
This is an AMAZING chicken korma recipe Anetta! Your instructions are clear and easy to follow and your photos are fantastic!
We really can’t wait to try this one! Yummed!
Sending you lots of sunshine from Euboia island,
Panos and Mirella
Hi! I made this last night and it was SO AMAZING! My husband always orders Korma when we go to an Indian restaurant, but I had never attempted it at home. He said it was the best he had ever had! Thank you for posting this. I will definitely make it again and often!
Awesome, Natalie!! I think I may just make some of this korma for dinner tonight. Love this stuff!
I was just chatting to my daughter last night about wanting to try something new for dinner, and she mentioned how much she enjoyed a Korma meal she had awhile ago. So it was great seeing this today. I am always keen to try new dishes, and love the idea of Indian dishes, especially now as we are heading for winter. I have all the necessary ingredients, so will be making this for tonight ! Thanks for great recipes. 🙂
Awesome, Lynne!! I hope you and your daughter loved it 🙂
I am making this now, and am having difficulties with the sauce tasting bitter. I see that only one other person has had this problem. I measured all of the ingredients out to a T and made sure not to burn my garlic. Any suggestions?
Pureeing raw onions will tend to create pungency and bitterness which will not cook out. When I make this I saute onions then add spices and water then I puree the mixture. Also I have found that in making curries, over heating the raw spices, even a little bit will create bitterness and ruin the curry. Hope this helps.
Reduce the turmeric to 1 tsp, skip out on the corriander(too much of those can make it bitter) and make sure your spices don’t burn.
Hi there!
I have gathered most of the ingredients listed above, but am having a hard time finding the ground cardamom for a decent price. The only one I found was a medium bottle for 17$, most of them are within the 3-6 dollar range, am I looking in the right spot? Will it be a huge difference if I omit just that one spice? Thanks in advance.
I am wanting to try this out tomorrow night, super excited.
Wow, I’m pretty sure my bottle is McCormick and I don’t remember it bring that expensive. You can leave it out and it will still be delicious!
Hello again,
I am making the korma right now and I seem to be having the same issue another person had with it tasting bitter. It is still cooking and thickening up so it could change, but I added a little more brown sugar and it helped a small amount, I know I didn’t burn my garlic when adding it. Any ideas what it could be?
Too much turmeric can make it bitter. Curry powder usually has turmeric as an ingredient, and some curry powders(those with are yellow rather than brown or orange) have a lot of turmeric. So that turmeric plus 2 tsp might be what made your korma bitter. That is my guess.
For me, even with brown curry powder(without much turmeric), 2 tsp seemed like a lot, so I only added one and it turned out great. I didn’t have yogurt on hand either, so I added just coconut milk plus water and a little bit of whole milk.
I forgot to say that i also skipped corriander, mainly because i didn’t have ground up powder and my curry powder is heavily corriander based.
The korma looks lovely, but I don’t understand the mesuments for the coconut milk or the. Yogurt please help..
Hi, Tracy! Use 1 cup (8 ounces) coconut milk, and 1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) yogurt.
You do not need to buy garam masala. You can find recipes on pinterest and it is made from most of the spices that are requered in this recipe. We make our own.
hey! this looks awesome and I can’t wait to try it, but, how long does it take? Its just I have quite a tight schedule… Thanks a lot!
I’d say about an hour and a half, not including the marinating time 🙂
This looks delicious!! I am following a paleo diet and I’m wondering if I can omit the yogurt? Anything I should use to replace? More coconut milk? Thanks – am excited to try this tonight!
Hi! I’m not sure about replacing the yogurt. My best guess would be to increase the coconut milk, and stir in a little bit of cornstarch while the liquid is cold. Maybe a touch of lemon juice to add some tang 🙂 Let me know how it turns out!
Where do I find mild yellow curry powder? Is there anything I can use instead? What would happen if I omitted it? Thank you!
Hi, Emily! Just look for regular old “curry powder” on the spice aisle. I wouldn’t leave it out if I were you!
the first time I made the sauce, I tasted it and it had a bitter flavour to it! I had to add heaps of sugar to balance the flavour out,but it still wasn’t much better. I was wondering whether your measurements of spices were right or if I was missing something? I followed the recipe and did accurate measuring.
Hi, Jenny! I’m not sure why it would have turned out that way – I use this recipe quite frequently and haven’t had that happen. Sometimes if I accidentally let garlic cook too long it burns a little bit and turns the whole dish bitter. I’m sorry this didn’t work for you the first time, I know how frustrating that can be!
Could you have used greek yogurt? Use plain yogurt instead–I’ve made the same mistake with other indian dishes in the past
I agree with your comment. something is way off with the spices, either the curry or turmeric. But it was quite bitter and inedible. I threw the sauce away, and I’ve made several Indian dishes before.
Mine turned out bitter too. I’m thinking I cooked the onion and garlic for too long? It didn’t really brown so I kept it on for about 10 mins instead of your suggested time.
Yeah you really have to be careful never to brown garlic to the point of it turning bitter.
Same with me, and I’ve cooked great indan food before, using these same spices. I guess something is wrong with the mix…
Made this for my family of 6 this week – everyone loved it – teenagers, husband, and even the 9 yr old! Leftovers were excellent, too. And thank you for the instructions for cooking perfect rice – where has this blog been all my life??
I have to say, I tasted a little piece of the seasoned chicken when it came off the grill and had a hard time stopping the nibbling! That’s going to be my “go to” spice blend for grilled chicken from now on! Time to order more garam masala.
I love hearing this! Garam masala is totally a godsend 🙂
I made it tonight & it was wonderful! Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
just made this, have been making a ton of your Indian recipes. it tastes authentic, I used heavy whipping cream because I didn’t have coconut milk and chicken legs in place of the boneless. would prefer boneless but the legs were defrosted. love your Indian recipes!
Just wondering why you are saying it isn’t gluten free, it
looks by the list of ingredients to be gluten free. I am going to
try to make it this weekend regardless!!
Great to hear! I don’t know too much about gluten free eating, so I guess I didn’t know that this recipe was gluten free 🙂 happy eating!
Looks fanastic, love Korma but have never made it before. Now I want some, now!!
It was so much easier than I thought it would be! Definitely give it a shot 🙂
It looks REALLY good!
Thank you! It is definitely going on the regular rotation at our house 🙂