Skip to content
Handiہانڈیاردو
Qorma, salan & curries

Chicken Qorma Recipe

چکن قورمہ بنانے کا طریقہ

Shadi-style chicken qorma with a rich brown gravy built on fried onions crushed into yogurt, whole spices and a kewra finish.
WhatsApp
Illustration of Chicken Qorma

Prep

20 min

Cook

55 min

Total

1 hr 15 min

Serves

6

Difficulty

Medium

Spice

Medium hot

Qorma is the dish of Pakistani weddings and Eid tables: meat braised in yogurt with a lot of fried onion, whole spices and plenty of oil that rises to the top. The colour and depth come from onions fried to an even golden brown (birista) and then crushed into the yogurt, not from tomatoes. Take your time over the onions and the bhunai and the rest looks after itself.

Ingredients

6 servings

For 6 servings

Measures

Fried onion and yogurt

To finish

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a heavy pot on medium heat. Fry the sliced onions, stirring often, until evenly golden brown. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and spread on a plate; they crisp as they cool.

    ⏱ 12 min

  2. Crush the fried onions with your hands or blend them with the yogurt into a smooth brown paste. Keep aside.

  3. In the same oil, add the cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves and peppercorns and let them sizzle for a minute.

    ⏱ 1 min

  4. Add the chicken and ginger-garlic paste. Fry on high heat until the chicken turns white and the raw smell of garlic is gone.

    ⏱ 7 min

  5. Add the salt, red chilli powder, Kashmiri chilli, coriander powder and turmeric with a splash of water. Bhuno on medium heat for a few minutes so the spices cook and don't taste raw.

    ⏱ 4 min

  6. Lower the heat and stir in the onion-yogurt paste a little at a time so the yogurt does not split. Then bhuno, stirring, until the masala darkens and oil separates at the edges.

    ⏱ 10 min

  7. Add the water, cover and simmer on low heat until the chicken is tender and the gravy is thick enough to coat a spoon.

    ⏱ 15 min

  8. Sprinkle over the garam masala and kewra, cover and leave on the lowest heat for 5 minutes (dum) until oil floats on top. Scatter the almonds and serve.

    ⏱ 5 min

Tips for the best result

  • The onions decide the qorma. Pull them out when they are golden brown, not dark: they keep darkening on the plate, and burnt onion makes the whole pot bitter.
  • Use full-fat yogurt at room temperature. Cold or low-fat yogurt is much more likely to split.
  • For a wedding-style finish, add 2 tbsp of desi ghee with the kewra at the dum stage.

Common mistakes

  • Pouring all the yogurt in at once on high heat. It splits into grainy white specks; add it slowly on low heat and keep stirring.
  • Adding tomatoes to get colour. Qorma gets its brown from the onions; tomato makes it taste like an ordinary salan.

How to serve

Serve hot with sheermal, naan or roghni naan. At a dawat it usually sits next to a biryani or pulao and a sweet like zarda.

Storing and reheating

Keeps 3 days in the fridge and freezes well for up to 1 month. Reheat gently with a splash of water; it tastes even better the next day.

Nutrition and cost

Worked out from the ingredients, not measured in a lab. Treat both as a rough guide.

Per serving Estimate

Calories
665kcal
Protein
34g
Fat
54g
Carbs
11g
Fibre
2g
Sodium
720mg

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018), public domain values for the raw ingredients (100% of the recipe by weight had data). Deep-frying oil is counted at 20%; bones and water lost in cooking are not subtracted, so bone-in and fried dishes can read high. Not medical advice. Method

Cost per servingEstimate

≈ Rs 145

Whole dish ≈ Rs 865 · 97% of ingredients by weight priced

From the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics weekly SPI, week ended 29 Oct 2026. Spices, herbs and some vegetables are not in the SPI and are left out unless you add your price, so the real cost is a little higher. How this works

Chicken Qorma: questions people ask

Why did the yogurt split in my qorma?

The heat was too high or the yogurt went in cold and all at once. Whisk it smooth, blend it with the fried onion, lower the heat and add it a little at a time while stirring.

What is the difference between qorma and salan?

Qorma is a rich, yogurt-and-fried-onion gravy with whole spices and usually no tomato. An everyday salan is lighter, built on onion and tomato, and often has vegetables in it.

Can I use shop-bought fried onions?

Yes. Use about 1 cup of ready fried onions and fry the whole spices in fresh oil. The flavour is slightly flatter than home-fried, but it saves 15 minutes.

Serve it with, and similar recipes

All salan and qorma recipes

Read this recipe in Urdu: چکن قورمہ بنانے کا طریقہ

https://handi.danixsoft.com/recipes/chicken-qorma · Handi, DanixSoft