Chicken Qorma at Home: Wedding-Style Deg Qorma With a Fried-Onion and Yoghurt Gravy
A chicken qorma recipe earns its place at a wedding dawat for two reasons: the onions are fried with patience, and the yoghurt goes in slowly. Everything else is detail. Get those two things right at home and the deg-style qorma served at marriages in Lahore and Karachi is suddenly within reach of an ordinary kitchen.
Ingredients
One kilogram of chicken in medium pieces; three large onions, finely sliced; one cup of yoghurt, whisked smooth; half a cup of ghee or oil; one tablespoon of ginger-garlic paste; two teaspoons of coriander powder; one to one-and-a-half teaspoons of red chilli powder, to taste; half a teaspoon of turmeric; salt to taste; four green cardamoms; one black cardamom; four cloves; one stick of cinnamon; one bay leaf; a few drops of kewra water; julienned ginger and slivered almonds to finish.
Method
Fry the onions in the ghee over a medium heat until they turn an even golden brown — ten to twelve minutes, and rushing this stage leaves the onions raw in the gravy. Lift them out, cool them, and grind them with the yoghurt into a smooth paste. In the same ghee, add the whole spices and let them release their aroma, then the ginger-garlic paste and the chicken. Fry on high heat for five to six minutes until the chicken changes colour and catches at the edges. Stir in the coriander, chilli, turmeric and salt and fry two minutes more. Lower the heat and add the onion-yoghurt paste a spoonful at a time, stirring steadily so the yoghurt does not split. Cover and cook on a low heat for fifteen to eighteen minutes, until the chicken is tender and a layer of ghee rises to the surface. Sprinkle over the kewra water, switch off the heat and let the qorma rest, covered, for five minutes.
Serving
Spoon the qorma into a wide dish and scatter over the ginger and almonds. Wedding-style qorma belongs with taftan or sheermal; plain naan and zeera rice work well too. Leftovers taste even better the next day, once the spices have settled into the chicken overnight.
