Tabassum’s Chicken Karahi Recipe

It takes a lot for me to fire up the stove for any length of time in the summer. At Copywriters’ Kitchen, we keep it simple during warm weather with easy pastas, bean salads, greens dressed with tasty vinaigrettes, dishes made with seasonal vegetables and an occasional grassfed burger or grilled chicken.

But I make an exception for Chicken Karahi. Lucky me, I was taught to make this signature Pakistani dish by Tabassum, a fabulous Pakistani home cook and parent at my children’s school. Tabassum donated a series of cooking classes at a recent school auction. Friends of mine won the heavily bid-upon series and invited me to one of the classes.

I jumped at the chance to watch Tabassum prepare Chicken Karahi in her sunny Greenwich, Connecticut kitchen. Later all of us sat down to eat this succulent, flavor-layered chicken, an array of Indian and Pakistani side dishes and an incredible bottle of Gewürztraminer, brought by another guest, school parent and wine critic.



Thankfully, Tabassum is not a culinary dictator, but stresses ease and improvisation in the kitchen. In that spirit, I played around slightly with this recipe, originally given to Tabassum by her aunt. The basics of Tabassum’s Chicken Karahi, however, remain the same. As with many Pakistani and Indian recipes, Chicken Karahi’s delicious complexity depends on cooking spices and flavors in steps, letting each flavor combination absorb before adding the next.

In my rendition, you start by mixing a paste of ginger, chilies and garlic. You blend the pungent pesto into creamy yogurt in a Dutch oven or heavy pot, add whole cumin seeds and spoon this mixture over cut-up chicken pieces.



As the chicken and yogurt cook down, the liquid evaporates, letting the yogurt’s fragrant milk solids form a moist crust on the chicken.



Next you add ghee—intensely flavored clarified butter—and continue to stew the chicken until the ghee separates and settles in honey-colored trickles around the chicken.

After stirring in a sauce of onion, tomato and whole oregano, you simmer for a few more minutes then add the final flavor note: fresh, chopped cilantro.


Chicken Karahi is delicious served with brown basmati rice and soft chapatis that let you mop up every last savory drop.

Tabassum’s Chicken Karahi Recipe

1 chicken, skinned and cut into pieces
2 cups Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons ginger, peeled and chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2-4 poblano chilies or jalapeno peppers, finely chopped (Poblanos are hotter than jalapenos, so adjust proportions accordingly.)
4 tablespoons oil or ghee (clarified butter)
3 teaspoons whole cumin (zeera), or slightly less ground cumin
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4-5 Italian tomatoes—about half a 28-ounce can—chopped
1 teaspoon oregano (ajwain) seeds or crushed oregano
Sea salt to taste
Freshly chopped cilantro leaves

1. In a mini-chopper or blender, pulse ginger, garlic and chilies into a rough paste.
2. With a mortar and pestle, slightly crush the cumin seeds.
3. In a Dutch oven or large heavy pot, combine the paste, cumin, yogurt and salt to taste, stirring well to combine ingredients.
4. Add the chicken pieces and stir to coat with yogurt mixture.
5. Heat chicken and yogurt on high flame until bubbly. Adjust flame slightly and continue to cook over medium-high flame until the liquid cooks away from the yogurt and the sauce is slightly dry—about 30-40 minutes.
6. Add 3 tablespoons ghee and continue to fry until the unabsorbed ghee separates from the chicken pieces and forms trickles and pools in the pot—about 10-15 minutes.
7. In the meantime, heat the remaining tablespoon of ghee in a large frying pan. When ghee is hot, add the onions. Fry over a medium flame until onions are soft and caramelized, adjusting flame to assure onions don’t burn.
8. Add the tomatoes and stir-fry until soft—about 10 minutes. Stir in the oregano seeds.
9. After the ghee has separated from the chicken pieces, add the onion-tomato mixture to the chicken. Stir to coat the chicken with the tomato sauce, bring to a simmer, then lower heat and cook the chicken until most of the liquid has evaporated from the tomatoes—about 15 minutes. Serve garnished with chopped cilantro.

Serves 6-8