Indian Recipes
Chicken Korma
A mild, creamy curry of chicken simmered in a fragrant sauce of slowly softened onion, garlic and ginger, whole cardamom, cinnamon and cloves, thickened with ground cashews and almonds, yoghurt and a little cream.
- Serves 4
- Hands-on 30 min
- Simmer 25 min
- Mild: good for children
- Marinate 30 min (optional)
- Indian (Mughlai)
Method
Mix the chicken (700 g) with the yoghurt (150 g), turmeric (½ tsp) and salt (1 tsp). Leave for 30 minutes if you have time (or overnight in the fridge).
Cover the cashews (50 g) with 100 ml boiling water and leave to soak for 15 minutes, then blend them with their water to a smooth paste.
Heat the ghee (2 tbsp) in a large, heavy pan over a medium heat. Add the cardamom (6 cardamom pods), cinnamon (1), cloves (4) and bay leaves (2 bay leaves) and fry for 30 seconds until fragrant.
Add the onions (2 onions) with a pinch of salt and cook gently for 12–15 minutes, stirring often, until very soft and pale gold; for a korma they should not brown deeply. Add the garlic (4 cloves) and ginger (20 g) and cook for 2 minutes.
Stir in the ground coriander (2 tsp), cumin (1 tsp) and garam masala (1 tsp) for 1 minute, then add the chicken with all its marinade. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes until the chicken is sealed.
Add the cashew paste, ground almonds (30 g), sugar (1 tsp) and hot water (250 ml). Bring to a gentle simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the chicken is tender and cooked through.
Stir in the cream (100 ml) and simmer uncovered for 3–5 minutes until the sauce is thick and coats the chicken. Season, remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves, scatter with coriander (a little) and serve with rice or naan.
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See also
Chef’s notes
- Do not let the sauce boil hard once the yoghurt and cream are in, or it may split.
- Swasthi’s top-rated Indian version simmers bone-in chicken; use 1 kg bone-in thighs and add 10 minutes.
- For a sweeter, British-restaurant style korma, add 2 tbsp sultanas or 1 tbsp desiccated coconut with the cashew paste, as BBC Good Food does with sultanas.
- Nut allergy: leave out the cashews and almonds and use 2 tbsp more yoghurt and 2 tbsp more cream.
How this recipe was developed
We compared BBC Good Food’s chicken korma with the most-rated chicken korma on Allrecipes and Swasthi Shreekanth’s Indian Healthy Recipes version.
- Onion, garlic and ginger, gently. BBC Good Food’s korma (4.5/5 from 433 ratings) softens onion, garlic and ginger and adds ground almonds; we keep the onions pale and sweet.
- Whole spices and cashews. Swasthi’s Chicken Korma (5/5 from 681 ratings) fries green cardamom and other whole spices and thickens the sauce with cashews; we use both.
- Yoghurt and cream. Allrecipes’ Creamy Chicken Korma (4.6/5 from 276 ratings) finishes with cream and yoghurt; we marinate in the yoghurt and finish with cream.
- From scratch. BBC Good Food uses a jar of korma paste; we make the spice base from scratch with ground coriander, cumin and garam masala.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 1 November 2026):
- BBC Good Food (Cassie Best): Chicken korma (4.5/5, 433 ratings)
- Indian Healthy Recipes (Swasthi Shreekanth): Chicken Korma (5/5, 681 ratings)
- Allrecipes (Trina): Creamy Chicken Korma (4.6/5, 276 ratings)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.