This is a restaurant-style chicken curry. What better than enjoying it in the comfort of your home on a weeknight? It takes 30 minutes to make this Chicken Korma in the Instant Pot (with a bit of marination prep).
Watch How to Make Instant Pot Chicken Korma
What is Korma?
Korma is a dish rooted in the Mughlai cuisine of the Indian subcontinent. It is a mildly spiced Indian curry dish of meat, fish, or vegetables marinated in yogurt or cream and spices, then finished with almonds, cashews, or other nuts to make a thick, creamy sauce. I wanted to share a recipe featuring chicken drumsticks, and this Chicken Korma was perfect with drumsticks. It can also be made with boneless chicken by adjusting the cooking time. If you are looking for a meat-free version, here is my Vegan Vegetable Korma recipe. Another amazing mild chicken curry is this Coconut Chicken Curry if you want to try a completely different flavor of curry.
How is Chicken Korma different than other Chicken Curries?
I have shared my Mom’s Chicken Curry, which is a must-try if you have not done it yet. However, I wanted to share the main differences between this korma and the chicken curry:
Chicken is marinated in yogurt for the korma. In this korma, chicken is cooked only with onions, similar to malai chicken curry. No tomatoes are added. However, chicken marinated in yogurt gives a delicious tangy taste. Korma is creamy, so we add nut paste. I use cashews. However, you can also use almonds or even finish with coconut milk to make it nut-free.
Easy Step-by-Step Recipe
Let’s start with marinating the chicken. You will find lots of recipes where this step is skipped. However, I feel that it really adds to the taste and makes the chicken so tender and flavorful. We don’t have to keep it for long; just about 30 minutes is perfect. If you want to prep, refrigerate the marinated chicken for up to 8 hours. Soak cashews in warm water before you start cooking the curry. In the instant pot, start with tempering the whole spices in ghee or oil. Then sauté onions along with ginger and garlic. After sautéing for a few minutes, add in the marinated chicken. We want to saute the chicken with the onions for a few minutes. This helps to seal in the flavors and cook the yogurt before pressure cooking. Then, pressure cook the chicken curry. We will quick release the pressure so that the chicken does not get overcooked. While the chicken is cooking, blend the cashews to a paste. Stir in the paste to the cooked chicken. This will make a curry creamy. I used chicken drumsticks in this recipe, but any chicken with bones can be used. If using boneless chicken thighs or breasts, adjust the cooking time. This curry is to be cooked for 6 minutes at high pressure. This is perfect cooking time if you want to cook rice pot-in-pot along with the chicken. See this Dal Fry recipe where I cook basmati rice with the lentils. Enjoy this Chicken Korma with naan or basmati rice. More chicken recipes you might enjoy:
Chicken Tikka Masala Chicken Biryani Chicken Vindaloo Chicken Tikka Kebab Tandoori Chicken Wings Chicken Chettinad Chicken Karahi Keema Matar
