Indulge in This Royal Chicken Kofta Curry Recipe

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · juicy chicken meatballs in a spiced, aromatic gravy

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Is there a dish you’ve seen so much of but you’ve just sat on the sidelines and never had it? Making this Kofta Curry was totally what happened!

Quite recently before finally making this, I’ve been seeing some chicken kofta recipes pop up online and of course I was drooling! I think I’ve even had a request to make chicken kofta meatballs before! Well, I was in the midst of pre-filming the last of the recipes at my old apartment (I moved to my new home two weeks ago!), and I saw I had minced chicken in the fridge. If you’ve been around on the blog or my YouTube channel for a while, you know that I absolutely adore minced chicken. It’s very versatile, healthy, and so tasty! I’ve got plenty of Indian-style minced chicken recipes including Air Fryer Chicken Keema Samosas, Juicy Chicken Seekh Kebab Rolls, Indian-Fusion Aloo Keema Poutine, Spiced Chicken Burger with Pickled Veggies, and Stuffed Keema Paratha! I actually didn’t realize how much you could do with minced chicken until this year! No more viewing it as a boring, bland protein!

Now, back to kofta. On a whim, I just had a rush of inspiration, and I felt like going for making this dish! I had all the ingredients and I was really craving something hearty and satisfying. Wow am I happy I made this! This chicken kofta recipe seriously exceeded all my expectations!

If you want a seriously memorable restaurant experience at home, then you definitely have to make these Indian chicken meatballs in sauce! The meatballs are so flavorful and melt-in-your-mouth good! The gravy is so rich and really envelops those tender meatballs. The aroma of everything is just amazing and will make your kitchen smell wonderful! A bonus is that this chicken kofta recipe doesn’t take too long to make!

I promise you’ll fall in love with this curry! Let’s enjoy takeaway night with this royal chicken curry! You'll want to put this on the menu again and again! Let’s get to the recipe!

Tips for a Wonderful Chicken Kofta

• Eggs are a great way to make the koftas/meatballs fluffy. Although I prefer the denser texture since ground chicken is much leaner than red meat.
• Breadcrumbs help with the consistency of the meatballs and make it easier to shape.
• I recommend searing the meatballs before adding it to the gravy, much more flavorful that way!
• Go easy on the spices, let the meatballs be the star of this dish!

Tools Needed

• Large bowl
• Nonstick pan
• Wok
• Food processor
• Wooden spoon
• Tongs

Ingredients for This Indian Kofta Curry

Let’s go over what we’ll need to make our meatballs and for the gravy. Remember, for the full ingredient list with their measurements and the complete recipe instructions, make sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD, so you can save this recipe for later!

For the Chicken Kofta

• Ground chicken: If you don’t have ground chicken you can use ground turkey, it will work just as well!
• Cilantro & garlic: Used to make our meatballs fragrant and flavorful.
• Spices: Deggi mirch powder, ground cumin, ground coriander.
• Panko breadcrumbs: These will be used to bind our meatballs and give them a nice smokiness when they cook!
• Ghee: Used to cook our meatballs. We’ll pan fry them first, then add them to the curry.

For the Brown Onion Paste

• Onions, ginger, garlic and green chilies: We’ll sauté sliced onions and then add the other ingredients in a blender or food processor to make a paste.

For the Chicken Kofta Gravy Recipe

• Ghee: Used to cook out our gravy and to initially sauté the onions.
• Whole spices: Bay leaf, clove, cinnamon stick, green cardamom and cumin seeds.
• Ground spices: Red chili powder, ground cardamom, turmeric, and salt to taste.
• Passata: These are Italian strained tomatoes. You could also use fresh or canned tomatoes that are pureed if you don’t have passata.

How to Make Chicken Meatball Curry

Making the Meatballs

1. In a large bowl, add the chicken mince, cilantro, garlic, deggi mirch, ground coriander, garam masala, panko breadcrumbs, lime juice and salt.
2. Mix well to combine and make golf ball sized portions using the palms of your hands. This should yield between 10-14 meatballs.
3. Heat the ghee for the meatballs in a non-stick pan and add the meatballs. Sear on each side for 3-4 minutes or until they are golden brown on each side.
4. Don't worry about cooking it all the way through at this stage, the meatballs will finish cooking in the sauce. Once seared, take out the meatballs and set aside.

Making the Brown Onion Paste

1. Heat ghee in a wok and add onions. Saute on medium heat and stir well until the onions are browned throughout.
2. Once browned, transfer to a food processor with the ginger, garlic and green chilies. Add water, enough to let the blades move and puree until smooth.

Making the Gravy

1. Heat ghee in the same wok as earlier and add bay leaf, clove, cardamom, cinnamon and cumin seeds. Saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
2. Add the browned onion paste and mix well. Be careful since the paste might splutter.
3. Add turmeric, ground coriander and deggi mirch and mix well. Cook this mixture until it appears dry, fluffy and slides around the pan easily. Add a splash of water if the mixture starts to burn.
4. Add the passata along with a pinch of salt and mix well. Cook this mixture as well until it appears dry, fluffy and slides around the pan easily. Add a splash of water if the mixture starts to burn.
5. Add the meatballs and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Pour in hot water to create a gravy and bring it to a simmer. Lower heat and cook gently until the gravy reaches your preferred consistency.
6. Garnish with cilantro, adjust seasoning to taste and serve hot!

What Keeps These Chicken Koftas Juicy

Kofta curry is usually made with ground beef or lamb, and those meats bring enough fat to forgive a lot of overcooking. Mine uses 8 oz of ground chicken, which does not, so the recipe is built around keeping the ground chicken meatballs moist. There is no egg in the mix. The binders here are half a cup of Panko breadcrumbs and half a tablespoon of lime juice, and the Panko does double duty by soaking up excess moisture from the half cup of finely chopped cilantro so the mixture holds its shape without going dense.

The bigger trick is in the searing. You roll golf ball sized portions, which should give you somewhere between 10 and 14 koftas, and sear them 3 to 4 minutes a side until they are golden. Then you take them out while they are still raw in the middle. That is deliberate. The koftas finish cooking in the gravy for the last few minutes, so they take on the sauce and stay juicy instead of tightening up in a dry pan. Sear them all the way through at this stage and no amount of simmering afterwards will bring them back.

The Browned Onion Paste Is the Whole Secret

There is no cream in this gravy, no yogurt and no cashew paste. Everything that makes it rich comes from one medium onion, sliced and cooked in a tablespoon of ghee on medium heat until it is properly browned all the way through, then blended smooth in a food processor with half an inch of ginger, two cloves of garlic and one green chili. That paste is the base, and it is why the sauce tastes like it has been cooked for hours. Ghee is the only dairy in the recipe, so coconut oil makes the whole thing dairy free.

The tomato side is one cup of passata, which is simply strained tomato puree. Pureed canned tomatoes work if you blend and strain them yourself, and plain tomato sauce will do at a pinch, though it is thinner. For color and gentle heat there is half a teaspoon of deggi mirch, a red chilli powder milled more for its deep red than for fire. Sweet paprika is the closest match, and mild Kashmiri chili powder gets you a little more heat with the same color.

Two things about the cooking. First, you cook the masala until it looks dry and fluffy and slides around the pan on its own, and you do it twice: once after the ground spices, once after the passata. Add a splash of water if it catches. Second, there is no fixed cup of water in this recipe. You pour in hot water at the end, a little at a time, until the gravy is the consistency you want, then drop it to medium low and let it cook gently. Rushing that over a high flame is how you split the sauce.