Mouthwatering Indian Fusion Aloo Keema Poutine Recipe

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Indian Fusion Poutine with Aloo Keema

If you’re in Canada, you know that poutine is a hot item, especially during the summer. I’m a poutine-aholic I must confess! When I’ve got a craving for poutine, you can’t go wrong with the classic Epic Canadian Poutine. If you have no idea what the heck a poutine is, then I recommend you start there, because believe me you’re really missing out! I had my first poutine not too long after coming to Canada, and since then my life has totally changed!

The basic recipe really allows for the thick, luxurious gravy, squeaky cheese curds, and crispy French fries to shine! I actually almost always felt adventurous and tried fusion poutines from restaurants and food trucks. From what I have had, unfortunately more were a disappointment than a delight, and then I would want to order the classic recipe to be “on the safe side.” I’ve also never really cooked fusion poutines since I would always be on a quest to nail the classic dish at home!

However, ever since I felt I perfected my poutine recipe and participated in a poutine-cook off where I developed my Mexican-Fusion Poutine, featuring chorizo sausage, Homemade Guacamole, Pico de Gallo, and a taco-style beef gravy using my Excellent Quick and Easy Homemade Taco Seasoning, my mind was blown! This turned out so awesome, and I was really impressed! My opponent/friend, Andrea’s, buttermilk battered halibut poutine also looked incredible, and I definitely need to be making that. With regard to my Mexican poutine, I honestly just thought of all the components on the spot, but the delicious results made me more open to making more fusion poutines! Actually, not too long after making that poutine, I went to a local business called Wrap City and picked up the Buffalo Chicken poutine. I really need to make that too!

In my time in Canada, I’ve seen all sorts of food trucks and restaurants try their hands at Indian poutines. No offence to anyone, but the creativity for “Indian fusion poutine” is lacking a bit! You usually just see a regular poutine with a butter chicken sauce and/or tandoori chicken or chicken tikka. I always had it in the back of my mind to try this, but I’ve not done it yet. If you really want to see how I would make a butter chicken poutine, then be sure to let me know in the comments and I’ll go ahead and give it a shot!

Ingredients for Indian Fusion Poutine

I do have to warn you that this isn’t going to be a “minimal ingredient recipe,” but don’t worry! All the ingredients used here will certainly be worth it - everything works so well together to make a memorable Indian Fusion Poutine! If you get lost writing your grocery list for this recipe, then fear not! The full ingredient list with measurements can be found in the PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD at the bottom of this post so you can make tick off all the ingredients for this awesome poutine recipe!

For the Chicken Gravy

• Chicken or Vegetable broth: These types of broths will allow the largest demographic to enjoy the joy which is poutine since traditionally, a poutine gravy is made with beef broth.
• Butter: Used to make the roux and give the gravy a nice sheen.
• All-purpose flour: Thickening agent as part of the roux. You want to cook out your flour before adding in your chicken broth.
• Tomato paste: Tomato paste will add a nice sweetness to balance out your gravy, and helps create a lovely red colour.
• Ground spices: For this gravy, we’ll use turmeric, ground coriander, and Deggi mirch, also known as red chili powder. Deggi mirch will give the gravy a bold red colour without adding too much heat. If you don’t have Deggi mirch, you can substitute with paprika.
• Worcestershire sauce: A splash is all you need.
• Cornstarch: Make a slurry with water by whisking cornstarch and water together. This further thickens your sauce and turns it into a gravy.
• Salt: To taste.

For the Fries

• Yellow potatoes: If you’ve seen any of my other French fry recipes (and I definitely have a lot!) you’ll see that I love using yellow potatoes instead of russet potatoes to make fries. This is because I find that the taste is much closer to fries from fast food places and restaurants. I love the creaminess of the inside that you’ll get from using Yukon gold yellow potatoes, while I find russet potatoes are a bit bland. I’ve read people complain that yellow potatoes don’t get crispy and are limp when making fries. Well, I don’t think they’re making their fries properly!
• Olive oil: I’ll be using olive oil to drizzle onto my fries before baking them in the oven. I also recommend you do this step if you’re Air Frying your French fries. However, if you’re deep frying your fries for this poutine recipe, then I recommend you use vegetable oil or canola oil to deep fry.

For the Aloo Chicken Keema

• Minced chicken: As mentioned before, you can certainly substitute with minced chicken with turkey, beef or lamb. This will slightly change the flavour, but feel free to experiment!
• Ghee: You could use olive oil or any other oil if you’d like, but I love to cook keema in ghee because of the incredible flavour that the ghee will add to the keema. I definitely recommend it!
• Essentials: Onion, green chilies, ginger and garlic. These are the base for the delicious masala and will add plenty of flavour. You can omit the green chilies if you don’t want spice.
• Whole spices: Bay leaf, clove and cumin seeds.
• Ground spices: Red chili powder (deggi mirch), ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala and salt to taste.
• Tomato paste:This helps to add richness and sweetness to the mince! Plus, it helps reduce the cooking time.
• Potatoes: I’m using one Yukon gold yellow potato for the amount of chicken keema in this recipe. I’ll first be boiling the potato,
• Fresh cilantro: For garnish.

Remaining Toppings

• Cheese curds: An essential ingredient for poutine! If you struggle to get your cheese curds to melt (apparently authentic poutines don’t have their cheese curds melting but I love it when mine are molten!), I actually found that I had so many cheese pulls when eating this poutine! You won’t wanna skip out! But if you can’t find cheese curds at your grocery store, then you can certainly substitute with mozzarella. Cut it into small cubes of a similar size to cheese curds.
• Paneer: If you don’t know what paneer is, it is typically described as “Indian cottage cheese.” Please don’t confuse paneer with actual cottage cheese, because it’s nothing like it actually! When I first came to Canada, I’ve made that mistake before and I totally regretted it… You can purchase paneer from the cheese section of your grocery store, depending on your grocery store, or from a South Asian market. For this recipe, I’m using store-bought paneer. If you can’t find paneer anywhere near you, you can certainly make your own! Homemade paneer takes time and patience, but it’s well worth it - it’s super soft and tender! You’ll love it! For the sake of convenience, I almost always use store-bought. The paneer will be grated at the very top of the poutine!
• Yogurt or Sour cream: If you don’t have or don’t want to use sour cream, you can use plain yogurt. We’ll be drizzling the sour cream on top of our poutine to complete that presentation! The coolness of the sour cream nicely complements the heat from the gravy and the aloo chicken keema.
• Cilantro: For garnish.

How to Make Indian Fusion Poutine

How to Make the Fries

For Air Fryer Fries

1. Add the peeled, cut fries in a large bowl and fill with cold water and soak for about 25 minutes (see tip for a shortcut). In the meanwhile, set a large pot of water to boil.
2. Add soaked fries to the boiling water and boil for 3-5 minutes, or until the potatoes are partly cooked but still firm. Add only enough potatoes that will comfortably fit in your air fryer basket in a single layer.
3. Drain the potatoes onto paper towel and gently pat dry. Then, transfer the fries to a large bowl and coat with olive oil. Gently toss the potatoes in the oil and arrange fries in a single layer in the air fryer basket
4. Set Air Fryer to Air Fry mode at 400F and cook for 20 minutes.
5. If making a multiple batch, transfer the fries from the air fryer basket to a bowl/baking sheet and repeat steps 2-4 for the remaining portion of fries.
6. Once all the fries are crispy, you can toss all the fries in a single basket to refresh the fries at 375F-390F for 3-5 minutes. Voila!

For Oven Baked Fries

1. Preheat the oven to 475 F.
2. In the meanwhile, cut the potatoes into slices 1/4 inch thick. In a large bowl, add the fries and fill with water. Let the fries soak for at least 25 minutes.
3. In the meanwhile, set a large pot of water to boil.
4. Add soaked fries to the boiling water and boil for 3-5 minutes, or until the potatoes are partly cooked but still firm.
5. Drain the potatoes onto paper towel and gently pat dry.
6. Transfer fries to a large enough bowl and season with salt and olive oil. Layer a large baking tray with parchment paper and place the fries on it. Bake the fries on the middle rack for 20 minutes or until they are light golden brown
7. Once lightly browned, move the rack and tray to the lowest oven rack bake until crispy, flipping once to ensure each side is crispy.

How to Make the Desi-style Gravy

1. Heat a saucepan on medium heat and add butter and flour. Whisk well and add tomato paste, turmeric, ground coriander and deggi mirch.
2. Mix well and cook out the roux, until the rawness of the flour is cooked out.
3. Add chicken/vegetable stock, 1/4-1/2 Cup at a time and whisk until you have added all the stock.
4. Optionally, add 1-2 splashes of Worcestershire sauce and bring the gravy up to a simmer and cook until reduced by half in volume.
5. Once the stock has reduced by half, season with salt. Prepare corn starch slurry by whisking together cornstarch with water.
6. Add slurry to the gravy and mix well.
7. Simmer until the gravy has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon and set aside until fries are ready.
8. Bring the gravy back up to heat before serving and adjust consistency with water if required.

How to Make the Aloo Chicken Keema

This Indian fusion poutine recipe actually used some leftover aloo chicken keema from my Aloo Chicken Keema Sandwich recipe! This is an awesome way to use leftovers! For more details on how to make the gravy, be sure to check out the recipe, but here is a quick overview on how to make the potato and minced chicken curry that will be used as one of the toppings for our poutine, if you’re going to be making this component fresh for the poutine.

To Cook the Potatoes

Stove

1. Dice the potatoes into 1 inch cubes and cook in boiling water until tender.

Instant Pot

1. Thoroughly rinse potatoes and scrub any dirt off.
2. Insert the trivet in the Instant Pot and place potatoes on the trivet.
3. Pour between 1/4 to 1/3 cups of water over potatoes.
4. Close the lid and ensure the Instant Pot is in Sealing Mode.
5. Select the Steam setting and cook for 10-11 minutes, let pressure release naturally.
6. Try inserting a fork or knife to ensure the centre of the potatoes are cooked.
7. Once cooked, dice into 1 inch cubes

FOR the ALOO KEEMA

1. Heat a pan on medium heat and add ghee, once hot add whole spices (bay leaf, clove, cumin seeds).
2. Once spices are aromatic, add onions and saute until they soften.Add the keema/mince, followed by deggi mirch, ground coriander, turmeric and salt. Mix well and break any lumps of keema/mince.
3. Add the ginger, garlic and green chilies and cook until the mince is no longer pink, break any big lumps of meat.
4. Create a well at the center of the pan and add tomato paste. Saute for 1-2 minutes and then mix the tomatoes with the keema/mince.
5. Add a splash of water and mix in the potatoes. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add garam masala and stir well, season to taste and finally, garnish with cilantro.

How to Assemble the Indian Fusion Poutine

1. Put a layer of fries in a bowl/casserole followed by cheese curds, grated paneer and a ladle full of gravy. Top with spoonfuls of chicken mince/keema.
2. Repeat the layers to your preference and then finish with a drizzle of sour cream or yogurt and cilantro.

Tips for a Mind-blowing Indian Fusion Poutine

• DO NOT SEASON the French fries!! The seasoning from the gravy will help season the fries, anything extra will risk too much salt in the dish.
• Use reduced salt/no salt broth to allow you to control the amount of salt and seasoning in the gravy
• Use a large bowl or a casserole to assemble this poutine to show off all the colourful toppings
• Taste the gravy at every stage and be careful not to over season. As the gravy reduces, the seasoning will become more concentrated.
• Leave the fries for the very end to ensure they are as hot as they can be and crispy.

Frequently Asked Questions