Chicken Ka Salan Recipe: Authentic Pakistani Chicken Curry with Rich, Spicy Gravy

Introduction to Chicken ka Salan Recipe

Chicken ka salan (Murgh Shorba), is a classic Pakistani curry. It is beautifully rich and flavourful, and is almost soup like. The soup is referred to as “shorba” . The shorba is the key part of the curry. if it doesn’t look right, then it is an absolute fail. This recipe will help you not have the difficulties I had as a newly wed and trying to successfully master the art of this curry.

This dish took me the longest to master, the flavour was always there, but the look was never right. And with a shorba, it is all about how the curry “looks”. I had many a dinner party as newly wed where I would attempt to make this curry and fail! Unfortunately, I was 200 miles away from my mum, so I didn’t have her keen eye to help me master the technique of dish.

After some time, an aunt tried my chicken ka salan and turned to my husband and said “you have given Nafisa very good training”. To this day my husband and I laugh about this compliment. We both know my husband is no chef, even sous chef would be a generous compliment! Yet somehow, the credit for my shorba is down to him. Well I guess I will have to let him have the credit.

History of Chicken ka salan

It has a rich history dating back to the Mughal empire, I love that we are still making a dish today which is hundreds of years old. The curry is slow cooked, which adds to the depth of flavour and helps the shorba come together successfully. This slow cooking is again something the Mughals would often do with their dishes, similar to Nihari.

My take on this Chicken ka Salan recipe

Two essential concepts of this curry are to make sure that there are no chunky bits of onions floating in the broth. The broth needs to be smooth. I blitz the onion in a food processor to get a nearly pureed form of onions, which means the broth is smooth when cooked.

You do need to be careful not to overbend, as you do not want the onions to be a liquid. This will make them very difficult to brown. I also tend to blitz the tomatoes and green chillies in a food processor. This again adds to the smoothness of the broth. You could alternatively use a hand blender to blitz the broth once all in the sauce pan. But it will be a bit fiddlier to do with the chicken also being in the pan.

In addition, there needs to be a separation of the oil from the broth. The spicy chicken shorba gravy is crucial in this curry. The salan should be cooked long enough that the oil separates from the water. This is key to the shorba looking “right”. Simmering (bhunning) is essential for this dish. My mum always said that you know the chicken is cooked well, when the you see that the colour of the masalas has seeped into the chicken.

You can add additional vegetables into this dish, such as potatoes, peas or chickpeas. I would add them at the final simmering stage. Thirty minutes will be more than enough time for them to cook through.

Growing up, for any celebration we would always have chicken ka salaan with pilau rice and zarda (sweet rice), this was our standard celebration meal. So birthday parties, Eid’s, when we had guests over, you know that these three items would always be on the menu. Having sweet zarda rice with the savoury and spicy chicken ka salaan and pilau was just the perfect blend of sweet and savoury. However you can also make this authentic Pakistani chicken curry with plain basmati rice or matar pilau and enjoy.

See my video on Instagram or TikTok to see how to make this dish!

Ingredients

Feeds 4-5

Preparation- 5 minutes, cooking time 1 hour

• 1/3 cup (100ml) of vegetable oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped in food processor (it should be nearly a pureed form, but do not over blitz so that the onion becomes watery)
• 1 teaspoon of finely chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon of finely chopped ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder
• 1 heaped teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 2 green chillies finely chopped (to taste)
• 1/4 can of tinned tomatoes (blitz in a food processor to pureed form)
• 1 whole chicken, (850 grams-1kg) skinned and in cut in pieces
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 3/4 teaspoon of black pepper powder
• 2 mugs of water (600 ml)
• 3/4 teaspoon of garam masala
• 3-4 tablespoons of freshly chopped coriander

Method

1. Heat the oil in a medium to large saucepan and add the pureed onions.

2. Fry the onions until quite dark, you will need to keep stirring to ensure the puree doesn’t burn as this will ruin the taste of the curry by adding bitterness. Then add the garlic and ginger and stir through. 

3. Next you need to add the pureed tomatoes, green chillies, salt, red chilli powder and turmeric. Turn the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes. Keep stirring the tomato masala , if it starts to dry out, add small splashes of water. After the 10 minutes, you should see the oil start to separate from the masala.

4. Turn the heat to medium and now add the chicken to the masala and stir through. Make sure the chicken properly coats in the masala and that the chicken browns.

5. Then add the ground coriander, cumin, paprika and black pepper. Stir through and sauté the chicken for 6-8 minutes on low heat. Sauté until the chicken is cooked through, stir at regular intervals. You should see the oil starting to separate from the masala. (Again, add splashes of water if the chicken starts to stick to the pan.)

6. Next add the 600ml of water, bring to boil and cover the pan with lid. Then turn the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. (If the oil has not come to the surface, remove the pan lid and allow it to simmer on a low heat for another few minutes.)

6. Add the garam masala, freshly chopped coriander and serve!