Takeaway-Style Chicken Korma

A hob-only korma that copies what the takeaway actually does: onions and cashews simmered pale and soft, then blitzed to a silky base gravy rather than fried brown. Chicken thighs poach in that sauce until tender, finished with cream, a pinch of sugar and garam masala. Mild, glossy and unapologetically rich.

Korma is the gentlest thing on the takeaway menu and the easiest to get wrong at home — most versions come out grainy, beige and dull. The restaurant secret is that the onions are never browned. They are softened pale, blitzed with cashews into a silky base, then enriched at the very end. Do that and you get the real thing.

Ingredients

• 700g boneless, skinless chicken thighs — cut into 3cm pieces; thighs stay juicy where breast dries out
• 3 tbsp ghee — or unsalted butter plus 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 4 green cardamom pods — lightly crushed
• 1 cinnamon stick — or a 5cm piece of cassia bark
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 large onions — roughly chopped, about 350g
• 3 tbsp ginger and garlic paste — or 4 fat garlic cloves plus a 4cm piece of ginger, blitzed with a splash of water
• 100g unsalted cashews — swap for 75g ground almonds if you want to skip the blender step
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp mild chilli powder — Kashmiri if you have it, for colour more than heat
• 150ml double cream
• 2 tbsp desiccated coconut — or 3 tbsp coconut milk; both are in every supermarket
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp garam masala — stirred in off the heat at the end

Method

1. Put the cashews in a small bowl, cover with just-boiled water and leave to soak while you get on with the onions. This is what makes the sauce silky rather than sandy.
2. Melt 2 tbsp of the ghee in a wide, heavy pan over a medium-low heat. Add the cardamom pods, cinnamon and bay and let them sizzle gently for about a minute, until the kitchen smells sweet and warm. Do not let them darken.
3. Add the onions and a good pinch of salt, then pour in 100ml water. Cover and cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onions are completely soft and floppy but still pale. Keep the heat low: any colour here and your korma turns brown and tastes like a bhuna.
4. Fish out the cinnamon and bay. Tip the onions into a blender with the drained cashews and 100ml fresh water, and blitz for a full minute until absolutely smooth and creamy. Scrape down and blitz again if it looks at all gritty.
5. Wipe the pan, add the remaining 1 tbsp ghee and fry the ginger and garlic paste over a medium heat for 2 minutes, until the raw edge has gone. Stir in the coriander, cumin, turmeric and chilli powder and cook for 30 seconds, adding a splash of water if the pan looks dry.
6. Return the onion-cashew puree to the pan with the desiccated coconut and 200ml water. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until it thickens and looks glossy.
7. Slide in the chicken with 1 tsp salt, stir to coat, and simmer uncovered for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The chicken is ready when the pieces are white all the way through with no pink and no pink juices, and the sauce coats the back of a spoon.
8. Turn the heat right down and stir in the cream and sugar. Warm through for 2 minutes without boiling, or the sauce can split. Loosen with a splash of water if it has gone claggy.
9. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the garam masala, and taste. It should be gently sweet, rich and mild, with a savoury backbone; add more salt or a squeeze of lemon if it tastes flat. Rest for 5 minutes before serving so it thickens to that clinging takeaway consistency.

Serve it with

• Fluffy basmati rice or a quick pilau with a few cardamom pods
• Warm naan or chapatis for wiping the bowl
• A sharp kachumber salad of cucumber, red onion, tomato and lemon
• Mango chutney and lime pickle
• A hot side dish such as tarka dal or saag aloo, to cut the richness

Why this works

Takeaway korma gets its pale colour and velvet body from onions cooked with water under a lid rather than fried brown, then blitzed with soaked cashews into a base gravy. Browning the onions would give you sweet caramel notes and a dark sauce; sweating them keeps the flavour clean so the cream, coconut and garam masala can carry the dish.

Common swaps

• No blender? Use 75g ground almonds instead of cashews, whisked in with the water, and chop the onions very finely.
• Chicken breast works if that is what you have: add it 8 minutes before the end so it does not go stringy.
• For a dairy-free version, use oil in place of ghee and a 400ml tin of full-fat coconut milk instead of the cream and water.
• Swap the chicken for 500g paneer or two tins of drained chickpeas, added in the last 5 minutes.
• A teaspoon of rose water or a few saffron threads steeped in warm milk, stirred in at the end, gives it a more traditional Mughlai perfume.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Browning the onions. Golden onions make a tasty curry but not a korma; keep them pale and lidded.
• Under-blitzing the base. A grainy sauce is the giveaway of a homemade korma. Blend for a full minute, and soak the cashews first.
• Boiling after the cream goes in. High heat splits the sauce and dulls the shine, so drop the heat right down.
• Adding the garam masala early. Its aroma cooks off in minutes; it goes in off the heat, at the end.

Storage, freezing & reheating

Storage: Cool quickly, then keep covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. The flavour improves overnight as the spices settle.

Freezing: Freezes well for up to 3 months, though the cream can look slightly grainy on thawing. Defrost overnight in the fridge and whisk in a spoonful of fresh cream as you reheat to bring the gloss back.

Reheating: Reheat gently in a pan over a low heat with a splash of water, stirring until piping hot throughout. Avoid a hard boil, which splits the sauce. In the microwave, use medium power and stir every minute.

Allergen notes: contains Milk, Nuts. Always check individual product labels.

Estimated nutrition

Per serving, estimated from typical ingredient values — not a substitute for precise dietary calculation.