Chicken Kofta / Balls Curry

Koftas are made with minced or ground meat, which is made with chicken, beef and mutton. There is vegetarian versions of koftas too..Koftas are otherwise known as meat balls...Koftas are popular dish in India, Iran, Pakistan, Middle East, Greek and of course U.K too...Koftas are made into round shape, which consists of grounded or minced meat/chicken, combines with spices and sometimes  mixture of vegetable, which used egg/cornflour/breadcrumbs for binding the meat..Koftas are deep fried/ shallow fried or baked and served with thick curry..There are different variations of making koftas..Its texture is same for making kababs, which is served as dry version..If you don't want curry, you can eat fried koftas directly without curry..I love that version too..Today, I am posting a recipe of Chicken Kofta curry..I have a piece of chicken breast in my freezer..I was thinking,what to make for dinner..I thought of making many things like chicken chilli, chicken and veg stew, butter chicken etc..Finally, I decided to make kofta curry..Its long since, I made this curry..I google search it, and found more than 100 varieties of kofta curry..I read few of the recipes..I combined few of the ingredients here and there..Finally, I had my own way of making this curry..My hubby love this curry..We had the combination with crispy hot poori..It tastes too delicious..Do make this curry and impress your family..Off to the recipe..

     Ingredients

        For Koftas:

• Boneless Chicken Breast / Chicken mince (kheema) -  200 gm

• Onion, chopped - half of 1 small onion

• Garlic chopped - 4 to 5 no.s

• Any vegetables of your choice - 1/2 cup ( I used carrot,beans and capsicum)

• Chopped green chilly - 1 no.s

• Coriander leaves,chopped - 2 tbsp

• Mint leaves,chopped - 1 tbsp

• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

• Turmeric pdr - a pinch

• Chilli pdr - 1/2 tsp

• Pepper pdr - 1/4 tsp

• Garam masala pdr - 1/4 tsp

• Corn flour - 1 tsp

• Bread crumbs - 2 tbsp

• Salt - adjust accordingly

          For Gravy:

• Cardamon - 2 no.s

• Cloves - 2 to 3 no.s

• Cinnamon stick - 1" size

• Bay leaf - 1 no.

• Large Onions, sliced - 2 no.s

• Large Tomato, sliced - 1 1/2 no.s 

• Garlic, chopped - 4 to 5 no.s

• Ginger,chopped - 1tsp

• Green chillies, chopped - 2 no.s

• Turmeric pdr - 1/4 tsp

• Kashmiri chilli pdr - 2 tsp

• Coriander pdr - 1 tbsp

• Garam masala pdr - 1/4 tsp

• Kasoori methi ( dry fenugreek leaves crushed) - 1/4 tsp ( optional )

• Chicken Stock / normal water - 1 cup

• Coriander leaves - for garnishing

• Milk / Cooking cream - 2 tbsp 

     Method

• Grind chicken breast into grinder/food processor for few seconds for 1 stroke..Don't grind it into fine paste,otherwise koftas won't taste good..Grind coarsely in a shredded chicken consistency i.e kheema ( minced) consistency...If you are using chicken kheema, ignore grinding part...

• Transfer minced chicken in a large bowl..

• In a same grinder, add ingredients from 'onion' till 'cumin seeds' mentioned in "For Kofta' and grind it into coarse paste..

• Transfer grinded ingredients into minced chicken and mix well..

• Add rest of the ingredients from ' Turmeric pdr' till 'salt' mentioned in " For Kofta" and mix thoroughly..

• Shape chicken mince into equal lime size balls and keep aside..

• Deep fry or shallow fry these chicken balls ( koftas) into medium flame till both sides are golden brown..Drain and place these in kitchen paper towel and keep aside..

• In another kadai/ wide pan, add 2 tbsp of previously fried kofta oil, add whole spices mentioned in " For gravy" and let it splutter.

• Add onions sprinkled with salt and saute till pink..

• Add chopped garlic,ginger and green chillies and saute for few seconds..

• Add tomato and saute till mushy..

• Add all the spice powders and saute till raw smell goes away..

• Off the flame and set aside to cool..

• When it cools down, pour this sauted onion mixture into blender and blend it into fine paste..

• Transfer the grinded mixture back into kadai and switch on the flame..

• Add water or chicken stock water and salt and mix it well..

• When it comes one boil, add little milk or cream and sprinkle little kasoori methi..

• Add fried koftas into the gravy, pour the gravy on top of koftas and cook for few seconds..

• Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves and decorate it with cream ( optional)

• Serve warm with chappati, porotta, batoora, poori etc.

      Notes

• Vegetarians can replace it with any of the desired vegetables combined with paneer or soya chunks..They can make it with boiled and minced chickpeas too..

• You can cook the kofta in curry itself, instead of frying or baking..But you have to be careful,there is a tendency to break while stiring the curry and it won't get hard..I wished to fry the koftas and simmer in curry, this method is commonly done...Fried koftas tastes better...

• Instead of chicken mince, you can replace it with beef or mutton...