Illaichi Chicken Keema (Cardamom Minced Chicken)
Minced chicken cooked dry with onions, tomatoes, green chilies and a generous dose of green cardamom, finished with peas and fresh herbs. Quick, fragrant and great stuffed into rolls or parathas.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Cook the onions
Heat the oil with the bay leaf in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until golden. Stir in the ginger-garlic paste and chilies and cook for 1 more minute until fragrant.
- 3 tbsp oil or
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 onions
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 2 green chilies
✅ Done when: onions are golden and the ginger-garlic smells fragrant, not raw
Brown the minced chicken
Add the chicken to the pan and raise the heat to high. Cook for 6-7 minutes, breaking it up with a spoon, until no pink remains and it starts to brown.
- 600g minced chicken
✅ Done when: no longer pink and internal temperature reaches 74 degC / 165 degF
Add tomatoes and spices
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Finish
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Cook the onions
Heat the oil with the bay leaf in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until golden. Stir in the ginger-garlic paste and chilies and cook for 1 more minute until fragrant.
- 3 tbsp oil or
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 onions
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 2 green chilies
✅ Done when: onions are golden and the ginger-garlic smells fragrant, not raw
Brown the minced chicken
Add the chicken to the pan and raise the heat to high. Cook for 6-7 minutes, breaking it up with a spoon, until no pink remains and it starts to brown.
- 600g minced chicken
✅ Done when: no longer pink and internal temperature reaches 74 degC / 165 degF
Add tomatoes and spices
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Finish
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The Story Behind the Dish
Keema — minced meat — is a staple of Mughlai, Hyderabadi and Parsi cooking, eaten with bread, stuffed into samosas and parathas, or cooked with peas as keema matar.
Cardamom-scented keema, 'illaichi keema', is a particularly fragrant version that works beautifully with lighter chicken mince.
⭐ Why It's Famous
Quick, versatile and full of flavour, keema is the weeknight hero of Indian meat cooking.
💡 Fun Fact
Green cardamom is the world's third most expensive spice by weight, after saffron and vanilla.
Hyderabad & Lucknow
17.39°N, 78.49°E
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