Here's a simple and easy Achari Chicken recipe you can make at home without needing to nip out for fancy ingredients. All you need are the standard ingredient you will likely have anyway if you cook curry at home often - plus a couple of spices you may or may not use too often to create a beautifully aromatic and flavoursome achari spice mix which can be used for ANY achari dish!
Achari Chicken is a tangy chicken curry made using a special blend of spices to give it a flavour profile characteristic of the pickles eaten across the Pakistani and Indian regions. It's the same blend used in my Achari Aloo recipe and you can use this to spice anything, from meat to vegetables to even lentils!
Please scroll past the instructions for tips and information about substitutions and variations.
How to make Achari Chicken
My recipe starts of with making the special achari spice mixture. Either in a grinder or a pestle and mortar, grind the following spices: nigella seeds (kalonji), fennel seeds (saunf), cumin seeds (zeera) and black mustard seeds (rai). The exact ratio is in the recipe card below.
In a bowl, mix together yogurt with the spice mixture we just made alongside salt, coriander powder, turmeric, green chilli paste, ginger paste and garlic paste. Allow this to sit in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours and a maximum of 24 hours, to allow the flavours to penetrate deep into the chicken.
When you're ready to start cooking, heat up some oil in a deep pot or pan. Add in diced onions and sauté this over a medium to high heat, until the onions turn dark brown.
Add in the marinated chicken mixture. Sauté this on a high heat, until the chicken is no longer pink and until the mixture all looks quite dry.
Add in tomato concentrate and ½ cup of water. You may also use tomatoes instead of tomato concentrate - you'll only need to add about ⅛ cup of water in this case (but keep an eye out and add more water if it looks extra dry!)
Cover and cook everything on low for 25 minutes.
As the chicken is cooking, you can prepare the green chillies. This step is optional but it really elevates any Achari dish - many authentic recipes will have these stuffed chillies in them.
Mix together lemon juice and chaat masala. If you don't have chaat masala, you can alternately make some more of the achari spice mix we made earlier and use that here. Set this mixture aside.
Take some juicy, fat green chillies and use a knife to pierce a slit lengthwise down one side of the chilli. Using your fingers, apply pressure to the top and bottom of the chilli - this should open up the slit without damaging the chilli. Spoon in 2-3 teaspoon of the lemon juice mixture into the slit, then release and set aside.
Once the chicken cook time is up, take the lid off and add in the green chillies. Cover again and continue to cook everything for 5 additional minutes on a low heat.
Your Achari Chicken is ready! Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot.
Extra tips and substitutions
- You can make this using boneless chicken too - use the same weight as stated in the recipe
- Similarly, you can also make this using minced/ground meat too. Again, same weight as stated in the recipe
- If you would like to cook this using beef or lamb (this is called Achar Gosht), add an additional 1-1.5 cup of water when called for in the recipe and cook the curry for an additional 1-1.5 hours)
- You can create a larger batch of the Achari spice mix and use it to spice a variety of vegetable dishes, such as Bhindi, Aloo Gobi, Aloo Baingan. Just cook these dishes how you usually would, and just spice them using the Achari spice mix
- Achari Chicken tastes great the next day, as the flavours get a chance to deepen and develop!
- The green chilli element of this dish is optional. If you don't like them, you are free to omit them. Also, you don't need to stuff the green chillies with chaat masala and lemon juice. You can just add in the green chillies as they are into the curry and that will taste great too!
- A fine dice for the onions is best, otherwise you may find large bits of onion in the curry and this doesn't suit this dish well. If you want, you can puree the onions before using them in the curry but you will need to allow time for all the water to evaporate before the onions will brown.
- Similarly, if you use fresh tomatoes in this recipe, please dice them finely or blend them into a puree. I personally prefer tomato puree concentrate in this recipe because of the beautiful red hue it gives the curry.
- You can easily reduce the oil in this recipe if you so prefer - instead of the ½ cup stated in the recipe, ⅓ cup will work too.
- Achari Chicken is best served with a flatbread sort of accompaniment - think roti, naan, parathas!
If you like Achari Chicken, you may also like...
Achari Aloo | Chicken Jalfrezi | Chilli Paneer | Timatar Aloo | Khatte Aloo
Achari Chicken
An easy, tangy, pickle flavoured chicken curry made using a special achar spice mix you can make at home yourself!
Ingredients
- ½ cup oil
- 2 medium onions, diced finely
- 2 tablespoon tomato concentrate OR two medium tomatoes, finely diced
- 8 bullet chillies
- juice from half a lemon
- 3 teaspoon chaat masala
- fresh coriander, for garnishing
Chicken marination
- 1 teaspoon nigella seeds (kalonji)
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (saunf)
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (zeera)
- 1.5 teaspoon black mustard seeds (rai)
- 1 chicken (about 800g), bone in, skinless, curry cut
- ½ cup/120g full fat yogurt
- 2 teaspoon coriander powder
- 6 green chillies (Thai bird eye or finger chilli - the slim variety of chillies), ground into a paste (about 1 tsp)
- 6 garlic cloves, ground into a paste/2 teaspoon garlic paste
- 1 teaspoon ginger paste
- 1.5 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 0.5 teaspoon turmeric
Instructions
- Grind the nigella seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds and mustard seeds in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder until fine
- Prepare the marination: mix together all the marination ingredients and set aside for at least 4 hours and a maximum of 24 hours
- When ready to start cooking, add the oil into a deep pan or pot. Once heated, add in the diced onions and sauté them over a medium to high heat until the onions become brown
- Add in the marinated chicken. Sauté this until the chicken no longer remains pink and any water released from the yogurt concentrates. It'll look pretty dry when this step is completed. Keep stirring over a medium to high heat to ensure it doesn't burn
- Add the tomato concentrate/tomatoes. If using tomato concentrate, also add ½ cup/125mls water too. Cover and simmer everything over a low heat for 25 minutes
- As the chicken is cooking, prepare the green chillies. Mix the lemon juice and chaat masala, then set aside. Use a knife to create a slit down the centre of the chilli, then apply pressure to the top and bottom to open up the slit. Insert 2-3 teaspoon of the lemon and chaat masala mixture into the chillies, then set aside
- Once the cook time for the chicken is up, uncover and add in the chillies. Allow the chillies to cook alongside everything for 5 minutes
- Your Achari Chicken is ready! Garnish with fresh coriander before serving
Ayman Ahmed
Great recipe 👍🏻 Fatima
Fatima
Thank you!
MUBASHIR
Once again thank u ...
Fatima
It's an honour!