Boneless Chicken Achari Recipe

Chicken achari is a flavorful, sharp-flavored main dish that will brighten up your dinner table. The recipe takes less than 40 minutes to prepare, making it ideal for a weekday meal or entertaining unexpected guests.

Rather than making chicken achari at home, we always got it from a restaurant. But when I saw a recipe for it in the Salt N’Pepper Village Cookbook, I knew I had to try my hand at it. For Pakistan Eats, I altered the recipe to use boneless chicken and made a few tweaks to achieve the consistency and sharpness I desired.

The achari masala is what sets this chicken unique. Other types of protein or vegetables, such as goat meat (achari gosht) or potatoes, can be used as a base for this masala (achari aloo). While there are many various variants of achari masala, I’ve noticed that the unifying elements, at least in Pakistani recipes, are fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds, and fennel seeds. These give a lovely aromatic basis on which you may build a truly magnificent dish.

Chicken Achari Ingredients

• Neutral oil: You can use any variety of neutral oil. I normally use vegetable oil but canola or sunflower oil works as well. If you feel you want to add even more of a traditional pickling flavor, you can swap it out with mustard oil.
• Whole spices (Fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds and fennel seeds): These are the three essential whole spices you need to make an achari or pickling masala. They are highly aromatic, and need to be used in very small quantities. Some families will also add mustard seeds and cumin seeds at this stage.
• Yellow onions: You need these to create a moist sweet base for your chicken. White onions will work as well. Red onions tend to release less water so they are not ideal but can still work in a pinch.
• Crushed ginger and garlic: You can buy them at the store or just crush them yourself using a food processor or mortar and pestle.
• Ground spices (red chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and cumin powder): These spices will build on the aromatic achari base, and give the dish the sharp flavors it’s known for. For red chili powder, I will recommend the Kashmiri variety because of its vivid red color.
• Salt: Any regular variety will do. I used ground Himalayan sea salt for this recipe. If you are using table salt, use it with a bit more restraint.
• Roma tomatoes: Most recipes in this blog use roma tomatoes. If you are substituting a meatier variety, you can reduce the amount since they release more water.
• Boneless chicken: For this recipe, I used boneless chicken thighs but breast will work just as well. If you are a traditionalist, you can swap it out with chicken with bone. You will however, have to add more water and increase the cooking time to make sure it cooks through.
• Yogurt: This adds a lovely creamy finish to the dish. I strongly suggest using full-fat yogurt. Make sure to lightly whisk it with a yogurt before adding it in.

How to Make It?

• Frying the whole spices: After heating the oil for 30 seconds to 1 minute, add the whole spices, and fry for 30 seconds or until aromatic.
• Frying the onions: Toss in the sliced onions, and fry on medium-heat until evenly brown.
• Adding crushed ginger and garlic + ground spices: Once the onions are evenly browned, lower heat and add crushed ginger and garlic. Fry until aromatic, and immediately follow with the ground spices. Fry for 30 seconds or less.
• Frying tomatoes: Increase heat to high, and add tomato puree. Fry on high heat until the oil begins to separate.
• Cooking the chicken: Add the diced chicken, and sear on high heat until no longer pink. Add ¼ cup of water, bring to simmer and partially cover for about 10 minutes.
• Finishing it with yogurt: Once the chicken is tenderized, lower heat, and stir in whipped yogurt.

Before serving, you can fold in the chopped pickle if using, and garnish with diced chilies and cilantro. I personally love to pair this with naan or roti but you can serve it with rice as well.

Ingredients