Chicken Keema Matar or Ground Chicken Curry with Peas made in Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker. Keema is a popular street food in Mumbai served with pav (similar to dinner rolls, but not sweet). Keema is also a popular dish in North Indian cuisine.
What is Keema?
Keema is basically minced meat (chicken or lamb) cooked with onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, and wonderful whole spices. Oh…the amazing aroma while the keema is being prepared definitely makes me very impatient. When preparing keema matar for this recipe post, I had a hard time waiting to take pictures. The aroma of the keema matar made me so hungry!
Keema is traditionally made with ground mutton (goat meat), but really, you can make it with any meat – turkey, chicken, beef, or lamb. I used chicken this time, but it is great to switch different meats.
The best way to eat keema is with naan or with dinner rolls. You can also serve it as a side with rice. How about some pasta with keema in it….oh, that will be amazing with all the earthy spices! Other ways I like to use keema is in keema pulao and puff pastry as an appetizer.
How to make Keema Matar in a Pressure Cooker?
A picture is worth a thousand words….with that analogy, is a video is worth a million words??
Below is also a quick video of how to make keema matar. I made it in the instant pot, but you can make it in a traditional or electric pressure cooker. You can also make it in a pan on the stovetop. Just allow some extra time to cook the ground meat.
Tips for Making Amazing Keema
- Don’t skimp on ghee, or rather, use ghee in this recipe for the authentic flavor. Make ghee at home using this instant pot recipe.
- Use Kashmiri red chili powder, which gives an awesome color to the curry while not being too spicy. I used 1 tsp, as my daughter was going to eat this. Go with 2 tsp if you enjoy spicy Indian food.
- Add one additional green chili (I use birdseye or Thai chili pepper) for a spicier curry.
Enjoy it with dinner rolls or naan.
If you like this recipe, you will like the below chicken recipes too:
Instant Pot Keema Matar Recipe (Ground Chicken Curry)
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Chicken
- 2 tablespoon Ghee or Oil
- 1 tablespoon Garlic , paste
- 1 tablespoon Ginger, paste
- 1 Green Chili Pepper , diced
- 1 Onion, large, diced
- 2 Tomato, medium, diced
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1/2 cup Green peas
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- Mint leaves (Pudhina), (optional)
- Cilantro , to garnish
Spices
- 2 teaspoon Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
- 1 teaspoon Cayenne or Red Chili powder , (use kashmiri chili powder to get the deep red color)
- 1 teaspoon Garam Masala
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin (Jeera powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Turmeric (Haldi powder)
- 1 teaspoon Salt , adjust to taste
Whole Spices
- 1 stick Cinnamon (Dalchini), about 2 inch
- 1/2 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
- 1 teaspoon Black Peppercorns, (optional)
- 1 Bay leaf (Tej Patta)
Instructions
- Start the pressure cooker in SAUTE mode and heat ghee in it. Add all the whole spices and saute them for 30 seconds.
- Add onions, ginger, garlic, green chilies and saute for 3 minutes until the raw smell is gone and the onions start to turn golden brown.
- Add tomatoes and spices. Saute for 2 minutes.
- Add ground chicken and water. Mix chicken well with the other ingredients. This is important, so the chicken does not form lumps. Also make sure to scrape anything stuck at the bottom of the pot.
- Press Cancel and close the lid with vent in sealing position.
- Cook on MANUAL or pressure cook mode at high pressure for 5 minutes.
- When the instant pot beeps, do a 10 minute NPR, which means release the pressure manually 10 minutes after the beep.
- Add the green peas, lemon juice, mint and cilantro leaves and mix well. If any lumps are formed, mash them with the spatula. Cook for a minute on SAUTE mode, so the peas are cooked through.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with naan or dinner rolls (toast them with a little butter).
Video
Notes
- Adjust spice to your taste. To make this spicier, add more green chilies and red chili powder.
- Skip the black peppercorns if you don’t like crunching into them while having a curry.
- You can use minced meat or ground meat for this recipe.
- If making this with lamb or mutton, increase the pressure cooking time to 8 minutes.
- Stovetop variation: Follow the same steps, allow extra 10 minutes for the chicken to cook in the pan.
- Using keema for puff pastry or sandwiches: After cooking, change to saute mode and dry the moisture in the keema.
My mum would be proud! I was missing whole zeera, used dried mint and used chicken broth instead of water. I only had a pound of frozen ground chicken on hand so thawed it for 10 minutes via high pressure before adding to this recipe. Since it was already pretty cooked I only did 1 minute on high pressure and skipped natural release once mixed in with the onions/tomatoes/spices. It ended up so good!!!
Hi Ina – So glad you enjoyed the keema matar. Thanks for sharing how you used frozen keema for this recipe.
Excellent recipe! I tried American ground chicken for the first time. Used to the Indian kheema. But your recipe made it great! The touch of lemon at the end was just what it needed. Thankyou!!
Hi Nishi – So good to hear. 🙂
Can I make this recipe with ground beef?
Hi Priya – Sure, you can make this recipe with ground beef too. Hope you enjoy it!
Hello! If I double the recipe to include 2 pounds of chicken instead, does that affect cooking time? Thank you!
Hi Allison – The cooking time will remain the same even if you double the quantity. Hope you enjoy the Keema.
Hi, if I want to add potatoes. Should I adjust the cooking time? Thanks
Hi Tania – The same cooking time will work even if you add potatoes. Add the potatoes in a bit larger pieces about 1.5 inches in size, so they don’t overcook. Hope you enjoy the curry!
Anyone make this with beyond meat?
Hi Jyothi – I have not tried with beyond meat, but have tried to make keema with soy crumbles before and it works well. Would love to hear if you try it!
Excellent recipe! Thank you so much for it. I loved the ‘dhaba’ style of it. The lemon juice at the end was the perfect twist.
I added twice the quantity of water and hence increased the quantity of dhaniya powder, garam masala powder and jeera powder by 50% of the recipe quantity. I also had to increase the pressure cooking time to 7 minutes instead of 5 because I like the kheema softer. The natural release after 10 minutes was perfect! This will be a regular feature on the menu.
Hi Nishi – So happy to hear that. Thank you for sharing back 🙂