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.
Table of Contents
Watch How to Make Instant Pot Keema
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.
Made this tonight it was amazing. Will be a firm family favourite now.
Tx for sharing
Hi Kelly – So happy to hear that. Thank you for sharing it 🙂
I LOVE this recipe! Do not skip the whole black peppercorns! They add a wonderful twist into the flavor. I followed the recipe to a T and got 170 grams per 1 out of 4 servings. Here are the macros per serving: 271 calories. 14 grams of carbs, 15 Grams of fat, and 26 grams of protein. I measure the finished product of this recipe in grams, and divide the total grams by 4. You could get away with 2/3 a cup per serving if you don’t have a scale to weigh grams.
I made this tonight and it was a hit with the adults and the kiddo. Thank you for this amazing and easy recipe!
delicious and tasty one of your keema matar recipe. thanks meeta for efforts you shared with us.
Hi this looks lovely! I intend to try and make it. I would like to add potatoes to it too. Would you recommend putting them in just before pressure cooking, or add in preboiled potatoes after and then sautéing?
Hi Yasmin – You can add large size pieces of potato before pressure cooking. I think they would cook well in 5 mins under pressure. Hope you enjoy the Keema!
Thanks for the response Meeta. I think I cut the potato pieces too small. They turned too mush. Was still very tasty though! I’ll try it again sometime with much larger pieces next time.
Hi. Great recipe! If I were to make this with minced lamb or goat, would the pressure cooking time vary significantly?
Hey Shyam – I would suggest pressure cooking for 8 minutes for minced lamb or goat. Hope you enjoy it!
This is so delicious and healthy. I make it regularly. Thank you!
Hey Robin – Glad to hear you enjoy the Keema. Thank you for sharing back your review!
Stumbled on this by accident. WOW, I would order this at a restaurant! Delicious, thank you so much!
Hey Mich – Glad you enjoyed the Keema Matar, and found the blog 🙂 Thank you for sharing your review!
Hello! I would like to feed this to my 8 month old. So, I will omit the salt (as I hear salt is not good for babies) and green chili (as I don’t know if he could handle the spice). Do you think the amount of chili powder mentioned will be mild enough for a baby? Thank you!!
Hey Kimberly – I would reduce the chili powder and Garam Masala for the baby, or you could skip them completely. Add them later to the portion the adults would be eating. It is okay to add them after pressure cooking. Hope that helps!
Very tasty! Thank you for sharing. If I want to double the recipe, do I need to change the cooking time or the NPR time?
Hi Swathi – Thank you. The cooking time will remain the same even if you double the quantity.
Great recipe, and ghee rather than oil makes it better. On a side note, it appears that the diced green chili pepper listed in the ingredients was omitted from the directions. I tossed it in with the tomatoes and everything worked out great. Thank you!
Thank you, Mark for your review and pointing out the miss. I have updated it. Glad it worked out 🙂
I would like to make this with ground turkey. Do you have any recommendations on how long I should pressure cook? Thank you.
Hi Oka – I think the same cooking time will work well for ground turkey in this recipe. I would love to hear how it turns out!