Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Lahori Chicken Karahi
Chicken flash-cooked in a wok-like karahi with tomatoes, ginger, and black pepper, no onions, no shortcuts.
Pakistani · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 35 min
~540 cal · 59g protein · 10g carbs · 27g fat · 2g fiber · 5g sugars · 12g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Lahori chicken karahi is the bold, tomato-rich star of Punjabi Pakistani cooking, named for the wok-like 'karahi' it's cooked in. The chicken is flash-cooked over high heat with tomatoes, ginger, green chilies, and little else, so the meat and tomato flavors shine unmuddied. It is a dish of directness and intensity.
Unlike slow-simmered curries, karahi is fast and fresh, the tomatoes breaking down into a glossy masala clinging to the chicken, brightened with ginger and a final flourish of crushed spices. Lahore, Pakistan's culinary capital, is famous for its robust, meat-forward take.
Cooked to order in the karahi and often eaten straight from it at the center of the table, it is scooped up with hot naan at Lahori restaurants and celebrations.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2 lbs chicken, bone-in, cut small
6 ripe tomatoes, chopped
4 tbsp
3-inch piece fresh ginger, half minced, half
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 green chilies, slit
1.5 tsp black pepper, coarsely cracked
1 tsp red chili powder (degi or Kashmiri)
1 tbsp coriander seeds, roasted and crushed
1 tsp cumin seeds, roasted and crushed
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 handful cilantro, chopped
4 naan, to serve
Instructions
1
Sear the chicken (or cauliflower and chickpeas) in ghee over high heat until golden, 5 minutes.
2
Add garlic and minced ginger for 1 minute, then all the tomatoes with the salt and red chili powder. Cover and cook 15 minutes until they collapse.
3
Uncover and fry hard, stirring, until the water cooks off and the fat separates around a thick clinging masala, 10-12 minutes.
4
Add the cracked pepper, crushed coriander and cumin, and the slit chilies; toss 2 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
A Lahori karahi has no onion and no yogurt. Tomatoes, ginger, garlic and chili over roaring heat are the whole dish, and it is not finished until the fat separates out around the masala.
5
Crown with julienned ginger and cilantro. Bring the karahi to the table with hot naan, no plates required.
Lahore food-street style.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Lahore (Punjab). Lahore is Pakistan's food capital, famous for rich nihari, charcoal-grilled karahi, and buttery breakfast halwa puri. Punjabi generosity and Mughal heritage make it a city that lives to eat.
🗺️
Pakistan. Partition rewrote Pakistani menus. Muhajir families arriving from northern India after 1947 brought their own biryani, which is why Karachi's version is its own thing, heavier on potato, tomato and sourness than the Sindhi or Lahori styles. The tandoor remains a neighbourhood facility as much as a kitchen fixture, with dough carried to it and bread carried back.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Pakistan
Halwa PuriA festive Lahori breakfast of puffed fried puri, sweet semolina halwa, and spiced chickpeas.
Chapli KababFlat, spiced minced-beef patties studded with tomato and pomegranate, shallow-fried crisp, a Khyber specialty.
KheerA slow-cooked rice pudding perfumed with cardamom and scattered with nuts, the comforting sweet of every occasion.
Browse all Pakistan recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Pakistan meal
Lahori Sweet LassiDrink
KheerDessert
Chapli KababLunch
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Lahori Chicken Karahi?
Chicken flash-cooked in a wok-like karahi with tomatoes, ginger, and black pepper, no onions, no shortcuts.
Where does Lahori Chicken Karahi come from?
Lahori Chicken Karahi is a Pakistani dish from Lahore (Punjab), Pakistan.
Can Lahori Chicken Karahi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Lahori Chicken Karahi recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Lahori Chicken Karahi safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Lahori Chicken Karahi take to make?
About 50 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 35 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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