A P(l)easing Meal…
Keema or minced meat, has always one of my favourites. There’s just something about the way all the spices and flavours get so well entwined with the ground meat that makes the dish a delight in every bite!
Keema Matar (Ground meat with green Peas), is probably one of THE most popular keema dishes in Indian cuisine, second maybe to only kababs. When we were kids, my mom would mostly make keema, substituting potatoes for peas, since my little brother and sister weren’t too fond of peas. Me, on the other hand, LOVE peas! I add peas in almost everything. And so its no surprise that when I cook keema, it definitely has to be with peas!
Keema Matar (Ground Meat with Peas)

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground chicken
1 cup finely chopped onions
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1 cup frozen green peas
2-3 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
5-6 whole green cardamoms
1 cinnamon stick
1-2 dried bay leaves
7-8 whole black peppercorns
7-8 whole cloves
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt, to taste
2 tbsp cooking oil
fresh chopped coriander leaves for garnish
Method:
Brown ground chicken in a non-stick pan and set aside.
In the same pan, add cumin seeds, onions and green chillies, all the whole spices, and fry for 5-6 minutes till onions turn brown.
Add tomatoes and cook till all the juices dry up and a thick paste is formed.
Add salt, chili powder, coriander powder, garam masala, cumin powder, and cook till spices blend in well. Add browned chicken, water and peas, and cover cook for about 10 minutes.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with parathas!

November 30th, 2005 16:59
This looks great! Off-topic, your site’s looking good to Firefox users again. Thanks!
December 1st, 2005 06:19
lovely! i’ve taste lamb kheema before and loved it. now i’m gonna try making with chicken. thanks
December 1st, 2005 12:07
meena the kheema looks so good..:):)will try this recipe.
December 1st, 2005 12:23
AK: Thanks for dropping by AK! I kind of figured out what the problem was for Firefox and fixed it. Thank God it okay now! :o)
Rokh: Hi Rokh! love lamb keema too, and have started to use chicken just recently. Its pretty good and the best part is that it’s lean :o)
Sailu: Thanks a lot Sailu! Hope you like it, lemme know how it goes!!
- Meena
December 2nd, 2005 12:28
Terrific results meena! We love all that is infused with green peas, and kheema is our kids favorite too. Cant wait to try this out at My Dhaba. Will definitely feature this recipe once cooked by us. Cheers!
December 2nd, 2005 13:55
VK: Thanks VK! Hope you like it, lemme know how it goes!
October 28th, 2006 18:31
Meena, so delicious and actually quite easy to make. I doubled the recipe for my family and they all enjoyed it very much.
We served it with plain bismati rice (my own method), toor dal rasam (mahanandi’s blog), scallion-ginger raita (my own concoction) and banana pepper and baby red potato curry (mahanandi blog). Quite a feast and it took me 5 hours to make (I’m a very slow cooker, I enjoy it though) but it was excellent! Thanks for your blog and recipes, cheers! -Scott