Chicken recipes

Chicken is the everyday protein of Pakistani home cooking — quick enough for a weeknight, forgiving enough for a beginner, and adaptable to whatever masala is in the pantry. The defining technique is the karahi method: chicken cooked directly in its own fat and reduced tomatoes in a wide, curved pan, rather than simmered in a thin gravy. Pakistani Chicken Karahi is the clearest example — bone-in chicken, ginger, green chilli and freshly crushed coriander and black pepper, cooked hot and fast until the oil separates from the masala. The same base technique scales up into biryani and pulao, where chicken is layered with basmati rice instead of served on its own. Across regions the seasoning shifts: Punjab favours a tomato-heavy karahi, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cooking leans on charcoal and direct spice rather than a built sauce. Whether it's a Sunday karahi shared straight from the pan or a fast pulao on a weeknight, chicken recipes are where most home cooks start.