This Pakistani and Indian-style Keema Matar (ground beef and Peas Curry) is an easy, one-pot keema recipe that’s deeply flavorful and not using a entire spices used. This recipe also consists of tips on how to make Keema curry with ground chicken.
Growing up, we ate keema almost weekly, with Keema Aloo (Ground beef with potatoes) gracing the table a bit more frequently. Keema didn’t quite cause the anticipation of biryani, but it fell into the welcome dinner category. There’s this inexplicable comfort that comes from a bite of keema. I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation for it.
You can also try my recipe of Keema Karelay I’m sure you’ll love the recipe.
Ground Beef Vs Ground Chicken
Pakistani keema recipes usually use ground beef, but I often make this with chicken keema. Here are the minor differences you’ll notice if you use chicken instead of ground beef:
- This is an obvious one – beef takes longer to cook. I sauté both chicken and beef for the same amount of time. When I cover and cook, my chicken usually takes 10 minutes while my beef takes about 15 minutes to cook.
- I grew up seeing meat being rinsed and I do sometimes give a quick rinse to ground beef. However, I don’t ever rinse ground chicken. Somehow it seems if I rinse it, I’ll completely rid the chicken of any flavor or fat.
- When making it with chicken, I increase the freshly ground black pepper at the end by half a teaspoon. I also add the spices at the end in this recipe because it works really well with chicken, giving it a welcome pungency.
This recipe is similar to my Keema Aloo (Ground beef & Potato) Curry recipe, but it has a few advantages over it:
1 – It doesn’t include any whole spices, so your toddler’s biting into a black peppercorn won’t result in a theatrical dinner-time tantrum (or is that just mine?).
2 – It comes together even quicker because you don’t have to wait for the potatoes to cook.
3 – It’s incredibly versatile. Use it in buns for a burger, bread for a sandwich, as topping for pizza, sauce for pasta, filling for samosas or puff pastry, and pretty much anywhere you’d use ground meat.
4 – It freezes well. Just warm it up on the stovetop with a splash of water.
Helpful Tips
- If using fresh peas instead of frozen, add them at Step 4, before covering to cook the meat.
- You may also add potatoes to this recipe (this is quite common, actually). If using potatoes, add them in with the tomatoes, green chili, and yogurt. (For more potato recipes, check out my collection of Pakistani and Indian Aloo (Potato) Recipes.)
- If you use a food processor to chop the tomatoes like I do, it’ll most likely break them down and release enough water to cook the keema. If you’re using Roma tomatoes or other tomatoes with less water quantity, you may have to add a bit extra water before or during the meat cooking process.
- Sometimes I use a mild, chopped green chili pepper at the end of cooking to add a bit of fierce but tolerable heat at the end. If you don’t have a mild chili pepper, only add it in the beginning as the recipe calls for.
How to Serve Keema Matar
sometimes we love to serve it with a few crunchy vegetables like crimson onions or cucumber, however it’s so flavorful that it doesn’t actually need an awful lot enhancement. In phrases of pairing, Keema Matar pairs properly with just about something:
- Naan
- Roti or Paratha (mmm!)
- Basmati Rice
- Good old’ sandwich bread
