Learn how to make authentic Keema Pav, Mumbai's famous street food! Spiced minced/ground chicken with buttery pav, ready in 30 minutes, and better than street vendors! An enticing combination of ground meat, masala of onion and tomato, and warm spices. Whether you're craving Indian street food, need a quick weeknight dinner, or want to impress guests with authentic Mumbai flavors, this recipe delivers every single time.
Ground chicken has found a permanent place in my weekly grocery list. It's a versatile, inexpensive meat that I use to make this Keema pav, my masala chicken burgers, chicken tacos, and more.
This chicken keema pav has become a staple because it is easy to make and great for packing leftovers for lunch the next day. You can think of it as the Indian counterpart of a Sloppy Joe and a meaty cousin of the humble Vada Pav. Little V is a huge fan, and I love it because if you have this keema in the fridge, you can add it to a rice bowl, to quinoa, or on toast and make anything a high-protein meal.
🔎Keema Recipe at a Glance
- ⏱️ Total Time: 30 minutes (10 min prep + 20 min cook)
- 👨🍳 Skill Level: Easy
- 🍽️ Yield: 6 people
- 🌶️ Cuisine: Indian, Indian Street Food, Mumbai Street Food
- 🍗 Protein: Ground meat (I'm using chicken)
- 🔥 Spice Level: Medium (adjustable)
SUMMARIZE & SAVE THIS CONTENT ON
Jump to:
🫓What is Keema Pav?
Keema (or qeema) is a term used for any ground or minced meat dish that is popular all over meat-eating regions of India. Keema Pav is prepared keema served with Pav, a soft dinner roll, and is very popular on the streets of Mumbai, having spread across the country.
What makes Keema Pav special
- Easy to find minced chicken (or use ground lamb, goat, or turkey)
- Cooked with aromatic Indian spices and a flavorful masala
- Served with Pav, a soft Indian dinner roll, toasted with butter until golden
The magic really happens when you scoop the warmly spiced, aromatic keema with the buttery pav - each bite is an explosion of flavors and textures!
✨Why you'll love this recipe?
- Quick & Easy - Ready in just 30 minutes, perfect for weeknights
- One-Pan Wonder - With minimal cleanup required
- Budget-Friendly - Affordable ingredients, feeds a crowd
- Versatile Protein - Use lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, or even plant-based meat
- Meal Prep Friendly - And tastes even better the next day
- Make-Ahead Friendly - Prep ahead for parties or meal prep
📋Recipe Ingredients
- Ground Chicken: It is easily available at most grocery stores in the US. If you cannot find minced/ground chicken, you can also mince chicken thighs in a food processor. Just pulse the thighs until they resemble a fine mince.
- Oil: Traditionally, mustard oil is used to make keema, but I have used avocado oil in this recipe. Ghee can also be used.
- Onions: I have used red onions, which are traditional for making masala for most Indian curries. Feel free to use white or yellow onion if that is what is available. I promise it won't break the recipe.
- Tomatoes: I have used both tomato paste and pureed tomatoes. Tomato paste adds the intense tomato flavor that gives the masala a kick start.
- Aromatics: You will need whole spices like bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, and green cardamom, along with ginger, garlic, and green chili paste.
- Spices: Warm spices such as cumin, coriander, garam masala, turmeric, and red chili bring out the traditional Keema flavor.
- For the Pav: Pavs need to be toasted with butter. Non-negotiable.
Don't forget to check out the recipe card below for a complete list of ingredients along with the quantities.
📖Substitutions, Additions and Variations
- Meat choice: Lamb or goat is traditional, but turkey or beef should work as well. For lamb and goat, add the yogurt to the masala; for leaner meats, add 1 tablespoon of extra ghee or oil.
- Pav: Use homemade or store-bought Indian Pav if available, or substitute with soft dinner rolls, or slider buns.
- Spice level: I used Serrano peppers in the ginger, garlic, and green chili paste, which are fairly hot. You can skip it or use Jalapeño for a milder level of heat. Adjust red chili powder or swap it with cayenne or paprika powder.
👩🍳Steps to make this recipe
Step 1: Set a wide, heavy-bottomed sauté pan (using my Le Creuset braiser here) or a nonstick pan (my favorite nonstick pan) over medium-high heat. While the pan is heating up, chop your onions. In the hot pan, add the oil and whole spices, and let them toast for 30 seconds. Pound the cumin and fennel seeds lightly in a mortar and pestle (optional) and add them to the pan. Wait for them to crackle slightly.
Step 2: Add the chopped onions along with a pinch of salt. Adding salt to the onions draws out their moisture, which helps them cook faster. Cook the onions over medium to low heat, stirring often, for about 5-6 minutes, until they begin to look translucent. Next, add the ginger, garlic, and green chili paste.
Step 3: Mix everything together and cook for another minute or so, or until the raw smell of the ginger-garlic paste is gone. Add the tomato paste and mix.
Step 4: Mix turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder, and garam masala with a tablespoon of water, then add this slurry to the onion masala in the pan.
Step 5: Cook over low heat for a few minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking. Add the pureed tomatoes and mix.
Step 6: Cook the masala on medium-low heat for 5-6 minutes, stirring often.
Step 7: Continue cooking the masala until all the moisture has evaporated and tiny droplets of oil appear along the edges. If at any point the masala starts sticking to the pan, splash in a few drops of water, scrape off the bits that have stuck, and continue cooking until the masala comes together. This will take 2-3 minutes. The mixture should look darker, slightly oily, and paste-like. This is your masala base - the foundation of flavor!
Step 8: Add the ground chicken to the pot and turn the heat to low. Season with salt, stir continuously, and break up the chicken into very fine crumbs as you mix it into the gravy.
Step 9: Add ¼ cup of water and cover the pan with a lid. Turn the heat to low and cook the chicken for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Step 10: After 10 minutes, remove the lid, fish out the bay leaves (and whole spices if you wish), taste the keema, and adjust the seasonings if needed. Finish with cilantro and a pat of butter. Serve keema hot with buttered pav and a lemon wedge.
💡Vaishali's Tips!
- Cooking the masala: Brown the onion well - this is non-negotiable for authentic flavor. Cook the tomatoes until the oil separates, creating a rich masala base. This is called Bhoono. If you have been reading the blog for sometime, you know I'm a big fan of bhoonoing.
- Break up meat thoroughly: no large chunks.
- Spice level: For a mild level, use ½ a serrano chili pepper in the ginger-garlic paste and ¼ teaspoon of red chili powder. Use jalapeno pepper for milder spice and thai chili pepper to increase the spice level.
- Pav or dinner rolls: Use soft, fresh pav or dinner rolls. Don't skip the butter when toasting the pavs; toast over medium heat to achieve a crisp texture and avoid burning.
🍽️Serving Suggestions
- Classic Mumbai Street Food Style: Serve hot keema with buttered toasted pav, sliced onions, lemon wedges, and extra green chilies on the side. Eat with your hands, scooping keema with pieces of pav!
- Sloppy Joe Style: Pile hot keema on buttered, toasted pav and eat like a sandwich.
- Sides and Accompaniments: Kachumber salad, pickled onions, mint cilantro chutney, tamarind chutney, crispy papad, sliced cucumbers, and lemon wedges are all great options to serve alongside Keema Pav.
🫙Storage, freezing, and reheating instructions
- Refrigerator: Store any meal prepped or leftover keema in an airtight container for 3-4 days. Flavor actually improves overnight!
- Freezer: I love souper cubes for freezing keema in 1-cup portion sizes. You could transfer these portioned pieces into freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months.
- Reheating Tips:
- Stovetop (recommended): Heat in a pan over medium heat with 1-2 tablespoons of water, stirring occasionally (5 minutes).
- Microwave: Heat in microwave-safe glass container, covered, stirring every minute (2-3 minutes), until heated through.
- From frozen: Thaw overnight in fridge, then reheat.
❓FAQ
Pav are soft, slightly sweet Indian dinner rolls similar to slider buns. You can make them at home using my Pav Recipe, find them at Indian grocery stores, or substitute with soft dinner rolls, Hawaiian rolls, or slider buns.
Classic accompaniments include liced onions, lemon wedges, green chilies, kachumber salad (cucumber-tomato salad), raita (yogurt sauce), pickled onions, papad (crispy lentil wafers), or mint-cilantro chutney.
Absolutely! Keema actually tastes better the next day as flavors develop. Make keema 2-3 days ahead, store refrigerated, and reheat before serving. Toast pav fresh for the best texture. This makes keema pav perfect for meal prep or entertaining.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
If you make this recipe be sure to leave a comment and let me know how you liked it! Share it on Instagram with the hashtag #thekitchendocs or share on Facebook, too.
Love – Vaishali
Keema Pav Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
For Keema
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 2 tablespoon avocado oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 green cardamoms
- 2 cloves
- 1 inch piece of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 2 cups finely chopped red onion
- 1 tablespoon ginger garlic green chili paste
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder or cayenne powder
- 2 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ½ cup pureed tomatoes from about 1 big tomato
- Salt – to taste
- 8-10 sprigs cilantro chopped
To serve
- 6 Pavs (Indian style dinner rolls)
- Butter to toast
- Lemon wedges
- Sliced red onion optional
Instructions
To make keema
- Set a wide, heavy-bottomed sauté pan (using my Le Creuset braiser here) or a nonstick pan (my favorite nonstick pan) over medium-high heat. While the pan is heating up, chop your onions. In the hot pan, add the 2 tablespoon avocado oil along with 2 bay leaves, 2 green cardamoms, 2 cloves, and 1 inch piece of cinnamon, and let them toast for 30 seconds. Next, add the 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, and let them crackle.
- Add the 2 cups finely chopped red onion along with a pinch of salt. Adding salt to the onions draws out their moisture, which helps them cook faster. Cook the onions over medium to low heat, stirring often, for about 5-6 minutes, until they begin to look translucent. Next, add the 1 tablespoon ginger garlic green chili paste.
- Mix everything together and cook for another minute or so, or until the raw smell of the ginger-garlic paste is gone. Add the 2 tablespoon tomato paste and mix.
- Mix ½ teaspoon ground turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon red chili powder, 2 teaspoon coriander powder, and 1 teaspoon garam masala with a tablespoon of water, then add this slurry to the onion masala in the pan.
- Cook over low heat for a few minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking. Add the ½ cup pureed tomatoes and mix.
- Cook the masala on medium-low heat for 5-6 minutes, stirring often.
- Continue cooking the masala until all the moisture has evaporated and tiny droplets of oil appear along the edges. If at any point the masala starts sticking to the pan, splash in a few drops of water, scrape off the bits that have stuck, and continue cooking until the masala comes together. This will take 2-3 minutes.
- Add 1 lb ground chicken to the pot and turn the heat to low. Season with Salt – to taste, stir continuously, and break up the chicken into very fine crumbs as you mix it into the gravy.
- Add ¼ cup of water and cover the pan with a lid. Turn the heat to low and cook the chicken for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- After 10 minutes, remove the lid, taste the keema, and adjust the seasonings if needed. Finish with 8-10 sprigs cilantro (chopped) a pat of Butter.
To serve keema pav
- Toast the 6 Pavs (Indian style dinner rolls) with Butter. Serve with hot keema, Lemon wedges and Sliced red onion on the side.
Video
Notes
- Cooking the masala: Brown the onion well - this is non-negotiable for authentic flavor. Cook the tomatoes until the oil separates, creating a rich masala base. This is called Bhoono. If you have been reading the blog for sometime, you know I'm a big fan of bhoonoing.
- Break up meat thoroughly: no large chunks.
- Spice level: For a mild level, use ½ a serrano chili pepper in the ginger-garlic paste and ¼ teaspoon of red chili powder. Use jalapeno pepper for milder spice and thai chili pepper to increase the spice level.
- Pav or dinner rolls: Use soft, fresh pav or dinner rolls. Don't skip the butter when toasting the pavs; toast over medium heat to achieve a crisp texture and avoid burning.
- Meat choice: Lamb or goat is traditional, but turkey or beef should work as well. For lamb and goat, add the yogurt to the masala; for leaner meats, add 1 tablespoon of extra ghee or oil.
Nicholas Donohoue says
Had these in one of your cooking classes and thoroughly enjoyed these! Can't wait to add this to my rotation of dishes.
Vaishali says
Thank you so much, Nicholas. I'm so glad you enjoyed the Keema Pav