I bet this is the best-fried Pakistani keema recipe made in 35 minutes. The bhuna technique and spices give so much flavor to the ground lamb. This recipe will become your family favorite.
It is the most common mince meat dish cooked in every Indian / Pakistani home. Keema literally means to mince anything. In broader terms, keema means Indian Pakistani curried ground meat.
Why does this recipe work?
The taste of this Pakistani keema recipe is absolutely rich because of the browning technique and then braising of the ground meat curry to accentuate the flavors. Bhuna means to stir-fry on high flame so when mincemeat is fried with spices on high flame, the result is bhuna keema.
The flavor of bhuna keema is distinct and stronger than regular keema curry. I recommend cooking it in a wok or large bottomed vessel like a frying pan which allows plenty of searing surfaces. I used ground lamb to make lamb keema but you can use any red meat.
Ingredients
So we need just basic Indian curry ingredients for this keema recipe. What is important is the freshness of the ingredients.
- Ground meat: You can make this bhuna keema with ground lamb, beef, or mutton mince. Best tasting bhuna keema is made with beef mince that has 20% fat. However, for healthy options, you may take low-fat, lamb leg mince. (That's what I used.)
- Onions: I fried freshly sliced onion for this recipe. But if you have pre-fried onions in hand, you can use that too. You'll need about half a cup of fried onions.
- Tomatoes: I used fresh tomatoes, you can use packed tomato puree or paste. The cooking time will be reduced
- Ginger, chilies, and garlic: If you want the best-tasting keema bursting with Indian flavors, use fresh spices.
- This means using freshly minced ginger, garlic, and chilies. You can combine ginger, garlic, and chilies and mince them together in a processor.
- Red chili flakes: I like the taste of red chili flakes, you can use red chili powder too.
- Cumin and coriander: I always keep a bottle of pre-roasted and grounded cumin and coriander in my pantry. The flavor is greatly enhanced by roasting.
- For this, you can dry roast cumin and coriander separately in a pan on medium heat for a few seconds until fragrant.
- Then grind it into a fine powder and store in air-tight jars at room temperature for up to 30 days. You can use this powder in other Indian chicken curries as well. If you are in hurry you can use regular ground cumin and coriander but roasting is recommended.
- Indian spices: Other Indian spices are common. You can skip if do not have 1 or 2 spices. We need turmeric, whole cinnamon, whole black cardamom, cloves, and pepper. You can also sub ground spices for the whole.
- Cilantro and julienne ginger: are almost always used to garnish.
- Lemon wedges: These are personal preferences, so I'd prefer to serve along.
How to make it?
Below is an easy pictorial to make lamb keema recipe in 6 steps. (You can use beef or mutton keema too.)
- Fry thinly sliced onions in little oil on medium-low flame until golden brown.
- When the onion is golden and crispy, add dry spices first, give it a stir then add wet spices like chili, garlic, and ginger. Stir well for a few seconds. (Try to use fresh spices for the best taste. See the ingredients section above for more details.)
- Add tomatoes and salt, stir well, cover, and cook for 5 minutes until tomatoes are soft and melted. You should see some oil separating on the sides of the pan.
- Add ground meat, and stir well. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes. I used ground lamb but any ground red meat is good. The ground mince color changes. Let some of the water evaporate. Keep stirring at regular intervals.
- Add yogurt and lemon, butter, and fry (bhun-na) qeema on a medium-high flame, until oil separates and the ground meat turns brown.
- If you like a little gravy, you can add ½ cup of water and bring the keema to a full boil.
- Garnish and serve with naan, chapati or roti, raita, and some fresh kachumber salad.
Tips
The bhuna keema recipe has high-fat content and low water content which makes it ideal for preservation. It is also great as picnic food; ideal for canning food on travel and stays good at room temperature for several hours.
The trick to best keema is to fry the mince until you see a golden browning in qeema (browning) and the oil separates profusely. This is like searing and is called bhuna ( bhun-na) in Urdu.
This is soul survival food that is very adaptive and can be added to pies, like making a base of this keema in shepherd's pie. Or add this bhuna keema in mince lasagna, paratha rolls, sandwiches, samosa filling, Bohra lasanyo, or aloo patties. Plus it is super easy and simple to cook.
Recipe FAQs
Keema is best eaten with any flat bread-like, roti, chapati, naan, or karak double roti. You can pair it with bread, buns, pita bread, or rice too.
If you love a combo of veggies, you can add green pea to make Keema Matar curry or potato to make Aloo keema curry. Some readers also suggested adding herbs like fenugreek leaves, garlic chives, and dill leaves.
Hungry for keema recipes? Check these out here!
If you try this keema recipe, I'd LOVE to hear your feedback in the comments. Your 5-ratings motivate me to do my best. Stay connected for more recipes and videos on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube.
📖 Recipe
Pakistani Keema Recipe (The BEST)
Ingredients
- 500 gm ground meat / mince, beef / mutton / lamb
- ½ cup oil, see notes 1
- 2 medium (325 gm) onion, sliced, about 2 cups)
- 3 medium (300 gm) tomatoes, chopped
Spices
- 1 tablespoon cumin powder, preferably roasted and grounded
- 1 ½ tablespoon coriander powder, preferably roasted and grounded
- ½ tablespoon red chilli flakes, less or skip to reduce heat
- 4 cloves
- 8-10 black pepper, or less
- ½ inch cinnamon stick
- 1 whole black cardamom
- 1 tablespoon minced green chili , or less
- ½ tablespoon minced garlic
- ½ tablespoon minced ginger
Other
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ cup yogurt, whipped
- 2 tablespoon butter, optional
Garnish
- 3-4 jalapeno peppers, thick slices
- 2 inch ginger, cut in julienne
- ¼ cup fresh coriander, chopped
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder, preferably freshly grounded
Instructions
- In a wok or large pan fry the onions in hot oil for 10 minutes on medium heat until light golden. Stir occasionally in the beginning for even cooking then more frequently as onion slices start to separate as threads.
- Reduce heat and add whole and ground spices first, give it a stir then add ginger paste, green chili paste and garlic paste. Fry for few seconds.
- Then add chopped or pureed tomatoes and salt, mix well, and cover. Cook for 3-5 minutes until tomatoes are soft.
- Next, add mince meat, mix well and cover again. Cook for 12 minutes on medium heat.
- Add whipped yogurt, butter, and lemon juice and fry (bhunna) qeema on medium-high heat, until oil separates and you see a brownish tinge. (For gravy: At this stage you may keep it dry or add up to ¾ cup water and cook for another 15 minutes on low-heat for bhuna keema gravy.)
- Add pepper powder, sliced jalapeno, fresh coriander, and ginger slices for garnish.
Notes
- Oil: Bhuna means to fry and you need to add ½ cup to fry onion and have the best taste. However, you can skim a layer of oil from the top once keema is cooked to reduce the oil. You can add less oil if ground meat already has high fat.)
- Corriander and cumin: Use roasted and grounded coriander for best taste. See the tips section above for how to do it from coriander seeds.)
- Use fresh spices like freshly minced ginger, garlic, and green chilies for the best taste. If in hurry you can substitute with ginger paste, garlic paste, green chili paste.
- If making kheema for picnic or travel or canning, add more oil while cooking. You can always remove the extra layer of oil from the top after heating, the oil layer on top protects food from spoiling and increases shelf life.
- With some leftover keema you can make a tasty Bohra Lasanyo breakfast.
Fatema says
Made this kheema for sehri and everybody just loved it. Especially my husband who is usually none too impressed with the way I make kheema. Superb recipe. This will now be my go to Kheema recipe
Mariam Sodawater says
Thank you so much for trying my recipe and leaving a feedback with 5-star rating. It really makes me happy. Jazakallah
Mehboob Sadicote says
Nice, i used lean beef (nihari kind) and for the fat and flavor, the marrow from a foot long nalli which i mixed in while browning. Only drawback, you have to eat it hot.
Mariam Sodawater says
Thanks a lot for the feedback!
Tufail Ahmad says
I love Bhunna qeema, but my wife doesn’t like the way I used to cook. I tried your recipe, and she loved it, and so did I.
It was finger licking good. I added to your recipe dil (in urdu Suva or Suya) only because before moving to Canada, I worked and lived in Dubai, and a restaurant by the name of Delhi Durbar near Gold Souk on Deira side used to offer Bhunna Qeema with Dil on Fridays only, and I absolutely loved it.
My bhunna suya qeema with your recipe turned out to be very good.
Thank you for your recipe!!! 🙏
Mariam Sodawater says
Thank you so much for the in-depth comment and tip on adding dil herb. Your comment has really made my day. I'll really appreciate it if you could leave 5-star rating as well.
Sukhvinder Oberoi says
I tripled this recipe and results were amazing. Very delicious and my family loved it. Thank you so much !!
Mariam Sodawater says
Thank you so much for leaving lovely feedback.
Alina Raza says
I never leave comments, but this recipe was too good not to compliment! I’ve made this several times with success. My husband who normally hates keema absolutely loves this and asks if I can make it at least once a week. Thank you so much for sharing!
Yousuf says
Cooked this as a test to prove to my mother that I can cook. Amazing.
Recipe 52 says
Wow! That so cute of you. Give my regards to your mother. Mothers relish when their son cook for them. 😊
Joel says
I made this with 4 kilos of kheema and it turned out pretty good.. Smels divine. I added potatoes, carrots and green peas to it... Loved it.. Thanks
Recipe 52 says
OMG, 4 kilos of keema with these additional veggies would be huge. Congrats on success, and thanks for leaving a lovely comment and suggestion of veggies.
Jose Gomes says
Very good recipe thank you.
Recipe 52 says
Thanks for leaving comment. I’m glad you liked it.
Anon says
This recipe is absolutely delicious and is 100% worth making even if you’re like me and don’t like to cook - the results are GORGEOUS! Thank you!
Recipe 52 says
Thank Anon for leaving such lovely feedback. This is a family recipe and tastes great every time.
Savio Francis Dsouza says
Love the yummy and delicious keema recipe. Will surely prepare it soon. Wow recipe.
You can apply a generous amount of keema on a slice of bread, put a slice of bread on it. Put a drop of oil in a frying pan, place the keema sandwich in the pan. Cover with a aluminum lid having a knob. Press the lid gently on the sandwich for two minutes, turn over to brown the other side. Repeat with the other slices. This is my pan fried version of grilled sandwich.
Recipe 52 says
Thanks a lot for lovely feedback. I love your grilled sandwich recipe. So sweet of you to share it. 🙂
Anonymous says
Made it , really awesome.
Recipe 52 says
I’m glad you liked it. Keep coming!?
Fizzah says
My go to recipe for making keema now. Absolutely delicious. Even my very picky husband was impressed. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!
Recipe 52 says
Thanks a lot for the lovely feedback, I’m really glad you and family likes it.
Umm-e-Aimen Taaha says
Loved it...
Mariam Sodawater says
Thanks dear. 🙂