Step by step recipe of Pakistani qeema cutlets recipe (soft and juicy ) with photos of each step.
Cutlets are another handy food like Hunter’s beef. Just freeze them raw and they are good up to a months (although, they’ll be gone within a week) and are as tasty as freshly made when fried. Fried cutlets are great for travelling food and picnic food too. They are good snack and can be used as burger pities or in a sandwich.
Best cutlets are juicy and soft. It’s a favorite snack made in every Dawoodi Bohra house and often dubbed as ‘cutlais’. The recipe also guides in how to make cutlet soft and how to fry cutlets and freeze them.
For gluten free cutlets: Add 1 1/4 cup mashed potato in mince instead of soaked bread. And use any gluten-free flour instead of bread crumbs to roll the cutlets.
You may also like my frozen chicken nugget recipe, Bread chicken and veg pie, Paratha roll Pie.
How to make Pakistani keema cutlets recipe (soft and juicy)
Pakistani Keema cutlet (soft and juicy Bohra style)
Ingredients
- ½ kg mutton/ beef mince, (keema)
- 1 tablespoon green chili paste, (hari mirch)
- 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste, (lahsan adrak)
- 1 tablespoon chopped jalapeno pepper, (darmiyani hari mirch)
Spices
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, (kali mirch)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, (haldi)
- ½ to 1 teaspoon red chili powder, (lal mirch)
- 1 teaspoon Garam Masala Powder, (garam masala) ,optional
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder, (zeera)
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder, (dhanya)
Herbs
- 2 tablespoon fresh green coriander, (hara dhanya)
- 1 tablespoon fresh mint leaves, (pudina)
Other
- 4 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, (lemo ka ras)
- 4-5 bread slices, (preferably karak roti)
- ½ cup milk, (doodh)
- 1 egg, ,for adding in mince
- 3 large eggs, ,white and yolk separated for frying
- salt to taste
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- oil for frying
Instructions
Preparing Cutlets mixture
- Soak bread in milk, squeeze and set aside.
- Wash mince, and dry water by squeezing lightly.
- Add all spices in mutton mince like ginger, garlic, green chili paste, turmeric, black pepper, all spice powder, coriander, cumin, red chili powder and salt.
- Chop mutton in mixer along with spices, so the mince is very fine and soft.
- Add soaked bread,fresh green coriander, mint, jalapeno peppers, lemon juice and 1 egg to grounded mince.
- Mix the mince and spices very well with hands. The mixture should be soft like roti dough.
- Make a very small cutlets and cook to test the salt and spice level. Adjust mixture as per taste at this stage if required. (This step is optional)
Shaping Cutlets
- Take bread crumbs in a plate. Take a small portion of mince mixture and make a small ball and put ball on the bread crumb plate. Press the ball and make a round thin disc, covering fully with bread crumbs.
Frying Cutlets
- Heat oil in a pan on low flame.
- Beat egg whites until foamy with a hand beater. Add egg yolk, salt and pepper and mix well.
- Dip each cutlet in egg and shallow fry each cutlets for 4 minutes on each side on medium heat.
Notes
Oil tends to get foamy while frying cutlets so separate beating of egg yolk and white helps overcome this problem.
Step by step Pakistani keema cutlets recipe
Soak breads in milk and squeeze. Set aside. I suggest using karak bread which soaks more milk and doesn’t have added sugar like many other breads. However, any sliced bread is fine.
Wash mince , and drain all water in strainer. Also squeeze lightly to remove excess water. Add all spices to mince.
Mince mutton with spices in a mixer or chopper. The fine mincing of meat softens the cutlets and your cutlets will not break.
Add bread slices, jalapeno, fresh mint and coriander.
Next squeeze lemon juice for tangy flavor.
Add 1/2 of beaten egg first, mix then add more egg, if required. Addition of eggs makes cutlet juicy and also helps binding of meat.
Mix very well, and make sure the mixture is really soft , or add more milk soaked bread.
Cook a small part of mixture to taste it. Adjust salt and spice level to your taste, if required. (This step is optional)
Take bread crumbs in a flat surface. Make a round ball of mince and place on it. Cover the ball completely in bread crumb and make a flat disc.
On a flat surface further shape it into a thin cutlets of 3 inch. Keep in mind that cutlets will shrink a bit upon frying.
Make more cutlets similarly.
Whisk the egg white separately in a bowl until foamy. When we fry cutlets dipped in egg, the oil in fry pan gets very foamy so separately whisking egg white reduces foam.
Add egg yolks , salt and pepper mix well. Dip each cutlets in egg and fry.
Fry for 4 minutes on each side medium heat.
Increase the heat when cooked to give final golden brown touch. Dry oil on a towel. Serve with green chutney or imli khajoor chutney.
How to store and freeze Pakistani keema cutlets ?
- Best way is to spread the cutlets on a tray and freeze them for 2 hours. When cutlets are hard, stack it one on top of other and place in a container or zip-lock bags. If cutlets stick together separate by sliding a knife in between. For frying directly dip frozen cutlets to egg and fry directly without thawing.
- You can also store raw cutlets in fridge in air tight container for 2-3 days.
Dee says
This was a really great recipe, we really enjoyed it last night. We tried making these in our new air fryer and they came out great, we had a few that did not fit in the fryer so we just fried those, both tasted amazing . Making it again for sure.
Recipe 52 says
Thanks a lot for the lovely review. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Making cutlets in air fryer is amazing tip.
Have a great day.
Fatema says
Great recipe. Everyone loved it. Just like the ones I used to eat when I visited karachi. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Recipe 52 says
Thanks a lot for the lovely feedback.:)