Andaza se daal do. It is the most common instruction in desi cooking and the least helpful one if you have not been cooking for twenty years. Every experienced cook has a calibrated hand. Everyone else is guessing, and guessing is why the same recipe comes out different every time.
This is the chart we wish someone had given us: how much of each masala per kilo, per dish and per cup, when to add it, and how to fix things when you get it wrong. Print it, screenshot it, stick it inside a cupboard door.
The one formula to remember
If you learn nothing else, learn this starting point for 1 kg of meat:
1 teaspoon haldi · 1 teaspoon lal mirch · 2 teaspoons dhania · 1.5 teaspoons salt · 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
That is a balanced, mild-to-medium base for almost any salan. Everything else in this guide is a variation on it. Start there, taste, and adjust upward. Adding is easy. Removing is not.
Chart 1: the base masala, per kilo of meat
Use these as starting amounts for chicken, mutton or beef in a standard tomato-and-onion salan serving five to six people.
| Spice | Per 500 g | Per 1 kg | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salt | 3/4 tsp | 1.5 tsp | Add half early, half at the end |
| Haldi | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp | Colour and warmth, not flavour |
| Lal mirch powder | 1/2 to 3/4 tsp | 1 to 1.5 tsp | The main heat control |
| Dhania powder | 1 tsp | 2 tsp | Body and thickness; hard to overdo |
| Zeera powder | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp | Optional but adds depth |
| Garam masala | 1/4 tsp | 1/2 tsp | Always at the very end |
| Ginger garlic paste | 1/2 tbsp | 1 tbsp | Bloomed in oil at the start |
| Chilli garlic paste | 1 to 1.5 tbsp | 2 to 3 tbsp | Replaces some lal mirch and garlic |
| Oil or ghee | 2 to 3 tbsp | 4 to 5 tbsp | Too little oil is why masala burns |
Chart 2: by dish
Different dishes want different balances. These are per 1 kg of the main ingredient unless noted.
| Dish | Salt | Haldi | Lal mirch | Dhania | Garam masala | The thing that defines it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken karahi | 1.5 tsp | 1/4 tsp or none | 1 tsp | 1 tsp | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp crushed black pepper, 2 to 3 tbsp chilli garlic paste |
| Korma | 1.5 tsp | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp | 2 tsp | 1 tsp | Fried onions and yogurt; no chilli paste |
| Qeema | 1.5 tsp | 3/4 tsp | 1 tsp | 1.5 tsp | 1/2 tsp | Cook dry so it browns rather than steams |
| Biryani (1 kg meat) | 2.5 tsp total | 1/2 tsp | 1.5 tsp | 1.5 tsp | 1 tsp | Rice water must taste properly salty |
| Bhuna gosht | 1.5 tsp | 1/2 tsp | 1.5 tsp | 2 tsp | 1/2 tsp | Long bhuno until the oil separates |
| Tikka or BBQ marinade | 1.5 tsp | 1/4 tsp | 1.5 tsp | 1 tsp | 1 tsp | 1 cup yogurt, 2 tbsp lemon, 3 tbsp chilli garlic paste |
| Sabzi (1 kg vegetables) | 1 tsp | 1/2 tsp | 3/4 tsp | 1 tsp | Pinch | Vegetables need less of everything |
Chart 3: daal, rice and everyday basics
| Base | Quantity | Salt | Haldi | Lal mirch | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daal (masoor, moong, chana) | 1 cup dry | 1 tsp | 1/2 tsp | 1/2 tsp | Haldi goes in with the boiling water, not the tarka |
| Plain boiled rice | 1 cup dry | 1 tsp | — | — | Salt the water, not the cooked rice |
| Pulao | 2 cups dry | 2 tsp | — | — | Whole spices only; powders muddy it |
| Fried rice | 3 cups cooked | 1/2 tsp | — | — | 1 tbsp chilli garlic paste, 2 tbsp soy sauce |
| Noodles | 250 g | To taste | — | — | 2 tbsp chilli garlic paste, 2 tbsp soy, 1 tbsp vinegar |
| Anday ka omelette | 3 eggs | 1/4 tsp | Pinch | 1/4 tsp | Or 1 tsp chilli garlic paste instead |
Order matters as much as quantity
The same spices in the wrong sequence give you a completely different dish. The reliable order is:
- Whole spices into hot oil. Zeera, cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon. 30 seconds, until they sizzle and smell.
- Onions. Cook until properly golden. This is where most of the depth comes from, and it is the step people rush.
- Ginger garlic paste. 30 to 60 seconds, until the raw smell disappears.
- Powdered masalas. Haldi, lal mirch, dhania. Only 20 to 30 seconds in oil on medium heat, and then a wet ingredient must follow immediately, or add them straight into the tomatoes. Powders burn in seconds and burnt haldi is bitter and unfixable.
- Tomatoes, yogurt or water. Cook until the oil separates. This is the single biggest marker of a properly cooked salan.
- Main ingredient, then salt. Half early to season through, half adjusted at the end.
- Garam masala and fresh herbs, off the heat. These are aromatic finishers. Boil them and you lose the point of them.
Our guide to using haldi in cooking goes deeper on step four, which is where most home cooking goes wrong.
The purity adjustment nobody mentions
These amounts assume real, undiluted masala. If you have been buying loose powder that is part filler and part colour, you have been unconsciously compensating by using more.
When you switch to genuinely pure spices, cut your usual quantity by about a third for the first few weeks, especially for lal mirch and haldi. Cooks tell us their first karahi with pure paste was too hot, and the reason is simply that the old jar was weaker than they realised.
Paste to powder conversions
| If a recipe says | You can use |
|---|---|
| 1 tbsp red chilli garlic paste | 1 tsp lal mirch powder plus 2 crushed garlic cloves |
| 1 tsp lal mirch powder | About 1 tbsp chilli garlic paste, and reduce other liquids slightly |
| 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste | 3 garlic cloves plus a 1 inch piece of ginger |
| 1 tsp haldi | About 3 g of powder, or a 1 inch piece of fresh turmeric |
| 1 tbsp | 3 tsp |
If you are weighing rather than spooning: a level teaspoon of haldi is roughly 3 g, and a level teaspoon of lal mirch powder is roughly 2.5 g. For the difference between the two pastes and when to use each, see chilli garlic paste vs ginger garlic paste.
How to fix it when you overdo it
| Problem | What actually works |
|---|---|
| Too spicy | Stir in yogurt or cream, add a little sugar, bulk it out with more tomato or potato, and serve with raita and plain rice |
| Too salty | Add a peeled raw potato and simmer 15 minutes then remove, increase the volume of the gravy, and finish with lemon |
| Too much haldi | Add acidity such as lemon or tamarind, stir in yogurt, and bulk out with tomatoes |
| Bitter from burnt masala | Nothing reliably fixes this. Start the base again and add the cooked meat back in |
| Tastes flat despite plenty of masala | Usually undersalted, undercooked onions, or old spices with no aroma left. Check salt first, then smell your masala jar |
| Watery gravy | Uncover, raise the heat and bhuno until the oil separates. Never add water to fix consistency |
Two honest caveats
First, your teaspoon is not our teaspoon. Household spoons vary widely, and a heaped spoon can hold nearly double a level one. Level your measurements for a few weeks and your cooking becomes repeatable.
Second, these are starting points, not rules. Fresh, aromatic spices need less. Tired spices need more, and honestly need replacing instead. Taste at every stage, and let the chart get you close so your palate only has to make the last small adjustment.
Put the chart to work
The quickest way to test all of this is a dish with a short ingredient list where the masala has nowhere to hide. Try our 30-minute chicken karahi, or browse 10 dishes you can make with red chilli garlic paste if you want to cook without measuring five separate jars.
Frequently asked questions
How much masala should I use per kg of chicken?
A reliable starting point is 1 teaspoon haldi, 1 to 1.5 teaspoons lal mirch, 2 teaspoons dhania, 1.5 teaspoons salt and 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste per kilo. Adjust from there once you have tasted it.
How much haldi should I put in one dish?
About half a teaspoon for a family dish serving four, or 1 teaspoon per kilo of meat. Vegetables and rice need less, around a quarter teaspoon. Haldi is for colour and warmth, so more of it does not make food taste better.
How much red chilli powder per kilo of meat?
Start at 1 teaspoon per kilo for mild to medium heat, and go to 1.5 or 2 teaspoons for a properly spicy dish. If you have just switched to pure, unadulterated mirch, use about a third less than you are used to.
When should I add garam masala?
At the very end, off the heat, and only about half a teaspoon per kilo. It is an aromatic finisher, not a base masala, and boiling it destroys exactly the volatile oils you added it for.
How do I fix a dish that is too spicy?
Add yogurt or cream, a small amount of sugar, and more tomato or potato to increase the volume. Serve it with plain rice and raita. Two or three of these together work far better than any one of them alone.
Why does my food taste flat even when I add a lot of masala?
Usually one of three things: not enough salt, onions that were not browned properly, or spices that have lost their aroma. Check the salt first, then open your masala jar and smell it. If it smells of nothing, it is doing nothing.
Good measurements only help if the masala is real. Get our pure haldi and red chilli garlic paste bundle, ground in small batches with nothing added, Cash on Delivery across Pakistan.
