Shan masala guide: which box to buy for which Pakistani dish

Walk into any Pakistani grocery from London to Houston and you will see a wall of small boxes, mostly red, each printed with a photo of a different dish. That is Shan masala, and for millions of Pakistani families abroad, it is how dinner tastes like home.

Each box is a complete spice blend for one dish, with the full recipe printed on the back. You buy the meat and a few fresh ingredients, follow the box, and get a result very close to what you would eat in Karachi or Lahore. It is also the easiest way for anyone new to Pakistani food to cook it properly.

Who makes Shan?

Shan Foods was founded in Karachi in 1981 by Sikandar Sultan, who started the business with his wife from their home. It grew into one of Pakistan’s best-known food brands and now sells recipe mixes, plain spices, pastes, dessert mixes and more across the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Its main local rival is National Foods, another Karachi company. Both make good recipe mixes, and Pakistani households often have strong loyalties.

Which Shan masala box makes which dish

There are dozens of Shan mixes. These are the classics most Pakistani kitchens keep, with a rough guide to how hot they are when made exactly as printed.

Heat levels are our own guide and vary by batch and by how much of the box you use. Packaging and names change over time, so check the front of the box.

A Shan masala starter set

If you are new to Pakistani cooking, start with four boxes. Together they cover a week of very different dinners and teach you most of what Pakistani home cooking is about.

1. Chicken Karahi. A weeknight dish: one pan, half an hour, tomatoes, ginger and green chillies. Start here.
2. Korma. Milder and richer, built on fried onions and yoghurt. Good for guests who are nervous about heat.
3. Biryani. The weekend project. It takes longer, but it is the dish everyone remembers.
4. Tikka or Seekh Kabab. For the barbecue in summer, or under a hot grill in winter.

Add a bag of basmati rice, a tub of plain yoghurt, fresh ginger, garlic, onions and tomatoes, and you have everything you need. A Shan set also makes a good, cheap present; it is near the top of our list of gifts from Pakistan.

How to make Shan less spicy

Pakistani food is properly hot, and the boxes are made for Pakistani tastes. If you are cooking for people who are not used to it:

1. Use half the box the first time. You will still get plenty of flavour. Save the rest in a sealed jar.
2. Add yoghurt, a few tablespoons stirred in at the end, or serve raita on the side.
3. Leave out the extra green chillies the recipe calls for, or add them whole and remove them before serving.
4. Make more sauce: add an extra tomato or onion to dilute the masala.

Tips for better results

• Follow the back of the box for the first try. The recipes are well tested. Improvise once you know how the dish should taste.
• Brown your onions properly for biryani and korma: deep golden-brown, not pale. This is where much of the flavour comes from.
• Use yoghurt, not cream. Pakistani curries rely on plain yoghurt for tang and body.
• Finish with fresh things: coriander, ginger strips, green chillies, a squeeze of lemon.
• Add kasuri methi, dried fenugreek leaves crumbled between your palms, to karahi, butter chicken and kebabs for that restaurant smell.

Is Shan halal and vegetarian-friendly?

Shan is a Pakistani brand made for a mostly Muslim market, and its products generally carry halal certification marks. Check the box for the mark you need. The mixes themselves are spice blends, so they work with vegetables, paneer, chickpeas or lentils: a karahi masala makes an excellent chickpea karahi.

Buying Pakistani masala abroad

Search online for “masala mix” and you will mostly find Indian brands, which taste noticeably different. To get Pakistani blends:

• Search by brand: “Shan” or “National”.
• Look for “Product of Pakistan” on the listing.
• Check the date. Spice mixes lose flavour over time; most keep about a year unopened.

A quick recipe to start with

Chicken karahi is the best first Shan dish: one pan, half an hour, and very hard to get wrong. Here is how we make it with half a box.

Recipe

Easy chicken karahi with Shan masala

Makes

4 servings

Prep

10 min

Cook

35 min

You need

• 1 kg chicken on the bone, cut into small pieces
• 4 tablespoons oil or ghee
• 1 tablespoon each grated ginger and garlic
• 500 g ripe tomatoes, chopped
• Half a box (about 25 g) Shan Karahi / Fry Gosht masala
• 3–4 green chillies, slit
• A thumb of ginger, cut into thin strips
• A handful of fresh coriander, chopped
• Optional: 1 teaspoon kasuri methi

Method

1. Heat the oil in a wide, heavy pan or wok (karahi). Add the chicken and fry on high heat for 5–6 minutes until it changes colour.
2. Add the ginger and garlic and fry for a minute.
3. Add the tomatoes and the masala. Cover and cook on medium heat for 10–12 minutes, until the tomatoes collapse.
4. Uncover, turn up the heat, and keep stirring until the sauce thickens and oil separates at the edges, about 10 minutes.
5. Add the green chillies and ginger strips, crumble in the kasuri methi if using, and cook 2 more minutes.
6. Scatter with coriander and serve with naan or roti.

Taste before adding salt: most Shan mixes already contain it.

Cook it in a wide pan, serve it straight from the pan with naan, and finish the meal with a cup of Pakistani chai.