Curry Heat Guide: The Mildest to Hottest Curry

Curry heat runs from creamy and gentle to properly painful. If you are ordering from a takeaway, cooking for kids or just trying something new, this guide puts the best-known curries in order from mildest to hottest, and explains what makes each one hot.

The curry heat scale, mildest to hottest

British curry houses use a rough scale that most menus follow: korma at the mild end, madras in the middle, vindaloo at the hot end and phaal beyond that. Every restaurant and every cook is a little different, so treat this as a guide, not a rule.

Heat	Curry	Why it tastes that way
1. Very mild	Korma	Braised in yoghurt with cardamom and mace. Curry houses add cream and nuts.
1. Very mild	Pasanda	Flattened meat in a creamy, nutty sauce. Close to a korma.
2. Mild	Butter chicken	Tomato, butter and cream. Kashmiri chilli gives colour, not much heat.
3. Mild to medium	Tikka masala	Grilled chicken tikka in a creamy tomato and onion sauce.
4. Medium	Rogan josh	Red from Kashmiri chilli, warm from whole spices.
4. Medium	Dopiaza	Sweet from two lots of onions, with green chillies.
4. Medium	Bhuna	A thick, dry sauce fried down with spices.
5. Medium hot	Dhansak	Hot, sweet and sour, thickened with lentils.
5. Medium hot	Jalfrezi	Fresh green chillies, black pepper and chunky peppers.
5. Medium hot	Madras	Plenty of chilli powder, often with tamarind or coconut.
6. Hot	Vindaloo	A paste of dried red chillies, vinegar and garlic.
7. Extreme	Phaal	Made with as many chillies as the kitchen dares.

Aamna marks the heat on each of her recipes. Her korma is mild, her tikka masala is mild to medium, her rogan josh and do pyaza are medium, her dhansak is medium hot, and her madras is hotter than a korma or tikka masala but milder than a vindaloo, which she calls one of the hottest curry house dishes.

What makes a curry hot?

Almost all the heat comes from chillies, and it depends on which chillies go in and how many. The spices people think of as hot, like cumin, coriander, cardamom and garam masala, are warming but not fiery. Black pepper and ginger add a little bite.

Chilli	Roughly how hot (Scoville units)	Where you find it
Kashmiri chilli	About 1,000 to 2,000	Used for deep red colour in rogan josh, tikka masala and butter chicken
Indian green finger chilli	About 20,000 to 30,000	Jalfrezi, dopiaza, karahi and most everyday curries
Bird’s eye chilli	About 50,000 to 100,000	Small, sharp and very hot
Scotch bonnet	About 100,000 to 350,000	Some phaal recipes
Ghost pepper (bhut jolokia)	Over 1,000,000	Novelty curry challenges

This is why a curry can be bright red and still mild. Kashmiri chilli powder is mostly about colour, so a red rogan josh can be gentler than a pale green jalfrezi full of fresh chillies.

If you don’t like spicy food

• Order a korma, pasanda or butter chicken. They are the mildest on almost every menu.
• Tikka masala is a safe second step. It has more flavour than a korma but little heat.
• Ask for it mild. Most curry houses and Pakistani restaurants will turn the heat down.
• Add raita or a lassi. Yoghurt and milk calm chilli heat better than water.
• Avoid anything described as madras, vindaloo, phaal or “hot”.

For more help choosing, see the curry house menu explained.

If you like it hot

Work up the scale: jalfrezi, then madras, then vindaloo. A vindaloo is the hottest curry most people will ever order, and phaal is the one restaurants dare you to finish. For the three hot favourites side by side, read madras vs vindaloo vs jalfrezi.

How to make a curry milder or hotter at home

• Milder: use Kashmiri chilli powder instead of hot chilli powder, leave green chillies whole or take the seeds out, and stir in a spoonful of yoghurt at the end.
• Hotter: slice the green chillies, add a pinch of hot chilli powder with the other ground spices, or finish with a few chopped bird’s eye chillies.
• Too hot already? Add more of the base (onion, tomato or yoghurt), or serve it with plain rice and raita.

Curry heat FAQs

Which curry is the mildest?

Korma. Pasanda and butter chicken are close behind.

Which curry is the hottest?

Phaal is the hottest on a curry house menu. Of the curries most people order, vindaloo is the hottest.

Is tikka masala spicy?

Only a little. It is usually mild to medium, with Kashmiri chilli for colour.

Is madras hotter than jalfrezi?

They are close, and it depends on the kitchen. A jalfrezi gets its heat from fresh green chillies, a madras from plenty of chilli powder.

Which curry is best for kids?

A mild korma or butter chicken. Aamna’s easy chicken korma uses only Kashmiri chilli and no fresh chillies.

What cools your mouth after a hot curry?

Yoghurt, raita, lassi or milk. Plain rice and bread help too. Water spreads the heat around more than it cools it.

More dish guides

• The curry house menu explained
• Madras vs vindaloo vs jalfrezi
• Tikka masala vs butter chicken vs korma
• What is dhansak?
• What is rogan josh?
• All dish guides
• Karahi recipes
• Biryani recipes