Spinach chicken curry is tender pieces of boneless chicken breast and pureed spinach leaves simmered in an onion-tomato gravy. When it comes to easy and healthy chicken recipes, palak chicken or spinach chicken curry is one of my favourites. A high protein meal, it combines the goodness of white meat and spinach plus it is very tasty. In this dish, instead of blanching and pureeing spinach you can simply add chopped spinach at the end and allow it to boil to make the chicken gravy.
Use chicken breast instead of bone-in chicken pieces – boneless chicken, as everyone knows, cooks faster. I regularly make spinach chicken with boneless chicken breast pieces. The meat is fork-tender in 8-10 minutes and turns out yum!
Another secret ingredient you can add in this recipe is cashews. A handful of them, when pureed and added to the simmering gravy makes a world of difference to the texture and taste of spinach chicken curry. The gravy becomes wonderfully creamy and thick, just the way it’s supposed to be.
In the below recipe, I have not added cashews, but please do add it if you like it creamier. For this recipe, you will need…
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. Sunflower Oil
- 1 ½ – 2 large Onions, finely diced
- 2 tbsp. ginger-garlic paste
- 2 tbsp. tomato purée
- 750g boneless Chicken breasts or thighs, skinned and cubed
- 2 Green Chillies
- 1 ½ Tomatoes, chopped
- 1 tsp. Turmeric powder
- 1 tsp. medium-hot Chilli powder
- 1 tsp. Garam masala
- 200g fresh Spinach, washed
Method
- Boil and blanch the washed spinach in a pan and make a puree of it.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onions over a high heat for 4-5 minutes until they start to change colour. Reduce the heat and cook for a further 3-4 minutes until they are soft and can be cut easily with the edge of a spoon.
- Add the ginger-garlic paste and chopped green chillies and fry for 30 seconds, then add the tomato purée and fry for a couple of minutes.
- Next add the chicken pieces and fry over a high heat to seal in the juices, then add the ground spices. Season with salt, pour in about 150ml cold water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for 10 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.
- Stir in the spinach puree and bring to the boil again. Adjust the seasoning to taste.
- Tasty spinach chicken curry is ready to serve.
- Serve hot with rotis or plain boiled rice.
