One-pot chicken saag

I love curry! Be it lamb, chicken, prawn, spicy, mild…I just love how diverse they are. I enjoy making curries from scratch, but what I don’t enjoy is the amount of time and effort that it takes to make the paste (and the extra things you have to wash up afterwards!)

But, fear not!

I’m a one-pot dinner kinda girl, and this recipe can be made in one (or rather two!) pots as you can add the spices straight to the pan. No paste making = less washing up. AND it tastes amazing. It’s also up to 150 calories less than you would consume in a takeaway version of the same curry.

WIN WIN WIN!

Serves 4

Ingredients

Chicken – (I used 4 breasts, but have also made this using leftover meat from a roast chicken)
Spinach – 300g
Onions x 2 large
Garlic x 5 cloves
Vegetable oil – 2 tablespoons
Fresh diced ginger – 1-2 teaspoons
1 tin of tomatoes
Splash of milk
1 fresh chili
Ground coriander – 2 teaspoons
Cayenne pepper – 2 teaspoons
Ground turmeric – 1 tablespoon
Garam masala – 1 tablespoon
Cardamom pods x 4
Cloves x 4
Bay leaf x 2
Salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. Add the oil to a large pan big enough to hold all of the ingredients. Finely chop the onions and the garlic, add to the pan and fry on a medium heat.
2. Slice the chicken into bitesized chunks, add into the same pan as the onions. While the chicken is cooking, place the spinach in a separate saucepan half full with water, boil for 5 minutes then remove from heat.
3. Once the outside of the chicken is browned off, add the ginger, chili, tinned tomatoes, coriander, cayenne pepper, turmeric, cardamom pods, cloves, bay leaves and seasoning (told you you’d need a big pan!) If there’s not enough liquid in the pan to cover the chicken, add a dash of water.
4. Simmer for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the curry is piping hot. Meanwhile, drain the water from the spinach and roughly chop it.
5. Add the spinach and milk along with the garam masala and stir into the curry.
6. Cook on a low heat for another 10-15 minutes.
7. Serve with brown rice or baked potato! Yum!

The nutritional data below is based on the above curry ingredients yielding 4 portions:
CALORIES: 300kcal
TOTAL FAT: 12g
SATURATED FAT: 2g
PROTEIN: 33g