Indian Palak Chicken 5/5 (1)

This North Indian Palak Chicken/ Saag wala chicken/ Spinach chicken is a healthy, Keto and gluten free recipe. It’s also a kids friendly recipe; highly nutritious as it contains vitamins from greens, proteins and fat from the meat. Its basically Chicken Bhuna masala cooked with palak or spinach puree, can be made dry or in a semi-gravy consistency.

This finger licking chicken recipe will become a regular main course in your family meals. It’s best for party dishes. This medium spicy chicken recipe goes well with Jeera rice, steamed rice  naans and rotis.

In this recipe you can substitute the chicken with paneer, tofu or mix veggies, thus transforming it into a pure vegetarian dish. Basically, the palak/spinach puree becomes the base and you can extend your creativity by adding veggie koftas or sweet corn, baby corn and so on….

If you have extra  palak / spinach puree, don’t panic, you are done with another main course for your next day. You can either make palak/ spinach rice or Palak/spinach Puri or roti or Palak / spinach Tacos . You can check out these recipes in my Kitchen Secrets category, a special add ons of my blog. It saves you when you are puzzled with leftovers. Every recipe in this blog has a surprise package in the kitchen secret which will definitely make you awestruck…😲. You’ll visualize how each leftover of that recipe transforms into an unimaginable dish, unleash your creativity and explore beyond limits.

Click here to jump to recipe card!

Marinate the chicken with turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt, ginger garlic paste and curd overnight or for a minimum of 2 hours. 

Blanch the palak in boiling water for 2 minutes, strain and immediately cool down in running cold water to retain the green color of it.

Saute green chilli, ginger, pepper, jeera in ghee and add coriander leaves, switch off the gas and let it cool.

And then  add the blanched palak to grind it as puree.

Prepare a coarse paste of onion in the mixer.

Make incisions in the tomatoes and steam it in the microwave for 5 minutes or put it in boiling water for roughly ten minutes till the skin shrinks; cool it, peel it, grind it and strain it as a puree.

Heat a pan with oil, add the ingredients under seasoning.

Then add onion paste to it with a pinch of salt and a tsp of ghee to sauté well.

Once the onion turns brown, add ginger garlic paste ,sauté till raw smell goes off, then add tomato puree and store bought tomato paste ( optional, if avoid gluten in your diet skip this step ),then close the lid for few minutes. Add all the spice powders with 1 tsp sugar mentioned under gravy.

Stir well and close the lid, let it cook in medium flame for at least 5 minutes to get rid off the raw smell. Now add the marinated chicken, stir well and close the lid for 5 minutes letting the chicken to leave water.

Add roughly 1 to 1and1/2 cup water, depending upon the time of marination  and the quality of chicken and allow it to cook for 15 minutes ( medium flame ) with lid closed. Once the chicken is cooked, add the palak puree.

Stir and cook well for another 5 -10 minutes. Almost all the water in the gravy will be evaporated, at this stage add a tbsp of kasuri methi (crushed with hands) and cook it for 3 more minutes. 

Yummy palak chicken is now ready ,transfer to a serving bowl ,garnish with fresh cream, onion rings and lemon wedges.

Transfer to a serving bowl ,garnish with fresh cream, onion rings and lemon wedges.

RECIPE CARD

Prep time : 20 minutes 

Cooking time  : 50 minutes

Cuisine : North Indian 

Category : Main course

Serves : 4

Author  : Manimala

Ingredients

• Chicken – 1 kg (medium cut pieces)

For Palak puree :

• Palak saag – 2 katta or roughly 300 gms
• Coriander leaves – 1 handful 
• Green chilli – 2 
• Ginger- 1/2 inch or 1 tsp (chopped )
• Jeera / cumin seeds – 1 tsp
• Pepper (black) – 1/2 tsp 
• Ghee – 1 tsp

For Chicken marination :

• Haldi / Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
• Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1tsp
• Ginger garlic paste – 1tsp 
• Curd – 1 cup.
• Salt  – ¼ tsp

For gravy : 

• Coarsely ground onion paste – 1 cup 
• Tomatoes (ripened) – 3 
• *Tomato paste (store bought ) – 1 tbsp ( optional) *avoid if gluten allergic
• Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp 
• Turmeric powder – a pinch
• Kashmiri red chilli pwdr – 1tsp heaped 
• Dhaniya / Coriander powder – 1tsp heaped 
• Jeera / Cumin powder -1tsp
• Garam masala powder-1/4 tsp
• Saunf / fennel  powder – less than 1/4 tsp 
• Sugar – 1tsp 
• Kasuri methi / dried fenugreek leaves – 1tbsp
• Ghee – 1 tbsp
• Salt – required quantity 

For seasoning : 

• Cinnamon – 1 inch 
• Cloves – 2
• Green Cardamom – 2
• Black Cardamom – 1 
• Bay leaves- 2 
• Star anise – 1
• For garnish :
• Fresh cream – 1tbsp
• Onion ring
• Lemon wedges

Instructions

1.Marinate the chicken with turmeric powder, chilli powder, salt ,ginger garlic paste and curd for overnight or minimum 2 hrs. 

2.Blanch the palak in hot boiling water for 2 minutes, strain and immediately cool down in running cold water to retain the green color of it.

3.Saute green chilli, ginger, pepper, jeera in ghee and add coriander leaves, switch off the gas and let it cool and then  add the blanched palak to grind it as puree.

4.Prepare a  coarse paste of onion in mixer.

5.Make incisions in the tomatoes and steam it in the microwave for 5 minutes or put it in boiling water for roughly ten minutes till the skin shrinks, cool it, peel it, grind it and strain it as a puree.

6.heat a pan with oil ,add the things under seasoning, then add onion paste to it with a pinch of salt to sauté well.

7. Once the onion turns brown, add ginger garlic paste ,sauté till raw smell goes off, then add store bought tomato paste ( optional, If you are gluten allergic please avoid this store bought tomato paste ),then close the lid for few minutes.

8.Add all the spice powders with 1 tsp sugar mentioned under gravy, stir well and close the lid, let it cook in medium flame for at least 5 minutes to get rid off the raw smell.

9.Now add the marinated chicken, stir well and close the lid for 5 minutes letting the chicken to leave water.

10.Add roughly 1 to 1and1/2 cup water, depending upon the time of marination  and the quality of chicken and allow it to cook for 15 minutes ( med flame ) with lid closed.

11.Once the chicken is cooked, add the palak puree, stir and cook well for another 5 -10 minutes .

12.Almost all the water in the gravy will be evaporated, at this stage add a tbsp of kasuri methi ( crushed with hands) and cook it for 3 more minutes. 

13.Yummy palak chicken is now ready ,transfer to a serving bowl ,garnish with fresh cream, onion rings and lemon wedges.

Notes

• You can adjust the spice level to your taste while adding chilli powder, green chilli, pepper in the recipe.
• Adding store bought tomato puree is purely optional. I added for the colour and extra kick of flavour. As I mentioned early kindly avoid if you are looking for gluten free recipe.
• Consistency of the gravy can be altered by adjusting the water quantity. Here I made it as semi gravy, if you want more gravy, u can add more water to get your desired consistency.
• Blanching technique helps the green to retain its colour and flavour. For cooling down the greens either you can run through the cold tap water or put it in a bowl of ice cubes.
• More the marination time more the chicken will be juicier and tender.

Now time for my Kitchen Secrets…😉😍

If you have Palak Chicken leftover, don’t worry, I’m here to rescue you!

1. You’ll be thrilled to experience a transformation of a North Indian curry to South Indian curry…. Doesn’t it sounds fascinating?. I’m converting palak chicken leftover to instant Chettinad Chicken masala, authentic masala preparation involves more detailed steps. I just created a shortcut or instant method to prepare it. You can also try with any of your leftover chicken preparation. Make sure, you add enough spices to enhance it’s flavour.
2. Next secret is if you have more palak puree than required for this recipe, you are spoiled for choices, yes you can make either Spinach / Palak Puri or Spinach / palak Tacos Spinach / Palak Rice.