Chicken and Spinach Curry!

The things we do for Love!

I'm a vegetarian who cooks chicken for DH. Yes! Funny that I used to eat Chicken in India before I cam here. But the only version of chicken I had seen at parties, friends houses or restaurants is that it was doused in spices... I had not experienced cooking or handling raw chicken. I cam to US and had a Chicken wrap in McDs and that threw me off completely. I have not eaten it nor craved for it after that.

But DH does love to eat (altho he's not a heavy meat eater I should say or my other vegetarian cooking doesn't leave him craving for chicken - I think the later :) ) so I try to make a chicken dish every week. I have tried many many recipes from marinating overnight to complex spices. I borrow a lot of ideas from many recipes and optimize the recipe to fit my time and the ingredients I have at home. And I multitask a lot, I will have something on the stove while I chop or prep other ingredients and drop them into the pan. I make this dish under 20 mins (prep and cook)!

This recipe has become a sure hit with DH... everytime I make it, he loves it. And the bonus for me - it's so fast and easy to make and healthy!

So, here's the recipe -

Ingredients -

Onion - 2 medium chopped
Tomato - 1.5 cups diced (or 1 8 oz can of diced tomatoes - I use this)
Ginger and Garlic paste - 1/2 tbs each
Gharam masala powder - 1/2 tbs
Chillie Powder - 3/4 tbs
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Kasuri Methi - 2 tbs; crushed
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Badi Elaichi - 2
salt - to taste
Spinach - 2 handful fresh rough chopped
Bell pepper - 1/2 medium diced. (I used green as that was on hand, you could certainly use any)
Chicken - 1.5 lbs dices to bite size pieces.
Oil - 1 tbs

Method -

1. Heat a big saute pan with high side (need some depth) and add oil. Once the oil is hot, add the cinnamon and the badi elaichi.
2. Add onions and saute them well till they just start to brown. In the mean time chop your chicken.
3. Once the onion starts to brown, add the ginder and garlic paste, chillie powder, gharam masala powder, cumin powder and crushed kasuri methi. Saute for a minute or so.
4. Add the diced tomatoes (fresh or canned) and let them cook down to almost a mush (about 4-5 mins).
5. Add the diced chicken and saute them till the sides start to brown. Add salt and a cup of water and close the lid. Let the chicken cook through and the water should reduce almost to half.
6. Now add the bell peepper and spinach and let it cook till the pepper and spinach wilts a bit. Turn off the heat. Done! (DH likes his peppers crunchy!)

Delicious healthy chicken with spinach and peppers ready!

Serve with rice or chapathis.