I think you’re going to love this chicken saagwala!
This chicken saagwala recipe just plain gets it!
Chicken saagwala is a lightly spiced curry that is as simple as it is appealing. I love it!
If you crave a bit more heat, a sprinkle of freshly chopped green chillies will do the job. The additional chilli also tastes great. Just be a bit careful so that the chillies zing rather than zap your tongue!
When I started my curry blog, I did so with the goal of learning how to cook authentic Indian food. After a while, however, I began to realise just how popular British Indian restaurant (BIR) style curries like this are. This recipe is based on several different recipes that were sent to me by top curry chefs around the UK.
For best results, it is important to use fresh baby leaf spinach for this chicken saagwala. Many curry houses use tinned spinach which simply isn’t as nice.
As with all BIR meals, it will be much easier and faster if you prepare ahead of time. Be sure to cook your base curry sauce and pre-cook your chicken just like they do in curry house kitchens. If you do, this chicken saagwala will only take you ten minutes to cook and serve.
PLANNING AHEAD
Curry Sauce
I have written a large and small version of my curry sauce recipe which will need to me made before cooking this recipe. The large version is made just like they do in the best curry houses. Make a large batch for best results. It keeps in the fridge for three days and freezes well. The small batch version works well too though it’s not as authentic.
PRE-COOKED CHICKEN
I pre-cook chicken in two ways. Most restaurants use this method to prepare their chicken for chicken saagwala. You could also add tandoori style chicken tikka to this recipe if you’d like to create tandoori Chicken Saagwala.
For best results when cooking chicken saagwala, please use fresh or frozen spinach. Tinned spinach just doesn’t get it!
If you love this recipe try these other similar ones:
PRE COOKED RESTAURANT STYLE CHICKEN
Cumin Chicken Curry
Chicken Curry with Paprika
Chicken Curry with Andhra Chicken Sauce
Chicken Curry with Coconut
Chicken Curry with Black Pepper
Kuzhambu Chicken Curry
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How To Make British Indian Restaurant Style Chicken Saagwala
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts - See link to pre-cooked chicken above
- 750ml (3 cups) Curry sauce - See links to my recipes above
- 2 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic paste
- 1 tablespoon ginger paste
- 1 tablespoon cumin powder
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 1 tablespoon chilli powder
- 200g (about two large handfuls of fresh spinach)
- 2 fresh green chilies (or more to taste)
- juice of one lemon
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
Instructions
- Start with the spinach. In a food processor, blend the fresh spinach, green chillies and lemon juice together with just enough water or stock from your pre-cooked chicken so that it blends to a smooth paste. Set aside.
- Now heat the ghee or oil in a wok or large frying pan.
- Pour in the ginger and garlic pastes and fry for about 30 seconds.
- Add the cumin, coriander powder and chilli powder and stir to combine.
- When the spices begin to fill the room with their magnificent aroma, pour in the hot curry sauce and chicken pieces. Always add the curry sauce hot.
- Allow this to cook for about three to five minutes until the chicken is warmed through and the curry sauce is bubbling nicely.
- Now pour in the spinach mixture and stir it in. The red and bright green colours will look amazing together as the spinach and curry sauce blend.
- Cook for about another two minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste and then check for seasoning. Sprinkle with the chopped coriander and garam masala and serve with white rice or naans.
This curry sounds good I will try it soon.
Thanks. Please let me know what you think. I’ll be checking the recipes out on your site.
Dan
Just made it tonight, with Prawns instead of chicken – very authentic taste, I probably should have reduced the sauce a bit more – or squeezed out the spinach more – always a trial run when making a dish for the first time.
Love it!! Highly recommend 🙂
Five Stars !!!! * * * * *
Thank you so much Andrea! I’m really glad you liked the recipe. Practice makes perfect. I made quite a few of my recipes numerous times before I finally got them just right.
Cheers,
Dan
I shall be trying this out for my birthday bash on Wednesday. Let you know how I get on
Great to hear Keith. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Dan
Im not a great fan of spinnach, but I made this dish for my wife today…I tasted it and it has amazing flavours! Well done again Dan!
Thank you Colin. I’m really glad you liked the recipe!
A-maze-ing! I have to have a reason NOT to use fresh spinach I love it and now I know why they call it “perpetual” as it’s there all year round. Great recipe.
Thanks Denise
I love this recipe. Hope you enjoy it too. 🙂
I have spent a lovely afternoon making Your curry gravy, and then I made the saagwala. I have never had it before but it is my hubbies fav when we go out, so I didnt really know what it was supposed to taste like. Anyway he loved it (me too), He said that perhaps i could make it a little less hot/spicy, and add a bit extra spinach, but that is down to me and not your recipe.. But it was certainly a hit… a few modifications to suit our own personal tastes is all i need to do. Cant wait to try more of your recipes,, THANKS !
Hi Dan made the chickin saagwala at weekend.the blender wouldent blend the spinach leaves so i just chopped them up and added last 10 min of cooking the dish was FAB everyone loved it. Thanks
Good to hear. Really glad you liked the recipe Mike. I don’t always blend the spinach. It’s nice just finely chopped. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.
Dan
I have been making the same curry for about a year or two (chandran chicken curry). My family loves it. I have experimented with several other curries, some they have liked and some that didn’t go over quite so well. This past week I made your base curry sauce and the base chicken as well. The first recipe I decided to try was the Chicken Saagwala. I didn’t think it would go over so well simply because of the look of the curry, but I have been on something of a spinach kick lately. I am serving it tomorrow night for a family dinner, roughly 10 people. My wife and oldest son have already tried the curry this evening as I prepared it a day ahead of the dinner. My wife, after a couple of tastes has said that this may be her new favorite curry! That is high praise indeed! The only changes I made were using extra hot chili powder and substituting jalapeño peppers for the green chilies. It is without a doubt the hottest curry I have made for my family. I love to break a sweat while eating my curry, and apparently the heat is growing on my family as well. You are making me look very good Dan! Love the web site and I will let you know what my family thinks of the other recipes I decide to try out. Any suggestions for curries that have similar heat levels to what I have described?
Hi Dan, all of your curries have been great and I really appreciate this website. I would like to say though that when making your saagwala i would be careful about how big the lemon is that you juice. Unfortunately for me I ruined a very good sauce and was gutted. You can put it in but you cant take it back out.
Regards.
Thanks Leigh. Sorry that recipe didn’t work out for you. At least you’ll know for next time. I hope you get a chance to try it again. It’s one of my favourites.
Dan
I made this last Thursday and it was lovely, even had plenty left to have some today for dinner.
I made a quick Jalfrezi tonight too and have now ran out of frozen base sauce so will be making another batch shortly.
Thanks for the recipes Dan.
Hi Dan, I love all the recipes and I’ve just got your book too, really looking forward to using up my big batch of your curry sauce!
I know you prefer not to use tinned spinach, but I’d like to know your thoughts on the bags of frozen spinach you can get in supermarkets now?
I have used them in curries before but not tried with fresh, maybe I’ll try this recipe both ways, with fresh then with frozen, and compare the results!
Hi Wayne
thank you very much. Really glad you like my recipes. I’ve tried frozen spinach and had really good results. Still prefer fresh but spinach does freeze well so please give it a go.
Dan
Oh my gosh this was so good thank you so much for providing this recipe HOWEVER 1 tablespoon of chili powder ? I eat hot Mexican stuff but seriously a whole tablespoon? How would you taste anything else? I can’t imagine i’m using Kashmiri chili powder maybe it hotter and I only used a heaping teaspoon and it was plenty enough hot. I also used 3 chilies removing the seeds, and used the 3 cups of your curry base. You might want to caution people! with your curry base you’re right make the full one half just leaves you wanting more. I used 2 double Breasts cut up and added all the juice. I have plenty left over. I also made nan which is a must and jasmine rice. I used the yeast method (someone else’s no egg) and added salt to the ghee that I dribbled on top after they were done.iron skillet to cook kept in a toaster oven to stay warm and melted ghee with the salt on top. it turned out perfect! A few I added cut up garlic and cilantro (coriander) and folded it over before the last roll. Thanks again for posting and no one should hesitate trying this! It is spot on and I can’t wait to make it for a guest dinner they will be so impressed- and satisfied!
Hi There!
Thank you so much. I’m really glad you liked it. The chilli powder I use is quite mild. Kashmiri powder can be quite hot but I love that too. I’m glad you were able to change the recipe to your own tastes and really happy it worked for you.
Thanks for stopping by.
Dan
Hi
Thanks for this great recipe. I wish if you make it in a video.
Thanks again 🙂
Hi Andy
Thank you. That is the plan. I’m hoping to post quite a few new videos in future. 🙂
Dan
Hi Dan, Made your chicken saagwala for the family tonight and it was amazing. Even my little guy who does not like too much heat cleaned his plate. I had added quite a bit more chilli which worked out great. Many thanks from New Zealand. Cheers Paul
Hi Paul
Thank you. I’m really glad you liked the recipe. I usually add more chillies too. Love them.
Dan
Hi dan,
Where stated to use 1 tbsp of each garlic and ginger paste, if I have a mixture of the two in equal amounts should I use 2tbsp?
Thanks
Hi Jack
Correct. You could do that or just add garlic and ginger to taste.
Dan
This was a big hit with me and the kids, and only took a matter of minutes to make! Used frozen spinach and just added it towards the end. Delicious..Lamb Rogan Josh tonight…
Cheers, Tim.
Hi I’ll be making this tonight so excited to try it! The recipe says 4 chicken breasts but I made your recipe for pre-cooked chicken cut into bite size pieces. So how many cups of the chicken should I use in this and do I need to separate the chicken pieces from their cooking sauce or do I scoop it sauce and all into this recipe? If we like this recipe I will buy your ebook bc we love Indian food!
Thanks!
Hi Leigh
Pre-cooked chicken is fine as is the sauce. The cooking sauce adds a lovely flavour. To be honest, I only use measures for these written recipes. When I cook at home, I simply throw in as much as I want depending on how hungry we all are. 🙂 I’ve got a printed cookbook coming out in May 2017 which will be far better than the ebook.
Thanks
Dan
One of your best Dan!
Spinach is seasonal here in Egypt and at the moment it’s abundant. I was going to make a Pawn Jalfrezi tonight but remembered that we have a kilo of sebanach (spinach) to use up before Christmas, so I suggested a Saag and off we went.
No meat eaten by my wife, so I replaced the chicken breasts with 250g medium shrimp and 2 catfish fillets fried in butter and garlic powder, with 2 dozen clams that had been steamed over wine.
The look on my wife’s face said it all, absolutely stunning. Had it with Basmati rice and Naan that I’d impregnated with garlic and chilli.
A seriously gorgeous meal.
Hi Lee
Great to hear you liked the recipe and that you were able to tailor it so your wife could enjoy it too. I like the catfish idea. Think I might just try that one.
Thanks,
Dan
I love your recipes. I cooked this for a family dinner, they loved it. I will definitely be cooking it again.
Great to hear Warren. Thank you very much.
Dan
Hello I just used your precooked chicken base recipe and came out excellent
I like things a little spicy so I added just a little paprika but other than that all the same ingredients.
Would you have a restaurant style SAAG GRAVY Large batch recipe handy by any chance??
I appreciate all your recipes and also just bought your book
Hi Saket
Thank you very much. I don’t have a large batch saag recipe. That’s a great idea though. I’m thinking about providing more large batches of different sauces on my site.
Cheers,
Dan
I found this to be excellent. If anyone has the capability of grinding the spices, I highly suggest that.
I find using a traditional Saag with more variants of greens, but heavier on spinach and with the lemon juice, makes this better.
Making this dish with some heat (blend some Thai Chile peppers into the sauce) really makes the tastebuds sing.
Thank you very much Jeremy. I’m really glad you liked it. 🙂
Dan