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Punjabi Chicken with Tomatoes & Spinach

If you are new to Punjabi cooking, you will find deliciously rich, creamy meals reminiscent of the most delicious comfort foods. While many of these dishes are drenched in ghee, a type of clarified butter, others utilize yogurt for their creamy texture. We used Greek style yogurt in our Punjabi chicken recipe. Greek style yogurt is thicker than American style yogurt, and if you have never had it before, it is slightly more bitter. This gave us the room to create a creamy dish without loading it too much up on saturated fat but giving it a good boost in protein.
We cut our chicken into four-inch pieces. Pieces of any other size may affect the cook time, so try to keep these chunks uniform. The chiles Jeff used were the serrano, but any hot chile could be substituted. He suggests jalepeno if you don’t have serranos on hand. This is an interesting looking dish because you think it’s going to have more tomato flavor and red coloring, but then it turns green when you add the spinach to it. The color is cool. Our taste testers liked this recipe, they said that it smelled especially fragrant and that the scent translated into the flavor quite nicely. It was a welcome new twist to eating chicken.
We served our Punjabi chicken with basmati rice, which is indigenous to the Punjab region, and na’an bread. Be sure to remove the cardamom seeds, the bay leaves, and the cinnamon stick before serving. They are there for adding flavor, not for eating, and you really don’t want to have to take anyone to the dentist after chipping a tooth on a cinnamon stick.
Ingredients:
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 Black Cardamom Pods, whole
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 1 Cinnamon Stick
- 3 - 4 small hot green chiles
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 cups (or 1 can) diced or whole tomatoes - try to find low sodium
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 Tbsp Ground Ginger
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts - cut into 4 oz portions
- 1 tsp Ground Cumin
- 2 tsp Ground Coriander
- 2 tsp Garam Masala
- 1/2 tsp Coarse Salt
- 1 bag fresh, baby spinach
- 1 cup Greek style yogurt
Instructions:
- In a large dutch oven or saucepan heat oil to medium high heat.
- Add Bay Leaves, Cardamom, Cinnamon Stick and chiles. Saute for 1-2 minutes.
- Add onions, saute until onions begin to be transparent.
- In a food processor, combine tomatoes, garlic and ginger - puree until smooth.
- Add cut chicken and tomato puree to the onions - stir to combine.
- Rinse and dry the food processor and add spinach. Process about 1-2 minutes, making sure that all the spinach has been processed.
- Add Cumin, Coriander, Garam Masala and Salt to the chicken and tomato mixture, stir to combine.
- Add spinach and yogurt, stir.
- Cook on medium heat about 10-12 minutes until liquid starts to reduce.
- Remove cardamom, bay leaf and cinnamon stick and serve over rice or with Indian flatbread.
Makes 4 servings.
Nutrition Facts
Amount Per Serving
Calories156.80
Total Fat 8.30g
Saturated Fat5.70g
Polyunsaturated Fat0.10g
Monounsaturated Fat0.30g
Cholesterol 3.80g
Sodium 403.20mg
Potassium 336.00mg
Total Carbohydrate 17.50g
Dietary Fiber3.90g
Total Sugars10.30g
Protein 5.60g
Ingredients for this recipe:
Garam Masala
Starting at: $9.92
Black Cardamom Pods
Starting at: $8.97
Coarse Sea Salt
Starting at: $4.92
Ground Cumin
Starting at: $4.77
Ginger Powder
Starting at: $5.21
Cinnamon Sticks (2.75 inch)
Starting at: $8.56
Ground Coriander
Starting at: $4.30
Organic Bay Leaves
Starting at: $9.05
Garam Masala
Starting at: $9.92
Black Cardamom Pods
Starting at: $8.97
Coarse Sea Salt
Starting at: $4.92
Ground Cumin
Starting at: $4.77