This quick and easy Chicken Saag (chicken and spinach curry aka palak chicken) is the fastest curry you'll ever make from scratch. It's healthy and delicious with a flavor bomb of spices. You'll never need to order Indian takeout again with this recipe in your arsenal.
(This recipe was originally published in March 2019, but was updated with new photos and content in 2020).
Since first making this chicken saag recipe, I have made it countless times. I always amaze myself with how easy it is to make, and how it satisfies my craving for Indian food. Although my favorite Indian curries when I go out to eat are chicken tikka masala and chicken korma, I have since fallen head over heels for chicken saag (palak chicken).
If you've never eaten or even seen Indian chicken saag curry, you may be a little surprised by it's appearance. It's a cooked spinach curry, so the color and texture is that of a muted green puree.
Take my word for it though, the aroma and flavors of this curry are out of this world! If you like Indian food, definitely give this recipe a try. The taste will speak for itself.
Believe it or not, this recipe rivals the saag at my favorite local Indian restaurant! I may even say I prefer my own heavily spiced concoction to theirs. It contains nearly a dozen spices and aromatics in the pureed spinach sauce.
Ingredient notes
- Chicken: Use boneless, skinless chicken breasts or chicken tenders for this recipe, and cube them into small, bite-size 1-inch pieces.
- Spinach: I use fresh baby spinach since it's already trimmed and easy to use. You can also use regular spinach and trim the stalky stems yourself. Alternatively you can also use a combination of spinach and other dark leafy greens like kale, mustard greens, or Swiss chard. Fenugreek leaves are also quite traditional to include.
- Aromatics & Spices: For this chicken and spinach curry you'll need onion, garlic and fresh ginger for your aromatics. For spices you'll need salt, ground coriander, garam masala (a spice blend), ground turmeric, ground cumin, ground cardamom, and chili powder (such as Indian chili powder or cayenne, NOT American chili powder which is a spice blend and not pure, ground chiles). If you are missing any of the spices you can omit them, but the flavor of the curry will be a bit different than the original. I recommend using all these spices for optimal results.
- Tomato Paste: Tomato paste comes in cans or resealable squeezable tubes. If you have leftover tomato paste to use up from making this chicken saag recipe, use it to make Tas Kebab, Czech Beef Goulash, Individual Beef and Mushroom Pies, Autumn Vegetable Soup with Sausage and Green Lentils, or Armenian Lentil Soup with Macaroni.
- Yogurt: Use plain thick yogurt such as Greek-style, but any thick unflavored yogurt will work.
How to make it
The first step in making this chicken saag curry is to make the spinach sauce. Heat a little bit of oil in a non-stick skillet, and add chopped onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook until softened and aromatic (PHOTO 1). Add your mixture of spices (PHOTO 2).
Stir your tomato paste into water to dissolve, then add it to the spices and aromatics in the pan (PHOTO 3). Mix until combined, and then stir in the spinach leaves. Cover the pan to allow the spinach to wilt. Stir the mixture until all the spinach is wilted, but still vibrant green (PHOTOS 4-6).
Remove from the heat and puree the mixture in your blender or food processor. It should still have a bit of texture so don't over-do it. The sauce is ready!
Next cook cubes of chicken in a bit of oil until cooked through (PHOTOS 7-8).
Pour the spinach sauce over the chicken, and continue to cook so the flavors can meld together (PHOTOS 9-10). Stir in a big spoonful of plain yogurt, and this healthy chicken and spinach curry is ready (PHOTOS 11-12).
Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (in a printable recipe card) including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.
The recipe comfortably yields 4 servings, although if you are super hungry you can divide it into 2 or 3 larger portions of chicken saag.
I typically serve this simple chicken and spinach curry with plain basmati rice or jeera rice, basmati rice made with cumin seeds. You can also serve it with another dish, such as Chana Dal to expand the menu and yield more overall servings.
Expert tips
Making this recipe on a weeknight is fast and easy. You can prep your chicken in advance by cubing it up and refrigerating it until it's time to cook. You can also measure out all your spices, mix them together, and set them aside. The aromatics are also easy enough to chop, measure, and prep in advance. Then at the last minute, just get cooking.
The saag sauce cooks quite rapidly, as does the chicken. Your authentic, homemade Indian meal will be ready before you know it! Technically, you can even cook the spinach sauce ahead of time and refrigerate it, and then finish the dish by cooking the chicken and adding the sauce to heat it through.
This authentic chicken saag curry is just as delicious reheated the following day. I often take a portion to work for lunch and will admit it's probably the best work lunch ever! If anything the flavor gets even better over time, and it's very easy to reheat in a microwave if that's all you have access to.
FAQs
This curry is quite healthy compared to many other curry dishes. The amount of oil is minimal, but can be reduced further if you prefer, especially if using a nonstick pan to cook it. You may also use reduced fat or fat free plain yogurt to save a few additional calories. Although you can make this chicken saag recipe with chicken thighs, I prefer white meat which is also leaner than the alternative.
"Saag" is more of a broad term for green leafy vegetable curries, and "palak" is specific to curries made with spinach. Both apply in this case, though I've always called it the former so that's what I'll stick with.
If using frozen spinach use about 3 ⅓ ounces of frozen spinach (or about ⅓ of a 10-ounce package) to get the equivalent of 8 ounces fresh spinach. Thaw before using, but no need to squeeze out the excess liquid (it will help keep your sauce the right consistency). You can skip the step of wilting the spinach in the spice sauce, and just transfer the spice sauce and thawed frozen spinach to the blender together and proceed as directed in the recipe. I've used as much as 5 ounces of frozen spinach in this recipe before and it's delicious too, just a bit more spinachy than usual!
Other recipes you may like
- Homemade Naan
- Chicken Vindaloo
- Chicken Korma
- Murgh Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)
- Murgh Masala (Chicken Masala)
- Murghi aur Masoor Dal (Bombay-style Chicken with Red Split Lentils)
- Chana Dal
- Dal Makhani
- Gajar Matar (Carrots and Peas)
- Browse all Indian Recipes
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Chicken Saag (Chicken and Spinach Curry)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 large onion finely chopped (about 1 cup)
- 2 cloves garlic minced (about 1 tablespoon)
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt plus more as needed (preferably Diamond Crystal brand; start with ¾ teaspoon if using another brand—SEE NOTES)
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 ½ teaspoons garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon Indian chili powder or cayenne pepper or to taste
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ cup water
- 8 ounces baby spinach or trimmed regular spinach, washed and dried
- 1 pound chicken breast or tenders cut into 1-inch pieces
- ¼ cup plain yogurt preferably thick Greek-style yogurt
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat (if you plan to double the recipe, definitely use a pot instead of a skillet so you have room for all the spinach!). Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and saute until softened, about 4 to 5 minutes, stirring regularly, and lowering heat to medium-low if it starts to brown too quickly.
- Over medium heat, add the salt (SEE NOTES), coriander, garam masala, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, and chili powder, and stir on medium-low heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds or so. Dissolve the tomato paste in the water by stirring vigorously together in a measuring cup or bowl. Then stir into the spices in the pan, creating a thick spiced sauce, about 1 minute.
- Add the spinach and gently stir to combine, as the skillet will be very full. Cover and raise the heat to medium-high, allowing the spinach to start to wilt. Occasionally remove the lid, stir, and then cover again until most the spinach has begun to wilt, about 3 to 5 minutes (can depend on the size of your spinach leaves). Remove the lid and finish stirring the spinach until it is completely wilted but still bright green, another minute.
- Transfer spinach mixture to a blender and puree until relatively smooth but still a bit chunky (you don’t want it to be super smooth, a bit of texture is good). Taste and adjust salt and spice if necessary.
- Meanwhile, wipe the skillet clean with a paper towel, return it to medium-high heat, and add 1 tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, add the cubed chicken pieces, sprinkle salt over the top to season, and cook until almost completely cooked through, about 5 to 7 minutes. Pour the spinach mixture back over the chicken, using a rubber spatula to get every last bit out of the blender, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes to allow the flavors to meld and the chicken to finish cooking. Stir in the yogurt, and serve immediately with basmati rice and/or naan.
Notes
- I typically serve this simple curry with plain basmati rice or jeera rice, basmati rice made with cumin seeds.
- The recipe comfortably yields 4 servings, although if you are super hungry you can divide it into 2 or 3 larger portions.
- You can also use a combination of dark leafy greens in this recipe. Try half spinach and half kale, mustard greens, or Swiss chard as another option. Those other greens are more bitter and will change the general flavor of this curry. Fenugreek leaves are also quite traditional to include. The combination of greens is simply a matter of personal preference.
- If using frozen spinach instead of fresh use about 3 ⅓ ounces of the frozen spinach (or about ⅓ of the 10-ounce package) to get the equivalent of 8 ounces fresh spinach. Thaw before using, but no need to squeeze out the excess liquid (it will help keep your sauce the right consistency). You can skip the step of wilting the spinach in the spice sauce, and just transfer the spice sauce and thawed frozen spinach to the blender together and proceed as directed. I've used as much as 5 ounces of frozen spinach in this recipe before and it's delicious too, just a bit more spinachy than usual!
- This recipe uses kosher salt (aka cooking salt, kitchen salt, coarse salt outside of the US), preferably Diamond Crystal brand which has larger flakes (this is the brand used in many restaurants, and the brand I use to test all my recipes). If you are using table salt or a fine (less coarse) kosher salt (such as Morton), scale down the salt to ¾ teaspoon to start, and add more later if needed.
Nutrition
*All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.*
Claire says
This recipe was excellent! The flavors tasted like my local Indian restaurant. Thank you!!
Caitlyn says
So wonderful. I used chicken thighs instead, an a cup of yogurt instead of the 1/4 cup. My family loved it!
Caroline says
I made this with lamb instead, and it was delicious.
Melissa says
I added fenugreek and curry powder. So tasty.
Carol says
How many packages of frozen chopped spinach can be used instead of fresh spinach? 3 1/3 ounces doesn’t sound right.
Victoria says
Hi Carol,
Fresh spinach cooks down A LOT so believe it or not, that is a pretty accurate substitution amount. Here is a guide with some general equivalents that might be helpful. As you can see 1 pound of spinach yields about 1 cup cooked, and 10 ounces of frozen spinach is about 1 ½ cups cooked. So if you're starting with 8 ounces of fresh spinach, you would expect to yield about ½ cup of cooked spinach, which is about ⅓ of a 10-ounce package of frozen spinach. Of course you can absolutely include more spinach if you'd like, but you may also want to modify the amount of spices as well to ensure everything is well seasoned. I hope this helps!
Jennifer says
Delicious recipe but I used much more spinach- 3 big bunches of fresh, trimmed spinach - plus I brined the chicken for 30 minutes so it was super juicy.
Caroline says
PS Forgot to say I added a little tumeric to the chicken and yogurt marinade.
Caroline says
This was delicious! I made jeera rice to go with it, and hubby ate it all up. I did do the chicken slightly differently - something I learned from other Indian recipes: salt and peppered the cubes, added 1-2 T yogurt and mixed all that up, marinated for 4 hours. After the spinach mixture was blended, I put everything back in the same pan, added the marinated chicken (without sauteeing), and simmered for 15 minutes till done. The chicken absorbs all the flavors in the spinach mixture when not browned, and is so tender because of marinating in yogurt. Finished off the recipe as directed. It was awesome!
Victoria says
Sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing your feedback! I'm sure the chicken was super moist and delicious this way 🙂
Kristin says
Thank you for this recipe! It was my first time ever making an Indian dish and it satisfied my taste buds! I didn’t have the garam masala so I substituted hot Jamaican curry powder, nor did I have the cardamom pods so I omitted that ingredient. I also added cubed boiled Idaho potatoes and sliced mushrooms to the dish! Yummy! I look forward to making this dish again with all the original ingredients.
Amber says
My 10 year old went back for seconds! He doesn't usually eat spinach.
Susan says
This was very Tasty! I loved all the spices. I probably made it un healthy
by adding some Paneer cheese, served over brown rice. I will make again♡
Leigh says
Tried this today! So awesome, easy to make. I had to substitute cloves and cinnamon for the cardamom (really thought I had it). I also used chicken broth instead of water. Everyone enjoyed it, even my skeptical husband!!
Juliane says
Oh my goodness! This was sooo flavorful and tasty. My husband and I agreed that this will be in our dinner rotations now. We served it over some cauliflower rice and it blended well with everything.
DY says
Delicious recipe, I will be making it again (:
Babs says
Love the recipe. Have done it four times now, and a favourite. Just stuck to the recipe. It works brilliantly, so not bothering to tweak it. Also like the ‘tick it off’ ingredients list. A keeper and love that’s it’s healthy as well as delish.
Debbie says
Fantastic.
Better than a takeaway. I made a paste of the onion, garlic and ginger together which worked well. I also cooked the chicken in stock and used a bit of the stock to make the curry a little runnier. Worked a treat!