Saag aloo chicken jalfrezi

This is the kind of dish that you often see being served up at an Indian restaurant and while it may look complicated, it doesn’t have to be at all. This is like the Bengali stir fry you never knew you needed. It’s spiced, fast and a feast for the eyes.

Saag aloo chicken jalfrezi. Credit: Nadiya's Simple Spices / Penguin Michael Joseph / Chris Terry

• serves

  4

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• oil, for frying
• 3 dried red chillies
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 400 g tin cream of tomato soup
• 1½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup (60 ml) brown sauce
• ¼ cup art masala mix (see below)
• 2 red onions, quartered
• 2 red capsicum (peppers), cut into large chunks
• 560 g tin potatoes, drained and halved (see Note)
• 200 g cooked chicken
• 80 g fresh baby spinach

To serve

• handful of fresh coriander
• 2 spring onions, thinly sliced

Art masala (eight-spice mix)

• 28 g cardamom pods
• 3 g bay leaves
• 34 g fennel seeds
• 100 g cumin seeds or ground cumin
• 38 g ground cinnamon
• 100 g ground turmeric
• 44 g chilli powder
• 200g curry powder

Instructions

1. For the art masala: Start by using a spice grinder, which is the best tool for the job. Lots of smoothie-makers also come with a milling blade that works well to really crush down these whole spices.
2. Put the cardamom pods in the grinder, husk and all. (Imagine trying to de-pod that many – you would have given up before you’d even started. I know I would have.) Whack them in and blend to a fine powder, then pour out into a large bowl.
3. Now put your bay leaves, fennel and cumin seeds into the same grinder and blitz to a powder. If your grinder is small, you can do each spice alone, but just note that when doing the bay leaves, always blend them with the fennel seeds. They need the seeds to get them moving enough to crush to a powder. Add to the bowl. Mix thoroughly, being sure to do this after each addition as it’s important to make sure that the mix is well blended.
4. Now for the cinnamon. I prefer to use ground cinnamon as it’s readily available and will save you from having to crush something quite hard – why should we if we don’t need to? Add to the bowl and mix.
5. Chuck in the ground turmeric and mix. Add the chilli powder and mix. Lastly, add the curry powder and give everything a good stir. Transfer into a jar or jars and you are ready to go! This makes about 550 g spice mix and can be kept on hand to make this or other dishes.
6. For the saag aloo chicken jalfrezi: Put a large non-stick frying pan or wok over a high heat and drizzle a good amount of oil into the base. Throw in the dried red chillies and toast in the oil until they swell up. Lower the heat, add the garlic and toast till it turns a deep golden brown.
7. Pour in the tin of cream of tomato soup, add the salt, brown sauce and art masala mix and cook till the liquid thickens and is reduced by half. Add the red onion, red capsicum (pepper), tinned potatoes and cooked chicken and stir in the sauce on a really high heat until everything is coated in the sauce and catching on the base of the pan. Take off the heat and stir in the spinach until just wilted.
8. Serve the curry immediately with the coriander and spring onion sprinkled over.

Note

Nadiya uses a 560 g can of potatoes. In Australia, 410 g tins are most common. You could choose to add less potatoes, or add some of a second tin. Likewise, creamy tomato soup comes in several can sizes in Australia.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.