Chicken Saag

4 Servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes

Chicken Saag is a classic Indian curry Chicken recipe with Spinach and cream that is stewed together until thick and creamy in under an hour.

Indian Food is one of my favorite new sections on the blog, including favorite recipes like Chicken Tikka Masala and Easy Tandoori Chicken.

Chicken Saag Recipe Chicken Saag Recipe

I recently made Saag Paneer on the blog a few weeks ago and since then I’ve gotten a lot of requests for a chicken version. Good news was that I already had one ready to share and it’s absolutely delicious!

What to serve with Chicken Saag? We love to serve Chicken Saag over cilantro basmati rice with naan bread. If we add a bit of heat from chilis then a cool raita also helps round out the dish.

Indian Saag Chicken Recipe

Can you make Chicken Saag in the slow cooker?

Yes, once you’ve browned the chicken and onions, add all the ingredients (except the sour cream) into the slow cooker and cook on low for 5-6 hours. In the last half hour add in the sour cream, stir well and serve once the mixture comes up to a simmering temperature.

What is in a Saag?

Saag is a classic Indian dish classically made with paneer or chicken covered in spinach, mustard leaves, kale or turnip greens and spices.

Because of these delicious greens that are used in making saag, many people feel that saag is a healthy dish. Just remember we are also using butter and heavy cream, so there are still calories and fat in the dish. The greens are anti-inflammatory and full of fiber so this dish is an easy way to get veggies into the diet of someone who normally doesn’t like to eat vegetables.

What kind of chicken is best in Chicken Saag?

We use chicken thigh chunks in this recipe because the meat is sautéed then simmered along with other vegetables and spices and liquids. As chicken thighs simmer for 15-20 minutes they become more tender. If we used white meat chicken the chicken would become very tough and dry.

Can you make this Chicken Saag vegetarian? Yes, make my Saag Paneer instead!

Saag Chicken

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Chicken Saag Recipe

Chicken Saag is a classic Indian curry Chicken recipe with Spinach and cream that is stewed together until thick and creamy in under an hour.
Yield 4 Servings
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Indian
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 pound spinach chopped
  • 2 teaspoons dried fenugreek
  • 8 tablespoons ghee if not available use butter
  • 1 pound chicken thighs boneless and skinless and cut into small 1 inch chunks
  • 1 yellow onion chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger minced
  • 1 tablespoon cumin
  • 1 tablespoon garam masala
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup sour cream

Instructions

  • Add the spinach and fenugreek to boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes.
  • Drain well, squeezing out as much liquid as possible before chopping the spinach finely.
  • Add the ghee to a pan and sauté the chicken until lightly browned (no need to remove the chicken).
  • Add in the onions, garlic and ginger to the ghee and cook on medium heat, stirring and cooking until wilted and translucent.
  • Add in the spinach, cumin, garam masala, turmeric, cayenne pepper, kosher salt and heavy cream.
  • Cook uncovered for 10-15 minutes or until the mixture has cooked down resulting in a thick green spinach sauce.
  • Add in the sour cream, mix well together and just bring to a boil before removing from the heat.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 410kcal
Chicken Saag
Chicken Saag Recipe with Spinach

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

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Comments

  1. Love this! My grocery never has dried fenugreek, so I just substitute with a cup or two of fresh mustard greens. Worked like a charm!

  2. It’s so good. My husband and I absolutely loved it and My picky toddler was shoveling it in her mouth. Her plate was clean by the end. It does have a lot of fats, but that made it perfect for a keto meal. In the past I’ve had it get very greasy but I found that when I really mince the onion and spinach down to as small as possible it helps a lot with the grease and consistency

  3. Nice to have a cream with saag. I used a splash of olive oil instead of ghee and it turned out fine.

  4. The taste was great, but the sauce was very greasy. I don’t know what happened. One minute, the sauce was creamy and the next everything was separating. If I make it again, I think I will use half the butter and cream. I will also add some spice.

  5. I regularly cook curries and got a specific request to find a saag recipe , and found your page. Made this tonight for my other half and son (I don’t eat meat) and both thought it was really good. I used half the ghee to start but it did need a bit more so I’d say I used 3/4 of what you suggested. I doubled the ginger and garlic, and am glad I did (I had a little taste of the sauce). The amount of cumin surprised me so initially I only used half, as was worried it would have an overpowering cumin taste, but it didn’t, so I added the rest, and it still didn’t overpower things.
    It was very rich, extremely creamy and disgustingly calorific ! But a hit. Thanks !

  6. I love chicken saag but had never tried to make from home before. I found this recipe and ordered some dried fenugreek leaves since that was the only ingredient I couldn’t find at my local grocer. I followed the recipe almost exactly except that I held back the garlic and ginger for a few minutes to let the onions cook (I was worried about burnt garlic). I also added a tad more kosher salt to taste. OMG this recipe turned out amazing! Very aromatic and flavorful. This recipe is now being stored with my favorites! Thanks for sharing!

    1. I’m honored to have made your “favorites” file!! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and let me know, Brandon.

  7. Can i use whole milk and yogurt instead of heavy cream and sour cream? And subbing arugula for spinach? Sorry! Stuck in the ice storm here and can’t go to the store. Thanks!

    1. You can make your own heavy cream by melting 1/4 cup unsalted butter and slowly whisking it with 3/4 cup milk and everything else you mentioned is an easy swap. Hope this helps!

  8. I use recipes from the internet all the time, but this is my first review! Just had to say just how delicious it was and better than any chicken saag I ever ate in a restaurant. Creamy and rich and even better re-heated. The spices were perfect, I only added more garlic and ginger.
    Happy Cooking!

  9. Hi Sabrina,

    I’ve been making your Chicken Saag weekly for 2 or 3 months now and thought I should shout it out! The whole family absolutely loves it. I always triple the recipe and we feed on it for a few days.

    Thanks for sharing. Many of your recipes take me back to a wonderful summer I spent in Mussoorie.

    Emmerin

    PS. For those that can’t find fenugreek leaves, I use the equivalent in celery stalk leaves. They have a similar bitter taste and works well for this particular saag-lover.

    1. Oh my goodness, this is the nicest comment! Thank you so much for coming back to leave a review and to let me know you’re enjoying the recipes. You made my day!

  10. I have just made the chicken saag and it went down a treat, I didn’t have the cream so used natural yoghurt. It was very nice and will definitely make again. 🙂

  11. Delicious and easy. Tastes like my favorite restaurant. Made a big batch of sauce and split it for both chicken saag and lamb saag.

  12. Thanks for the recipe! My ingredients limited following the recipe perfectly, but it was wonderful. Lacked fenugreek, used 1.5 cups of half&half instead of heavy and sour creams, doubled the cayenne pepper and added 1/3 more garlic and 1/3 more ginger.
    Thanks for making this recipe to accessible, Indian food has always been so intimidating to me.

  13. Hi! Made the recipe with butter the other day, it was great. I was considering buying ghee for next time, but do you really need 8 full tablespoons of ghee? Unfortunately ghee is awfully expensive here in Japan, and I was hoping to use a little less, what do you think? Thank you for the great recipe!

    1. Yes, you can definitely use less. I used 1/3 cup with no problems in the past too. You may be better off making your own ghee if it is too expensive. It takes just a bit of practice, but I actually enjoy making my own. Maybe I should make a post for homemade ghee, if you would find it helpful.

  14. My whole family who refuses to eat cooked greens just devoured this!
    Toddler ate like 3 bowls, shoving mounds of turnip greens into her mouth. ?
    I added the addition of cloves and mace, and I used half and half instead of cream because it was what I had on hand, and butter instead of ghee. Brilliant.

  15. Wow, this is so good! Just made it for dinner and I love it – creamy yet not greasy as I feared. As hard as it was to resist the urge to change the ingredients (it is a lot of fat lol), I’m glad I didn’t, especially for the first time making it. The only change I made was some fennel seed instead of fenugreek. I couldn’t find it at my local grocery store. Thanks for the great recipe!

      1. Hi Sabrina, I had the same issue as Chelsea. We went to three stores, including an Asian market, looking for fenugreek. The only thing we found was fenugreek powder made from the seeds, which is different than the leaves. In the end we decided to exclude the fenugreek completely. Do you have recommendations on where to find it?
        Also, where do you gi d heavy cream? All we can ever fi d is heavy “whipping” cream. Thanks! My wife and I are huge fans of your blog and we love your recipes!

        1. So sorry you had problems finding it. They actualy sell it on Amazon with a prime delivery if that helps. Also, when it comes to the heavy cream. I find mine at the grocery store but heavy whipping cream is essentially the same as heavy cream except the whipping cream is a bit lighter. So glad you are loving the site!

    1. So sorry about that, not sure how that was deleted.

      The spinach will be added back in during step 5.

        1. Hi Sabrina, first I’d like say thanks for slow cooker butter chicken. It has become a family favorite!!

          About the fenugreek, is the ground seen significantly different from the ground leaves? Since the recipe didn’t specify, I didn’t realize that there’s a difference. What I bought from Whole Foods is actually the ground seeds and not the leaves. Will it change the taste drastically if I use the ground seeds?

          1. Using seeds will drastically change the flavor of the dish. If you decide to still use them, do not overheat them as they will turn out very bitter.

  16. Do you add the chopped spinach at the same time as the garlic, onions, and ginger (after the chicken has been browned)?

  17. My husband and I are crazy about Indian food! We can’t wait to try this recipe!

    1. You’ll want to add the spinach back in with the cumin, garam masala, turmeric, cayenne pepper, kosher salt and heavy cream.
      Thanks for letting me know it was missing.

  18. I love good chicken saag but have never tried to make it at home – can’t wait to try this recipe!