Chicken, Potato and Spinach Curry in a Hurry

I love to make this recipe on a Friday night. It’s great for using up leftover potatoes and can be made quicker than it takes to organize a take-out. I always keep a bag of frozen spinach in the freezer – it’s really convenient for all sorts of dishes. If I have some fresh spinach in the refrigerator, though, I just roughly chop a couple of big handfuls and add them when the curry is almost ready.

MAKES 2 adult or 4 kid-sized portions
PREPARATION TIME 10 minutes
COOKING TIME 20 minutes

1½ tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 skinless chicken breasts, diced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

3–4cm/1¼–1½in piece of root ginger, peeled and grated

1 tbsp garam masala

½ tsp chilli powder

400g/14oz/1¾ cups canned chopped tomatoes

200g/7oz cooked new or salad potatoes, halved if large (canned potatoes are also fine)

150g/5½oz/1 cup frozen spinach, defrosted

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

TO SERVE

naan bread

home-made Cucumber Raita (see page 25) or shop-bought raita

mango chutney

 

1 Heat the oil in a large pan over a low heat, add the onion and cook for a few minutes until soft. Increase the heat to medium, add the chicken, garlic and ginger and fry for 3–4 minutes until the chicken turns opaque. Stir in the garam masala and chilli powder and continue to cook for about 1 minute.

2 Add the tomatoes, potatoes and 150ml/5fl oz/scant 2/3 cup water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover loosely with a lid and leave to simmer gently for about 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

3 Stir in the spinach, season lightly with salt and pepper, then cook for a further 2–3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4 Serve the curry on its own or with naan bread, raita and mango chutney, if you like.

Leftovers for the freezer

frozen ginger

If you have a large piece of root ginger left over, don’t leave it lurking in the corner of your refrigerator to deteriorate gradually. Put all or some of it in a sandwich bag, seal, label and store in the freezer – it will keep for several months. When a recipe calls for grated ginger, it will grate really easily straight from frozen – no need to defrost or peel.