This delicious seven spice chicken is packed with garam masala, ginger, chili, cardamom and cinnamon and more. It’s incredibly rich, creamy, healthy and very simple to prepare. Also, it’s a wonderful idea to spice your meals up.
One thing is for sure, I will never run out of chicken recipes. This time I made a delicious seven-spice chicken. Yes, you’ve heard right. There are seven spices making this dish so amazing and rich in flavour.
Are you curious which spices I used? Probably you use most of them and I am sure you have at least heard of all of them. But just in case, I will quickly describe them. And maybe, if you haven’t used them already, you can give it a try.
I will start with the most common, the sweet paprika. Sweet paprika gives a really nice red colour and a sweet note to the dish. Then, there is cinnamon. Mmmmm, isn’t it just wonderful? The great thing about cinnamon is, that you can use it for sweet and savoury dishes. I used it in my meatballs recipe. Oh, wow! Delicious!
Furthermore, we have ginger. Its flavour is spicy and tangy. This recipe asks for ginger powder, but since I always have fresh ginger at home, I used that. Technically it is not a spice, but let’s turn a blind eye to it. He he he. If you like spicy food, then you already know chili powder. Here it is up to you how much of it you want to use.
Garam masala
Now we have three more spices. The first is Garam Masala. I am sure you have heard of it before. Garam Masala is a spice blend and it has a slightly sweet and pungent flavour. Moreover, it is ideal for sauces. Next is cardamom. The green cardamom pods contain small aromatic black seeds. Not only can you use them for savoury dishes but you can also include them into your sweet baking recipes.
Last but not least, we have cilantro seeds. I just love them! The lemony flavour is just fabulous! There you go. We know who the magnificent seven are. The only thing we need now is the chicken.
Ingredients for 4 portions of delicious seven-spice chicken:
- olive oil
- 2 tsp Ghee (1 tsp for sauce)
- 600 g chicken (breast, boneless)
- salt
- 3 tsp cilantro seeds
- 2 tsp cardamom seeds (ca 5 pods)
- a piece of ginger (ca 2 cm, chopped thinly)
- 1 tsp Garam Masala
- 2 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- half tsp chili powder
- 400-500 ml tomato sauce
- 3 Tbsp coconut milk (creamy one from a can)
- ½ lemon (juice)
- chives (garnish)
First, cut your chicken into smaller pieces. I cut it in 2 cm thick slices/cubes. Drizzle some olive oil in a larger frying pan, add the Ghee and once it gets hot, add the chicken. Season it with salt and sauté until golden brown on all sides.
Second, take the chicken out of the pan (keeping the oil in the pan) and prepare the sauce. Add one spoon of Ghee to the pan. Once it melts, add the coriander seeds, ginger and cardamom seeds. Cook for a minute on medium heat. Don’t forget to stir. When you smell the nice aromas coming out, add the Garam Masala, sweet paprika, chili powder and cinnamon. As said before, you decide the right amount of chili powder you want to use. Keep stirring for about 2 minutes or until you smell the fabulous aromas.
And third, put the chicken back in the pan and stir well in order to coat all the pieces with the seven spice mix. Then add the tomato sauce and cook for 15 minutes. Let it simmer on medium heat. In the end, add the coconut milk and lemon juice, stir and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
Serve this delicious seven spice chicken topped with chives. I think it goes great together. Chive has a slight onion aroma. And in case you find the sauce too spicy, add a spoon of yoghurt. That will calm down your taste buds.
Enjoy!
