Spinach Chicken / Palak Murg

Palak Murg is one of the famous dish from North India. Again there are many recipes for it, but the one I'm going to write down today is..... I can say authentic to my family, as it's not using spinach puree & also lot of onion & tomatoes are used in this one. Today's recipe is very simple in two ways : first there are no measurements, no particular recipe to follow and second it's cooked by him( reason for no measurements & no recipe). In regular day to day cooking we don't do measurements but when it comes to cooking by him, I'm never sure what will be the final dish but one thing is sure, no matter what he puts in the dish or how it looks like the taste is surely going to be superb. As I said I don't have exact measurements for the ingredients but I'm still gonna write down the basic ingredients & steps, it can be easily adjusted to your taste.

What U need :

• around 2 pound(1 kg.) chicken, cleaned, washed & cut into pieces
• lots of onion(around 4-5)
• lots of tomatoes(if u think 4 are O.k add one more)
• 2 Tblsp. of tomato paste
• lots of green hot peppers(may be 6-7)
• spinach as much u want, washed & chopped
• any store bought chicken masala powder
• cumin (jeera)
• cloves (laung)
• cinnamon stick (dal chini)
• garam masala
• cooking oil

For marinade :

• lots of ginger & garlic roughly chopped
• salt
• turmeric(haldi)
• paprika
  
• coriander(dhania) powder
•  1/2 cup plain yoghurt/dahi

What U do :

1. Mix everything in the marinade list in a big bowl & add chicken to it, coat it with the mixture. Keep it in the fridge for whatever time U have on hand (for an hour to maximum overnight, around 12 hrs. or so).
2. Bring it out of the fridge, at least half an hour before cooking.
3. Heat oil in a big wide pan/karahi. Splutter whole spices in it. Add chopped onions. Saute them well.
4. Once the onions are done add tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, green hot peppers. Let the mixture cook.
5. Add chicken masala powder & marinated chicken alongwith all the marinade.
6. Once the chicken is 90% done add chopped spinach. If at any point it gets dry add some water.
7. Cook till chicken is completely done. Sprinkle some garam masala on top of it.
8. Serve it with naan / roti / rice.

Note : If using store bought chicken masala, adjust the salt in the dish, as many a times those spice packets have salt in it.