It’s not one of the big ones. But it’s a really good one. And a great way to sneak in a bit of greens. Although this isn’t really a sneak. Spinach is what makes this dish great. It there. Balanced perfectly against the other big flavours. A bit of magic. You have to taste it to understand. And you really do need to taste it. All the cool kids are eating palak chicken curry. Just ask them.
Palak chicken is spinach chicken curry
NO! You are saying NO. I can hear you. Everybody knows spinach curry is called saag. Or saagwala. It even says saagwala in the title. I put saagwala in the title on purpose. So you’d find this. And hopefully read enough of this post to get to this point. Saag is greens in Hindi. Spinach is a green. But it’s not the only green. Chard is a green. Mustards greens – well the name says it all. Kale is a green too. Not a great green though. I don’t know the word for kale in Hindi. My guess is blech. Could be yuck. Hard to say. Palak is the name of a specific green. Spinach. So palak chicken curry is spinach chicken curry. Spinach chicken sounds terrible though. Who would order that? My guess is nobody. Palak chicken is way better marketing. I’d totally order palak chicken curry. And I’d love it. Maybe if they had a cool name for kale I’d order that too. But I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t love it.
This is the posh restaurant version of palak chicken
If you’ve been around glebekitchen you can probably skip this section. If you’re new read on. This is fancy restaurant cooking. It’s not what you may be used to if you already cook restaurant style. This isn’t the one size fits all base gravy approach. You don’t have to fry your gravy hard to get the taste. You don’t have to put up with the mess either. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with restaurant style. Not at all. I’m a fan. Look around. There are many, many restaurant style recipes here. I cook them all the time. It’s fun. And it’s tasty. And it is just exactly what you’re getting at your local Indian restaurant I bet. But if you want to cook like the best restaurants. Or like you ate in restaurants in India. Then hotel style is worth a hard look.
Hotel style is about deeper flavours
When I want to pull out all the stops. When I want to really impress. That’s when I go for hotel style. It’s about a few specialized gravies. The right tool for the job. Think fine dining. You wouldn’t make a brown sauce for rack of lamb using béchamel. And you don’t make all your curries using the same base gravy. Not when you’re cooking hotel style anyway. It’s a different approach. Hotel style is about deeply flavoured gravies. Restaurant style gravy is bland by design. Hotel style goes the other way. Put as much of the right flavours in a gravy. And use that gravy where it fits. You don’t shoe-horn the wrong gravy into a recipe. You use a different one. Or you use combinations. A little of this one. A little of that one. High-end cooking.
Put palak chicken in your curry rotation
Palak chicken curry or chicken saag may not be your go to curry. It may not even be one you’ve heard of. But it’s tasty stuff. A little spicy. Earthy. Almost rustic. Lush at the same time. And deeply flavoured. That’s the magic of hotel style cooking. When you need a break from madras or jalfrezi or whatever your favourite is remember this. Order it next time. Or better yet, make it yourself. You owe your tastebuds this one.
