Slow Cooker Chicken Saag Curry
My slow cooker chicken saag curry is an easy to make, fairly mild curry with spinach that goes down well with my whole family and is an easy way to pack in the vegetables! Full of goodness, it fills the house with delicious aromas as it cooks.
We love spinach and I was looking for a curry without coconut milk so it would be quite light and low in calories. Slow cooker chicken saag curry seemed to tick all the boxes. Spinach (saag) is a great ingredient to include in a curry. This is a delicious, fairly mild curry (as I made it) which is suitable for all the family. Making it in the slow cooker lets the flavours develop and mix together during the long cooking time, which is ideal for a curry.
I adapted this recipe from one I found on the Mamta’s Kitchen site here. I also regularly make this recipe with diced chicken thigh instead of chicken breasts, and usually make it without browning the onions off first, and it works just as well if you throw the ingredients straight into the pot. This makes it perfect for when you are short on time!
This recipe is great too if you are eating healthily as it is not full of cream, oil or any of those nasties. Simple to make and low in fat and great for Weight Watchers and eating clean!
I just love the colour when it is served, a plate full of colour is always the best. The spinach disintegrates and the tomato-based sauce has a lovely rich colour.
If you try my recipe for slow cooker chicken saag curry let me know what you thought by leaving a comment.
A mild and tasty slow cooker curry your family will love
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp of lazy ginger or 1 cm piece of real ginger grated
- 0.5 tsp to 1 hot chilli powder
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp turmeric
- Grinding of salt or more to your taste
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 small carton (500 passata
- 4 chopped chicken breasts or a pack of diced chicken thigh
- 200 g spinach chopped if you like (I leave mine whole)
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Brown onion, garlic and ginger in the oil.
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When browned, add the spices except the garam masala and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
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Add the passata.
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Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Add the garam masala.
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Add the spinach and let it wilt. Stir to mix it in once wilted.
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Pour the mixture into your slow cooker.
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Add the chopped chicken and combine with the sauce.
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Cook on low for 6-7 hours.
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Half an hour before the end, taste and add more garam masala if needed.
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If you like, pull the chicken apart and stir into the sauce. This helps make the chicken go a bit further I find.
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Serve with rice, poppadoms or naan bread and raita.
Alternative method for when you are short on time:
- Add the onion, garlic, ginger and all the spices into the slow cooker pot.
- Add the passata and mix to combine.
- Add the chicken and mix it into the sauce.
- Place the spinach on top.
- Then follow from point 8 above.
Pin it for later:
Yummy looking curry! Next time I buy chicken that’s what I am making, loving the look of your rice, how was that done?
Love cooking in my slow cooker great to find a blog like yours and a UK one bonus lol
It was rather tasty! I think the rice was a cheating Uncle Ben’s pouch to be honest. Bit silly after making the curry from scratch really! Glad you like the blog, keep reading 🙂
Lol at cheating, nothing wrong in that! And will definitely keep reading 🙂
Hi. This looks really good and I’m going to give it a go at the weekend! What size slow cooker did you use? Thanks
Hi Simon, great, it is really tasty. I used a 3.5 litre slow cooker for this one.
Brilliant. Thanks for confirming!
on the ingredients it says 1 ginger is that whole ginger of 1 tsp/tbsp
Hey there, I just checked the post and it says 1 big spoon of grated ginger, so you could use 1 tsp or 1 tbsp or to your taste really. hope that helps.
This is currently in my slow cooker. Thanks il let you know. Looks delicious. How many does it serve?
I use 1 chicken breast per person so this served 4 at our house, depends how much chicken you like to have really. Enjoy!
Lovely thank you. Smells divine already. 🙂
This curry is a must in my home, I found the recipe on Facebook a while ago and since then probably had at least 3-4 times a month. My husband loves it, it is delicious and so easy to do. Thank you Lucy I love your recipes xx
Great to hear, thanks Amy!
If I cook this for 8 people with I have to double the ingredients? Stupid question u know?!
Yes I would but be careful with the chilli powder if you don’t want it too hot!
Thank you! It looks & smells lovely! Maybe need to thicken it up a little though?
You could try taking the lid off for the last hour or so she cooking on high? Happy new year
[…] you like this slow cooker chilli and lime chicken recipe, you may also like my slow cooker chicken saag curry, slow cooker chickpea and paneer curry or my slow cooker chicken pasanda curry. Look out too for my […]
Just about to prep this curry for slow cooker. Looking fwd to the curry smells whilst doing jobs. Will update on results later. Hoping it’s as good as the Pasanda
Great Sue, let me know how you get on
That looks so delicious and how gorgeous must the house smell by the time it’s time to eat? I think lamb saag is one of my all time favourites though I wouldn’t say no to a big plate of this!
We often use our slow cooker for making curries, for a quick and easy meal, but I need to try adding some spinach to them next time too.
My only complaint about this dish is we have no leftovers for Thursday night cos we’ve eaten the lot! Scrummy
Brilliant Lisa! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Do i add water halfway after adding all ingrediants? Do i put the chicken in raw in sc
No water just as stated in the recipe, yes chicken goes in raw
Could I use 200g of frozen chopped spinach instead of fresh?
You could though it may make it a bit runny
[…] chicken saag curry looks mouth watering too. There’s nothing better than slow cooked chicken that falls apart and […]
We made this for dinner last night, it was delicious. Thank you for sharing! xx
Brilliant, thanks so much for stopping by and letting me know!
I’m trying the Atkin Diet this week is this meant to have a relative lot of calories in
You can use a tool like MyFitnessPal to calculate the calories to see if it meets your needs. I haven’t calculated this I’m afraid and it would depend on the weight etc of ingredients you use
Hi. Did u stir the spinach in before cooking or just put it on the top?
Hi, I did what it says in the recipe and stirred it to mix in when wilted. Much easier then as it is soft.
Its looks so delicious. Thanks for sharing this with us.
This is currently simmering away in my slow cooker but I wanted to ask what temperature do you cook this at. I know it says slow cooker but my slow cooker has a range of temperatures. Thank you.
Hi there Beth, I cook this on the standard slow cooker low setting for around 6-8 hours usually. Not sure what kind of slow cooker you have if it has specific temperatures sorry, might be worth looking in the instructions that come with it for what setting to use to cook all day.
I follow a low calorie diet as I like myself and my family to eat healthy meals. I made this yesterday 17 Jan 18 and it was absolutely delicious I would definitely recommend. I hope to follow more of this ladies recipes. Thank you hun so tasty would say make it as it is. I don’t like hot food so changed the hot chilli powder with mild chilli powder
Done this tonight using chicken thighs and can honestly say it’s the best tasting curry not from a take away.
Brilliant Trissy I am so glad to hear thar
I just ate chicken curry with potatoes and carrots but looking at this makes me want to cook curry again xD Pin it! Gonna try for sure 🙂 🙂
Hi….. could I add a cream to this?
Hi Sarah, yes you could stir in some cream just before serving. Don’t add it during cooking though or it will split. Yum!
Made this for dinner yesterday and it was amazing. The only thing I changed was that I put the spinach in right at the end so it just had time to wilt before serving.
Thank you very much for your reply….. I’m making this today, very excited to eat it later. Will post pics and let you know how it went
This curry has turned out so well. It not just tastes amazing but also has a beautiful color which we can alter by changing the spices.
Stephanie