I decided to allocate a rather large amount of area to fenugreek because it happens to be a difficult to get hold of herb as compared to say, parsley, coriander and mint. It’s certainly not available at the Lidl near my house, lol. *The convenience of having it available fresh just a few steps away from the kitchen was definitely appealing. Fresh fenugreek goes wonderfully in a variety of dishes including as Methi Gosht, in any vegetable curry (like my Mixed Sabzi) and it also is wonderful when a small amount is chopped and stirred into shorba style curries such as Aloo Gosht and Chicken Salan. Fenugreek, in my experience, has been very easy to grow. I planted fenugreek seeds (the same you’d use in cooking) alongside some coriander and parsley seeds back in January. My coriander and parsley is yet to sprout (it’s now May, I don’t think they’ll ever sprout, lol I think they have died), however my fenugreek patch is abundantly growing. It’s even managed to survive 2 days of snow! I am pleasantly surprised - I am definitely not green fingered, so this is a huge win for me. If you have the space and the desire, I’d definitely recommend my readers to try your hand at growing some. You can grow them in pots too, they don’t seem to be very fussy. Now that I’ve gotten all that green-fingered advice off my chest, lets talk about the Methi Chicken recipe. This is a pretty simple recipe - both in way of method and spices. I haven’t overloaded this recipe with loads of spices as I prefer the flavour of the methi to really shine through.
How to make Methi Chicken
We start by dicing and frying an onion over a medium high heat. The finer, the better as otherwise there will be large bits of onion in the curry which isn’t really the look and feel we’re going for. Ideally, you want to get a finer dice than I’ve shown in the image below. In all honesty, you can even grind the onions in a food processor before using them. Once the onion is turning golden, add in chicken and ginger garlic paste. Sauté everything until the chicken no longer remains pink. Next, add in some yogurt, spices and fresh green chilli, preferably made into a paste (I always use a pestle and mortar to quickly break it down). Sauté everything together until the mixture looks dry and the oil begins to separate around the edges. Add in some water, bring to a boil, cover and then simmer on low for about 25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked. Whilst the chicken is cooking, you can go ahead and chop up the fenugreek. A fine chop is best, and focus mainly on getting the leaves - a few stems are OK but not too many. Once the chicken is done, stir in the fenugreek and then cook everything uncovered until the consistency of the curry is how you’d like it. Below is an image of the pot just as I had added the fenugreek in, prior to the leaves fully wilting. You can keep the curry as watery or as thick as you prefer. I prefer a drier Methi Chicken, so I sauté it till most of the water is dried out. Your Methi Chicken is ready at this point and can be served immediately or saved for later. Serve warm!
Some additional Methi Chicken tips:
I’ve used yogurt in this recipe as I wanted to keep the colour of the masala neutral, allowing for the colour of the methi to be the focal point. If you would like to use tomatoes in this recipe, I would say one medium sized tomato is ample for the quantities in this recipe If you want to make this recipe but don’t have access to fresh methi, you may be able to use something called kasoori methi, which is essentially dried fenugreek leaf. I haven’t personally tried this in this specific recipe, but I have tried substituting fresh fenugreek for kasoori methi in other recipes with success. If you would like to use kasoori methi in this recipe, I would say start off by adding 5tbsp when the recipe asks you to add the fenugreek, stir and then see how it looks. You may need to add some more to get the right amount of body. I’ll try this myself soon and update this recipe with my findings. As mentioned in the instructions above, a fine dice is best for this recipe. You may grind the onions before using them in this recipe if you prefer Methi Chicken will freeze well - pack in an airtight container or bag before freezing and consume within 3 months
On growing fresh fenugreek at home
Look at me, getting all big for my boots, talking about how to grow fenugreek with a total of one successful harvest to my name LOL. But I figure this will be a popular question and could potentially be of interest to many, so I am just bullet pointing my experience
To grow fresh fenugreek (methi), you can use the same fenugreek seeds in your spice cabinet! Amazing, isn’t it? I prepared the soil by pulling out any weeds and then pouring over fresh soil, bringing my spice jar out and quite literally just sprinkling over the seeds. That’s it, for reals. I did not space them out in any way, I just tried to sprinkle it evenly around the patch. I finished it off by sprinkling some additional soil over them. They seemed to grow quite rapidly - I only watered them when the soil looked dry and it hadn’t rained in a few days. To harvest, don’t pull them out from the roots. Cut the stalks off using a knife or scissor but leave some of the stem in tact, so the shoots can regrow. You can freeze fresh fenugreek too - just wash, chop and then freeze in an airtight bag or container
I hope you make this recipe! And I also hope you may take on some of my novice gardening tips and grow your own fenugreek patch 😉 Enjoy, with love x
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