Indian Spiced Chicken Quinoa Pilaf
This is really tasty and very delicious…despite the not-so-great photos!
A lovely blend of fragrant spices with tender chicken, soft vegetables, squidgy quinoa…
…and the creamy yoghurt on top teams really well with the pilaf.
I found this recipe on taste.com.au. The originally recipe is from the 2nd last edition of Notebook magazine in 2010.
I love food with flavour so the spice mix really appealed to me. However I felt the original recipe was missing vegetables, so I cut back on the amount of quinoa and added vegetables. I served the pilaf with sauteed rainbow chard one night and steamed broccoli the next. They were perfect accompaniments.
I liked that the recipe made several serves since I like to cook more so that I can take any leftovers for lunch. Although the recipe suggests that the dish makes 4 serves, we got 6 meals easily out of it. That was two yummy dinners and two scrumptious lunches – perfect 🙂
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 500g (approx 4) chicken thigh fillets, cut into thirds (or ¼'s if very large)
- 1 large brown onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
- 1 long fresh green chilli, seeded, finely chopped, optional
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon black mustard seeds (I only had yellow ones, so I used them)
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 cup (190g) quinoa
- 2 cups (500ml) chicken stock
- 2 small zucchinis (200g)
- 1 large eggplant (260g)
- 2½ cups, approx (300g) diced pumpkin
- 1 cup (150g) fresh or frozen peas
- ½ cup coarsely chopped coriander leaves
- 9 tablespoons low fat Greek style yoghurt, to serve
- Heat a large frying pan over medium heat.
- When hot, add the oil and the chicken and cook for 3 minutes, until brown.
- Turn the chicken over and cook until lightly browned, then transfer to a bowl.
- Add onion to pan and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onion softens and begins to brown.
- Add a little water if it starts to stick.
- Add garlic, ginger, chilli, cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, fennel seeds and turmeric to the pan and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until aromatic.
- Add quinoa, stock, zucchini, eggplant, pumpkin and chicken. Bring to the boil.
- Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, for 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and quinoa is tender.
- Remove from heat. Scatter peas over quinoa. Set aside, covered, for 5 minutes.
- Spoon the pilaf into bowls, top with yoghurt and coriander.
- Serve with steamed broccoli or sauteed rainbow chard.
Per serve (Pilaf with 1 1/2 tablespoons of yoghurt): 1027kJ or 245 Calories; P 25g Fat 11g SFat 3g CHO 32g Fibre 6g
Tried this recipe out for something a bit different. I love quinoa but was getting stuck having it the same way for a while. This recipe is so easy and absolutely delicious!! Will definitely make again. The best thing is that you can mix it up with whatever vegetables you have and it still works out great!
Hi Adrienne
Thanks so much for your feedback. It is so good to hear people enjoying my recipes
🙂