Nepalese Chicken Tarkari with Spiced Tomato Sauce from Blue Apron Reviewed

This was, of course, another winner recipe from Blue Apron.  It took me a while to actually cook and plate, but I can’t figure out why it took me so long. Essentially, it’s a very simple recipe. Cooked rice with spinach, tomato sauce, and pan fried chicken.

Though you won’t be able to find the specific spice blend contained in the Blue Apron package, you can probably look up Nepalese spice blends online to make your own. It was very yellow, so I assume that it was turmeric based, perhaps with nutmeg, ground pepper, cumin, or cilantro. I’m just guessing though, so feel free to experiment!

While the rice boiled with garlic, salt, and pepper, I started to prepare other parts of the meal. The spinach was simple, just cook and cut.

I was genuinely surprised at how much ginger was used in this dish. I love ginger, so was very excited to see what we were going to use this for. I was also surprised that we were mincing ginger, and that it would be added directly to the sauce. Lots of times you just use the ginger flavor since it’s quite strong. At least in Chinese cooking I’ve done, you just smash the ginger, extract the flavor, then discard the leftover fibrous material.

Woohoo! Looking forward to that tomato sauce!

The chicken was pretty standard – salt, pepper, spice blend, and cook on both sides then set somewhere while you cook the sauce. Unfortunately, the caused the chicken to cool since I was using the same pan to cook the tomato sauce. If you’ve got an extra pan, you may want to prep the sauce first, then cook the chicken last. It’s easier to keep a sauce warm, rather than keep chicken warm and risk overcooking.

Mmmm. With the yellow turmeric, the chicken turned a beautiful color, golden brown on both sides.

I skipped a photo below, but I actually sautéed the ginger pieces with olive oil and the spice blend. It looked kind of weird, and I got scared that the sauce was going to be too strong in flavor. I was wrong – it was delicious, and no too gingery or spicy. But I wanted to mention it in case you get scared while frying up the ginger.

I also was not sure how the creme fraiche was going to play out, but it seemed to thicken the sauce rather than make it actually taste creamy. Another pro-tip from Blue Apron!

Easy peasy – mix the chopped spinach into the rice. Maybe use this trick to get your kids to eat some veggies! Although, this was my only complaint about this meal. The rice looked so delicious, but actually was quite plain. I didn’t really taste the garlic or the spinach. Just white rice.

Oh well, still tasted good.

I was cooking away from home this time (notice the different countertop). Actually, when I receive my Blue Apron delivery I keep the temperature controlled package and ice packs, then lug around ingredients and cook on the road! It makes it fun when you can get away somewhere for the weekend and bring along awesome, prepackaged recipes without needing to go shopping and buy all new ingredients, or prep beforehand and take your own.

This was a delicious recipe. Actually, I found that I really enjoyed eating the sauce just by itself, so I think this sauce would go good with a lot of dishes like pasta, pork, cooked veggies, or as a rice topping.

Don’t forget to check out my other Blue Apron reviews and see if it’s a service you’d like to try to improve your own culinary skills or just mix up what you cook for dinner each week!