I Tried Taylor Swift's Favorite Chicken Dinner Recipe and It's a Winner

After enjoying countless hours of Taylor Swift’s music, I’ve learned a few things. Mostly that if it weren’t for the talented-musician part, we’re actually quite similar. We both love antiques and thrift stores, we’ve both dated men who didn’t deserve us, and we’re both excellent cooks.

While we have a lot in common, the cooking part is probably where we’re most alike. Swift has excellent taste in birthday cakes, cookies, and celebrity chef recipes, like a total classic from Ina Garten.

A few years ago, Swift did an interview with “Elle” magazine in which she revealed “30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30.” Number 10 on the list was “three recipes I know I’ll be making at dinner parties for life.” 

Taylor Swift’s Favorite Chicken Dinner Is Nigella Lawson’s Mughlai Chicken

Included in that list was celebrity chef Nigella Lawson’s Mughlai Chicken. Of course, I was Intrigued, so I searched for Lawson’s recipe and sighed. It was a good and bad sigh. Good, because after reading it, I knew Swift was on to something—this recipe did sound pretty awesome. Bad, because there were over 20 ingredients, many steps, and I could already see the stack of dirty dishes piling up in my sink. But I persisted.

How To Make Taylor Swift’s Favorite Chicken Dinner

The recipe begins with processing ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, and chili flakes into a paste. Ground almonds and water are added, and everything gets processed again. Next, chicken thighs are cooked in a large pan, just long enough to get some color. 

After removing the chicken, Nigella adds cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick, a few bay leaves, and cloves to the pan along with some onions. Once the onions have softened, the ginger paste mixture is added to the pan, along with yogurt, chicken stock, cream, and golden raisins. 

The chicken also goes back in and is sprinkled with a bit of garam masala, sugar, and salt. The pan gets covered and then cooks over low heat until the chicken is fully cooked, which takes about 20 minutes. The final touch is a garnish of toasted sliced almonds.

Lawson doesn’t share ideas on serving, so I went with my gut and scooped mine over bowls of jasmine rice. I even added some spinach for a bit of color. 

My Honest Review of Taylor Swift’s Favorite Chicken Dinner Recipe 

I grabbed my fork, took a bite, and said a silent “thank you” to both Lawson and Swift. It was indeed delicious. There were so many flavors at work, and they all seemed to complement each other. The sauce was rich and luxurious thanks to the blend of warm spices paired with both cream and yogurt. It was fantastic, but like Swift, I think I’ll reserve the involved dish only for special occasions.