When Do I Remove The Spices From The Mughlai Chicken?

Our answer

Nigella's Mughlai Chicken (from FEAST) is an aromatic and creamy dish that is ideal if you need something luxurious that can be made in advance. The spices are a combination of ground and whole spices, including a cinnamon stick, whole cloves and bruised or gently crushed cardamom pods.

If you want to remove the whole spices then you should do this just before serving, along with the bay leaves. If you have made the Mughlai Chicken in advance then leave the spices in when you cool and refrigerate the chicken and while you reheat it. The cinnamon stick is easy to recover. It may need a little more patience to fish out the cloves and the cardamom pods (which should have released their seeds into the sauce during cooking), or you could just warn eaters to remove the cloves and cardamom pods when they find them.