Chicken Tikka Masala; image by Stephen Rees via Flickr CC license.
One of my favorite Indian dishes is Chicken Tikka Masala. Well, that and Sag Paneer and Samosas and a lot of other Indian foods. But I digress. The other night I planned to make Chicken Tikka Masala for dinner using a crock pot recipe. Usually the problem I have with crock pot recipes is that I never seem to have time to actually put the stuff in the crock pot in the morning before I go to work. So that is kind of a fatal flaw in the whole plan to use a crock pot recipe.
When I got around to making dinner the only option was to make it on the stove top.
I realized I did not have one of the critical ingredients: Garam Masala. I DID have an empty jar of it from Penzeys so I read the list of ingredients on the label then gathered as many of those spices as I could from my spice cupboard (or should I say spice “hoard” — I have a LOT of spices). I looked online for recipes that could be made without Garam Masala and found a couple I thought sounded good. I used those two recipes as a guide, combining them and added a few things of my own. The result was DELICIOUS; maybe the best Indian dish I’ve made at home ever.
Chicken Tikka Masala; image by James via Flickr CC license.
Here is what I made:
Order of operations: Marinate the chicken, start the sauce, start the rice, cook the chicken, finish the sauce, combine chicken with sauce (add cilantro and cream if desired), serve with rice (and raita and naan if available).
Marinade:
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
- ½ t. cardamom
- ¼ t. cloves
- ¼ t. nutmeg
- ½ to 1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoons salt, or to taste
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
Combine all the marinade ingredients and mix well. You could use Garam Masala in place of some of the spices or just add 1 or 2 t. to the marinade with all the other spices. Add the chicken pieces. Let the chicken marinate in the yogurt sauce as long as you have time (mine only marinated for about 15 minutes).
Chicken Tikka Masala yogurt and spice marinade; image by JaBB via Flickr CC license.
Either grill the chicken on skewers (which is the better way and makes a more yummy tasting final product) or brown it in small batches in a hot skillet with a little EVOO and butter til nicely browned (which is what I did because it was raining and I didn’t want to run in and out to the grill in the rain).
Grilling the chicken for Chicken Tikka Masala; image by Drew McClellan via Flickr CC license.
Sauce:
- 1 T. butter and 1 T. olive oil
- 1 large onion, minced
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ t. cayenne pepper
- 1 t. ground cumin
- 1 t. paprika
- ½ t. salt, or to taste
- 1 (14 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes, drained
- 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
Heat the EVOO and butter in a 3 qt. or larger pan. Saute the onion until it softens. Add the spices and salt and cook about 5 minutes more. Drain the petite diced tomatoes; add the tomatoes to the pan with the can of tomato sauce. Continue to simmer the mixture while you are cooking the chicken (either on the stove or on a grill). Just before you are ready to add the chicken to the sauce, use an immersion blender to puree the sauce and make it somewhat smoother. (You can skip this step, but your sauce will be lumpier).
Add the grilled/browned chicken to the sauce. Heat through and/or simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the rice is ready. Then add the final ingredients below:
- ½ c. half and half (optional)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Chicken Tikka Masala; image by July Frost via Flickr CC license.
Rice:
I cook my rice on the stovetop. Heat 3 c. of water or broth (you can add 1/2 t. sweet curry or a few strands of saffron) and 1/2 t. salt or so to boiling. Add 1 1/2 c. of basmati rice (can rinse it first, but I don’t always do that). Stir. Turn the heat down so it will still be simmering, cover tightly and set the timer for 13 or 14 minutes.
Serve the Chicken Tikka Masala over hot basmati rice with warm naan bread (Trader Joe’s has frozen naan that is very good) and cool smooth tangy raita.
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