Chicken Tikka Masala ala Tromp Queen

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.

Raita; image by Jules via Flickr CC license.

Chicken Tikka Masala; image by Guy Dickinson via Flickr CC license.

Manti

When we visited Turkey a couple of years ago, one of the meals our two teenagers enjoyed most was a big dish of Manti. According to a wonderful Turkish cookbook I have,

Manti are the ravioli of Anatolia. They are admittedly a little fussy to make, as the dough is to be rolled thinly and cut into fine squares, filled with a smidgeon of meat and sealed into neat little parcels. But the effort is well worth it – they taste delicious with the traditional distinctive yogurt, garlic and herbed butter topping.

For our young Turkish niece and nephew, Manti is one of their favorite comfort foods — it is their macaroni and cheese.

After looking through my lovely Turkish cookbook, my daughter asked if we could try making homemade Manti. We go the ingredients and dove into the process. My daughter and I made the dough, rolled it as thinly as we could then cut it into 1 1/2″ squares. We stuffed each square with meat and pinched the corners shut into the special four corner shaped little packets.

Image by thebittenword via Flickr CC license

Image by thebittenword via Flickr CC license

This took FOREVER! After all that the only thing left to do is boil them for a few minutes until they are cooked through (and float in the boiling water) and cook the simple yogurt sauce that goes on top.

Restaurant worker making tiny manti pasta in Istanbul. The best manti originated in Kayseri and is filled with minced lamb. Image by Phil Norton via Flickr CC license

We came to the conclusion that using meat-filled tortellini would make everything so much easier and that it would taste essentially the same. So that is what I’m suggesting you do, too. Our homemade version was delicious, but we do not think the time and effort involved made a huge difference from buying ready made tortellini (except for the shape, which most Americans won’t know about anyway).

So — buy enough meat-filled tortellini for your family and cook it as directed on the package.

Manti; Image by Sean Munson via Flickr CC license

For the Manti taste, you definitely need the sauce. Here’s how to make it:

Melt 1/4 c. butter (or use extra virgin olive oil) in a skillet.
Add 2 or 3 (or more to taste) cloves of minced garlic (cook briefly), then add 2 t. paprika, 1 t. dried red chili flakes (or use 1/2 t. is you like less spice). The recipe says to add some dried mint (2 t.) but we didn’t have it that way in Turkey so I didn’t add that.

To serve:
Top each serving of hot, freshly cooked meat-filled tortellini (our Manti substitute) with a large dollop of plain Greek yogurt and a generous drizzle of the flavored butter (0r olive oil) mixture. Stir to combine as desired and season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with grated parmesan cheese.

Serve with a salad and warm, crusty bread. YUM!!

You could use cheese tortellini to make this a vegetarian dish. You could also use (meat-filled or cheese-filled) ravioli instead of tortellini if you want bigger bites. You might need to make more sauce if you use ravioli, though.

Ingredients needed:
Enough meat-filled tortellini for your folks and hot boiling salted water in which to cook it
2 c. plain Greek yogurt (full fat is better than non-fat for this dish)
1/2 c. butter or olive oil
several cloves of garlic
paprika
dried red chili flakes
(optional: dried or fresh mint)
parmesan cheese

The lovely Turkish cookbook is called Turkey: More than 100 Recipes with Tales from the Road by Leanne Kitchen.

Related Articles:

Making manti, turkish dumplings, as seen in the February 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Living. Each dumpling is filled with lamb, onion and parsley. They are served with a yogurt sauce and melted butter.

Read the recipe and all about how to make Manti here at thebittenword.com.

Image by Hui via Flickr CC License.

Middle Eastern Chicken Kebabs and Basmati Rice Pilaf

Recipe Review(s):  From “Once Upon a Chef”
Follow the links below for the original recipes.

Middle Eastern Chicken Kebabs:
http://www.onceuponachef.com/2012/09/middle-eastern-chicken-kebabs.html

Basmati Rice Pilaf:

Basmati Rice Pilaf with Dried Fruit and Almonds

Middle Eastern Chicken Kebabs from Once Upon a Chef

Basically the chicken recipe involves marinating the chopped up chicken thighs in Greek yogurt plus gobs of spices: paprika, cumin, cinnamon, crushed red pepper, black pepper, lemon juice, garlic, etc. After marinating, the chicken is threaded on kebabs and grilled. Voila! That is it. The hardest part is finding all the spices (in my messy spice cupboard) and remembering to marinate the chicken. The chef recommends marinating for several hours or overnight, but I usually manage it for about 30 minutes to an hour.

Basmati Rice Pilaf from Once Upon a Chef

For the rice pilaf, the onion is browned in butter and then the spices (turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, garlic) and basmatic rice are added to the skillet. After all those ingredients get acquainted in the hot butter, the liquid goes in. After it simmers for a while, the almonds and raisins get tossed on top before serving.

REVIEW: FIVE FORKS!

Both recipes are EXCELLENT. Yes, there are a lot of ingredients, but once you get organized it is not difficult.
I love the flavor and the healthy eating factor.

Tweaks:

I used chicken broth instead of water in the pilaf. I also added 1/2 cup more rice and about 1 1/2 cups more water. I cook rice in a 1:2 ratio of rice to water usually so I added the extra broth/water to be sure the rice would be moist and cooked through.  One could use brown rice.  A little saffron would be nice, too.

As I mentioned, I couldn’t find all the spices in my cupboard. I couldn’t find the paprika nor the turmeric. They seem to like to hide. I substituted sweet curry powder one time and Maharaja another time. I think I also used tandoori spice in a pinch. Basically anything that has turmeric in it will be fine. As always, I use Penzeys Spices.

I did not use all the salt in the marinade. I used about 1 teaspoon.

I used bottled lemon juice and left out the zest today. Sometimes I’m not in the mood to fiddle with real lemons. I used real garlic because I happened to have some, but the minced or chopped garlic in a jar would be perfectly good for this recipe.

DO use Greek plain yogurt. NO vanilla or anything other flavors!

If you don’t have time to put the chicken on skewers or if it is raining — or if you just don’t feel like grilling out — heat up some olive oil in a large skillet and brown the marinated chicken on medium high heat until the chicken is cooked through. If the marinade sticks to the skillet and begins to burn, add a little water or chicken broth to deglaze the pan. We did it this way tonight and it worked really well and tasted really great!