Chicken Tikka Masala

*Post by Angela.

I'm in the beginnings of a crush phase with Indian food, a phase that started with my trip to Saffron. After grabbing dinner at Gate of India in West Hollywood the other night, I decided to forget about my not-entirely-successful attempt to make Indian food at home and give it another try with this recipe for one of the most common Indian dishes, chicken tikka masala. Because I was making dinner for guests and also hoping to have leftovers, I tripled the chicken and marinade and quadrupled the sauce, and I gotta say, it was a good call. We've been eatin' good ever since.

List of ingredients for the marinade:

• 4 1/2 lbs chicken, cubed into bite-sized pieces
• 3 cups plain yogurt
• 6 tbsp lemon juice
• 6 tsp cumin
• 6 tsp cayenne
• 6 tsp ground black pepper
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 3-inch piece of ginger, about as thick around as your thumb

If you can believe it, I actually had all the spices, including garam masala (which figures into the sauce, down below). I'm not sure exactly why I bought it, but in any event, I was very pleased.

First, I mixed together the cumin, cayenne, black pepper, cinnamon, and salt together in a little bowl. If a recipe contains a mix of spices, I generally like to mix just those spices together before adding them to any wet ingredients so that the spices are well distributed throughout whatever it is I'm making.

 

I prepped the rest of ingredients for the marinade, which included chopping up a whole mess of ginger and squeezing the lemons, then mixing the yogurt, ginger, and lemon juice together with the spice mix.

I tossed the chicken pieces in the marinade, covered it and stuck it in the fridge for 3 hours. After watching a couple of back episodes of Conan, I moved onto the sauce.

List of ingredients for the sauce:

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 jalepenos, seeded and diced (pith removed)
• 8 tsp coriander
• 4 tsp cumin
• 4 tsp paprika
• 4 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 29-oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 6-oz can of tomato paste
• 4 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro

First, I melted the butter over medium heat, then sauteed the jalepeno and garlic for just a minute or two.  Then I tossed in coriander, cumin, paprika, garam masala and salt.

I added the tomato sauce and tomato paste, gave it a good mix, then simmered the sauce on low heat for about 15 minutes.

While the sauce was simmering, I took the chicken out of the fridge, shook off the marinade and cooked it in the grill pan.

I added the cream to the sauce, simmered an additional 5-7 minutes, then added the chicken.

 

I simmered an additional 5 minutes, and that was it! I served the chicken tikka masala over white rice, and topped it with some chopped cilantro. I'm not sure that it would pass muster with an Indian food expert, but everyone at the table thought it was pretty delicious. Next up? I want to try my hand at saag paneer, I just have to figure out where to get the paneer.

Comments

[foodwanderings]

That's my girl!! So proud of you! All pics a gogeous but few resonated with me, really painting the process, depth, color and flavor of dish so beaitifully. Third pic, the spice mix, fourth pic, the ginger dice and ninth pic the deep red sauce on the stove. I am making dahl as we speak:). Great job and looking forward to more posts as you exploring Indian flavors. Yay, I achieved a sane comment:).

[Angela]

Aw, thanks, Shulie! Your comments are always wonderful, and so are you. I'm going to look over your archive as I continue to explore Indian food.

[Lisa]

Aahhh I feel ashamed that I'm half-Indian and still have not attempted to cook any Indian dishes from scratch. I have so much to learn. But I'm glad I have you guys to to learn from!

[City Girl]

Wow! This looks and sounds great! I might even venture a go at this recipe. How spicy would you say it is? xoxo