Chicken Tikka Masala - Natalie Paramore

Why hello there. I’ve been hibernating over the holidays and my apologies in neglecting to post. The holidays aren’t quite over yet so I wanted to share one of my indulgences with you all.

Over the past year or so I’ve really been into Indian food. Probably due to the fact that a new Indian place opened up across the street. Not to mention it’s BYOW (bring your own wine) and they dont charge a corking fee, score! Tikka Masala is great starter dish if you’re a newbie. It’s often served as a vegetarian dish or with chicken or shrimp. The beef addition is definitely an American adaptation. Since I eat this dish out so much I decided to learn how to make it myself.

This required adding some extra spices to my collection but definitely worth it if you ask me. Hopefully, it will inspire me to make some more Indian dishes.

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did!

You’ll need:

2-3 chicken breasts (I think I wound up using about 16oz)

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

280z of diced tomatoes

2 cups of rice

1 large onion

Fresh ginger

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used plain greek yogurt)

8 oz or 1 stick of butter

4-5 cloves of fresh garlic

Kosher salt

Coriander

Turmeric

Garam Masala

Cumin

Optional Ingredients:

Cilantro

Serrano pepper

Green Peas

After you gather all those ingredients, let’s get to cooking!

Poke your chicken breasts a few times with a fork.

Sprinkle kosher salt over both sides of the chicken.

Now, sprinkle coriander and cumin on both sides of the chicken.

Generously cover both sides of the chicken with yogurt.

Then place your coated chicken breasts onto a wire rack that sits on a baking sheet covered in foil. You don’t have to cook the chicken on a wire rack if you don’t have one, it just helps the chicken cook evenly and speeds things up a bit.

Place the chicken in the oven and broil for 5-7 minutes then flip and broil 5-7 more minutes. My broiler wasn’t working properly at the time, so I cranked up the heat to 450 degrees and watched it. It should char a little on the edges, that’s how you’ll know it’s done.

ta-da!

Meanwhile, dice up your onion and other fresh ingredients.

Fresh peeled ginger, dice this up.

Mince up some fresh garlic cloves. I always add extra garlic, can’t help it, I love the stuff!

Thinly slice up the serrano pepper. I used one but if you like it spicey, add more! I was trying not to scare off my guests with my passion for spiciness.

Ok, now time to start on the rice. One part rice to two parts water. One cup of rice will probably suffice. Add 4 oz of butter.

Add a tablespoon or two of turmeric. This will give the rice that gorgeous yellow color and a little flavor too. Bring this to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and let cook as you normally would with rice.

Alright, let’s get started on the sauce! First, melt about 4oz of butter in a large sauce pan.

Throw in your diced onion with the melted butter and let brown a little.

Add in your fresh ginger and garlic. Sprinkle a little kosher salt too.

Here is that brown color we are talking about. If you scrape the bottom of the pan, the brown bits will start to come up. That’s ok.

Add about 3 tablespoons of Garam Masala. Stir this around. Should be getting very fragrant!

If you like the heat, now is the time to add those serranos!

Mix in that big can of tomatoes!

Steamy!

Add in a little sugar. I grabbed a packet of turbinado sugar. Any sugar will do, no more than a tablespoon.

Mix that all together and let simmer for a few minutes. The longer you let it simmer, the more heat will cook out of your serranos. AKA making it less spicy.

After about 3 or so minutes of simmering, time to add the cream. Things are really starting to come together!

Mix, mix, mix.

Remember that rice? Well, it should be about done now. Add about a cup of frozen peas right into the pot the rice is cooking in. Mix it up. The hot rice will cook the peas just right!