Chicken Tikka Masala

Keeping with my "one recipe from Pinterest a week" thing, I decided to be adventurous this week.  I made INDIAN FOOD!  I generally pride myself as being someone who will try anything, who likes a lot of different foods, etc. - but I never really knew enough about Indian food to feel comfortable enough going to an Indian restaurant and ordering it.  Tom and Missy took us to an Indian place a couple of weeks ago and ordered everything for us and it was all SO GOOD.  I couldn't even tell you what all we ate, except for a dish called Chicken Tikka Masala.  I've heard of this dish all over the place because...though I assume it has Indian roots, it's somehow become the "national dish" in England.  Which means they serve it in a lot of places here too.  They sell pre-made jarred Masala sauces and it's readily available to whoever wants it here in Ireland.

I decided to be bold.  None of this jarred shit for me.  I did my research and decided to make it from scratch, knowing nothing about it and knowing I'd have to invest in a lot of probably expensive spices and other materials that we probably don't need.  Oh well.  Upon more research, I came across a recipe for homemade naan bread, which we also had at the restaurant.  You almost HAVE to have a bread component with Indian food to mop up all the extra sauce and stuff.  Could I really make homemade naan?  I've never made anything bread-like in my life!  Well, you bet your ass I could!  I did it and it was pretty damn good!  (I'll post about that next.)

I loosely followed the recipe I found online/Pinterest for Chicken Tikka Masala, though I looked at several others and kind of combined several the recipes together.  (Even though Drew repeatedly tells me "Babe, I really don't like flying off the cuff on recipes you're doing for the first time that you know nothing about."  I smile and nod and then throw in extra spices the recipe doesn't call for or add mushrooms when it doesn't tell me too.  Like this one.  And it always turns out great so suck it!)

Side note: my kitchen still has no natural light so please excuse the pictures.  And this photographer still has no clue what she's doing so please excuse the pictures.

Let's begin.  Here is the large cast of characters for our meal.

We have 3 chicken breasts, 2 cans of peeled tomatoes (though it calls for diced, whoops), ginger, cumin, coriander, an onion, some garlic cloves, salt, yogurt, tomato paste (or puree, here), garam masala, cayenne pepper, heavy cream, sugar, parsley/cilantro, and olive oil (or vegetable oil, but I didn't feel like buying it).

For this recipe, it tells you to combine the salt, cayenne, coriander, and cumin; rub them all over the chicken, and let it marinate.  After it marinates, you dip it into a yogurt mixture and broil it.  All of the other recipes I'd read said to marinate with the yogurt mixture, so that's what I did.

After you combine the spices, grate some ginger...

And throw it in there with the spices, and chopped garlic.

Add little olive oil and a half cup of plain yogurt and whisk together.

Dice up some chicken breasts into small chunks...

And throw them in the marinade.  Mix it up.

Then pop it in the fridge to let it marinate for at least an hour - though some people marinate their's overnight.

Now we'll start on the sauce.

Chop up an onion.

Heat up some oil in a pot...

And throw the diced onion in to sauté.

Now the recipe doesn't call for mushrooms, but I threw them in anyway.  Naturally.  I like mushrooms cause they bulk up sauces, they're delicious, and because I had to use them before they went bad in a few days!

Throw those in there with the onions to brown.

Look who's home from work with a surprise for me!  Yay!  

(He also took over camera duties, thankfully.)

The recipe calls for a Serrano pepper.  I of course couldn't find one here with these shitty grocery stores so I bought some nondescript "Spicy Red Peppers" that seem to work just as well and do the trick.  

Slice that up very finely (along with the other garlic).

Take a break to sip your wine.

Grate up some more ginger....

And scoop it all in the pot with your onions and shrooms.

Throw in a tablespoon or two of tomato paste...

And a tablespoon (or a little more) of garam masala.

Stir around "until fragrant", about 2 minutes.

Throw in your cans of tomatoes and stir around.  

Meanwhile, place all the chicken in one layer on a foil-rimmed baking sheet and broil for 10 minutes.  Depending on what temperature you use.  And I couldn't even tell you what I used...200 Celsius maybe?  

Pop those suckers in the oven.

While the chicken is baking, measure out 2/3 cups of heavy cream...

Pour it in the pot...

And stir it up!  The sauce will become orange in color and heavenly in flavor!

Throw the cooked chicken in.

And stir it up!  Let it simmer.  Mmmmm.

Heat up your Uncle Ben's 2-Minute Basmati Rice in the microwave...

And serve it up!  

Doesn't this look good, if I do say so myself?

Let's give it a try.

He approves!  Success!

My first go at Indian/British food was victorious.  And I may or may not have sampled it again today and it tastes even BETTER the next day!  I don't usually post recipes because...I don't always follow them.  If you want to go off of the one I used, click here.  I will say that between the two of us, the savory naan is almost gone.  I'll have to make another batch of it since it was so easy!  Stay tuned for that recipe.  Bon appetite!