Chicken Tikka Masala

 

The first time I tried Indian food was in Iowa where I lived until I moved to San Diego for graduate school. I went with my mom to this small restaurant in Iowa City where I was going to college. It had a fairly cheap lunch buffet, and since neither of us had ever eaten Indian food, we decided to give it a chance. Well, the only thing we liked was the naan and some sort of dessert they had which I can’t remember the name of now. It wasn’t until a few years later when I one of my close friends from India told me to give the food another chance, and apparently the restaurant we had chosen had terrible Indian food. We went to a lunch buffet in Orange County, and I seriously had never been more full in my life. I couldn’t eat for the rest of the day! Since then, I have a weekly craving for Indian food, and my go-to order is Chicken Tikka Masala. Until now, I had never attempted to make it myself. My friend says Indian food is challenging to make right, especially in America where the ingredients are not authentic. However, I decided to give it my best shot!

What is chicken tikka masala? Well it is two parts. The first is the chicken tikka, which is chunks of chicken marinated in yogurt and spices, and the second part is the masala, a spice mix sauce. There is really no standard recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala, but typically it is made of a coriander and tomato-based sauce. This is the approach I chose to use for the dish. The ingredients I used are easy to find at any major grocery store. Many of the spices I already had on hand, but some of the more uncommon ones (garam masala, coriander, crushed red pepper) I actually stumbled upon at Target! However, you can make it a one-stop shop by going to an Indian grocery store.

The dish was actually much easier to make than I anticipated. Here is the recipe I used:

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken
• Marinade
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground red pepper (*use less if you dislike spicy food)
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground ginger or 1 piece minced ginger
• Sauce
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 jalapeno, minced (*use less if you dislike spicy food)
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

First, I gathered all of my ingredients. Yes, it’s a lot of spices. That’s what makes Indian food so delicious!

Next, I cut the chicken into about 1 inch cubes, making sure to trim off any extra fat.

The next step was to make a marinade for the chicken. This was very easy. Just pour the yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, ground red pepper, black pepper, cinnamon, salt, and ginger into a bowl…

Mix it all up…

And add the chicken!

Then I covered the chicken and placed it in the fridge for about 1 hour. This will help work all of the flavors and spices into the dish!

While the chicken was marinating, I started on the sauce. I melted the butter over medium heat in a sauce pan, and then I added 1 minced jalapeno and 2 minced garlic cloves.

I cooked the jalapeno and garlic for 1 minute before adding the spices for the sauce. I put in the ground coriander, ground cumin, paprika, garam masala, and salt, and mixed it well.

After that, I added the can of tomato sauce, stirred the dish, and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

While the sauce simmered, it was time to take the chicken out of the fridge and put it in the oven. I laid the chicken in a single layer onto a baking sheet, and then I broiled it in my toaster oven for about 10 minutes. The chicken will still have a lot of the marinade on it when it goes into the oven because of the thick yogurt, but it mostly cooks off while broiling.

By now, the sauce had finished simmering, so I stirred in 1 cup of heavy cream and let it simmer 5 more minutes until the sauce thickened.

After simmering, it was time to add the chicken!

It was looking and smelling so delicious, but alas, I had to let it simmer another 5 minutes.

Then finally, the moment I was waiting for! I served it with rice and topped it with fresh cilantro, but naan would have been great with it as well!

I have to say, this dish was incredibly spicy, but absolutely delicious. The chicken tikka masala I normally get from restaurants is not spicy at all, so I wasn’t expecting that amount of heat. I would recommend cutting back on the red pepper and jalapeno if you don’t like spicy food. Next time, I’ll definitely cut back. Unfortunately, my friend from India wasn’t around to try it, so I will have to make it again soon!