Chicken Tikka Masala!

[Natwee]

Its been ages since someone did a cooking thread so i thought I would!

Chicken Tikka Masala...

For the chicken:
Mix 4 heaped tablespoons of natural yoghurt, 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1 heaped tablespoon of Pataks Tandoori paste.

Cut 4 chicken breasts into desired sized chunks and cover with marinade and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Next; after marinating, pre heat oven to highest heat and put the chicken on a baking tray at the top of the a pre-heated oven. Cook for about 10 minutes.

for the sauce:

First you need to make a base sauce:

2 tablespoons of ghee or oil of your choice.
1kg of onions
75g of garlic
75g of ginger
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 level teaspoons of turmeric
2 level teaspoons of paprika
1 level teaspoon of coriander
1 level teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of tomato puree
1 level teaspoon of salt
2 pints of water



Roughly chop the onions and add to a large pan. Liquidise the ginger and garlic in a blender with a little water and add to the onions with the remainder of the water. Bring to the boil with lid off and simmer for 45 minutes (lid off to avoid stewing).

Leave to cool then liquidise.


Next; mix the 4 spices with a little water to make a paste.

Put ghee or oil in a pan on a medium heat, add the spice paste and cook for 30 seconds.

Now add the tin of tomatoes, tomato puree and the salt to the spices in the pan and cook for a 5 minutes.

Add this to the onion garlic and ginger mixture, bring back to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Remember keep the pan lid off and stir to stop it catching. Add some water at the end to make up to 3 pints. This can now be frozen in 1 pint batches for future use

For the masala sauce:

2 tablespoons of butter ghee or oil
1 pint of base sauce
Half of a 200g block of creamed coconut
2 tablespoons of ground almonds
1 tablespoon of clear honey
1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup
175ml of Heinz cream of tomato soup
1 level teaspoon of salt
1 level teaspoon of paprika
1 level teaspoon of chilli powder
1 level teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of red food colouring


Heat the ghee or oil in a pan until very hot. Slowly add the base sauce, it will spatter at first so be careful.
Bring to boil and add the salt, paprika, chlli and food colouring,

cook for around 10 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.

Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 2 minutes,

add the pre-cooked chicken tikka pieces, simmer for a further 2 minutes, done!

 

[Glaucus]

That looks darn tasty.

Not sure you need the food colouring.

 

[E61 Grouphead]

That looks delicious

 

[Natwee]

That looks darn tasty.

Not sure you need the food colouring.

to be fair, it doesnt *need* it, but here the restaurants all serve red tikka masalas so its just not right when its orange!

 

[DcD]

to be fair, it doesnt *need* it, but here the restaurants all serve red tikka masalas so its just not right when its orange!

From what I've seen tandoori masalas are red, all the tikka masalas are orange.

 

[madtoady]

Never made it from scratch, might give it a go next week.

 

[DiCe!]

Must try this. Trying to cook more this year

 

[bluDawg]

looks good

 

[Indigo]

That looks really tasty, a curry is definately one of the things I need to make from scratch. May do more home cooking this year rather than having to rely on the stuff in a jar.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

i think you could make this better by barbecuing the chicken instead of grilling it to make it taste as if it was cooked in a "tandoor".

also

For the masala sauce:

2 tablespoons of butter ghee or oil
1 pint of base sauce
Half of a 200g block of creamed coconut
2 tablespoons of ground almonds
1 tablespoon of clear honey (never seen this in any curry tbh)
1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup ------> 1 tablespoon tomato puree
175ml of Heinz cream of tomato soup -----> 1 cup of plain single cream (add more if you like it blander)
1 level teaspoon of salt
1 level teaspoon of paprika
1 level teaspoon of chilli powder (never seen this before in a tikka masala)
1 level teaspoon garam masala (never seen this before in a tikka masala)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of red food colouring (unnecessary)


if you take out the chilli powder and garam masala then you dont really need the honey either, get rid of the tomato sauce and tomato soup and replace with some tomato puree instead, then to make it thinner and creamier, add a cup of cream.

so basically cream and tomato pureee instead of tomato sauce and cream of tomato soup, and no need for chilli powder, garam masala or honey (they basically cancel each other out anyway and this dish isn't supposed to be sweet or spicy)

maybe they cook it differently down south but the above recipe sounds more like a chicken tikka tandoori masala than a chicken tikka tikka masala, in fact im positive its a tandoori masala recipe.

 

[FrenchTart]

Sorry for the thread hijack but...

Psycho, do you have any recipes/tips for a dopiaza curry? You seem to know your stuff when it comes to this sort of thing I quite like a decent amount of heat, which I realise might not be traditional for a dopiaza, and I have experimented with several different methods in the past year - all of which have ended up with nice but not quite perfect results. The latest thing I've been doing is something like (note, I don't make any claims for this to be dopiaza..it was more of a general curry thing):

Lots of garlic, couple of onions and a whole pepper (de-seeded), liquidised and then fried in ghee or oil until it loses a lot of moisture starts to brown. Add the spices (mix of the usuals, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, etc). After a minute, add the meat. After another minute, add fresh chopped tomatoes and some water. Leave to simmer for about an hour. The end flavour is nice - extremely rich and flavoursome, but I realise that it's probably not in any way close to an authentic experience.

Any tips or a recipe post would be awesome

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Sorry for the thread hijack but...

Psycho, do you have any recipes/tips for a dopiaza curry? You seem to know your stuff when it comes to this sort of thing I quite like a decent amount of heat, which I realise might not be traditional for a dopiaza, and I have experimented with several different methods in the past year - all of which have ended up with nice but not quite perfect results. The latest thing I've been doing is something like (note, I don't make any claims for this to be dopiaza..it was more of a general curry thing):

Lots of garlic, couple of onions and a whole pepper (de-seeded), liquidised and then fried in ghee or oil until it loses a lot of moisture starts to brown. Add the spices (mix of the usuals, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, etc). After a minute, add the meat. After another minute, add fresh chopped tomatoes and some water. Leave to simmer for about an hour. The end flavour is nice - extremely rich and flavoursome, but I realise that it's probably not in any way close to an authentic experience.

Any tips or a recipe post would be awesome

i'll post up the quickest method of doing it to a decent standard, you could do it the old school way and chop everything finely, etc but its a lot easier just using a food processor and using a base sauce, etc.

use the above "base curry sauce" recipe, make that up first and leave it to one side.


get some garlic, ginger and tomato puree (small amount of tomato puree), and blend or chop in a food processor until smooth. this is going to be your "tharka" base, this can be used as a starting point for the majority of curries (excluding mild things like korma and tikka masala, etc).



1. heat some oil/ghee in a pan (i know this isn't healthy but we tend to use a lot of oil traditionally, i try to use as less oil as possible or remove the excess from the top when i go to eat)
2. add large chunky chopped onion (you can also add finely chopped onion from a food processor is you prefer a thicker sauce at this stage to go with the chunkier onions)
3. fry slightly until onions are only very slightly fried
4. add tharka base (roughly 1 large tablespoon per serving/persons)
5. fry until slightly brown or starting to brown (don't burn it)
6. add base curry sauce and mix it for 10 seconds
7. add chopped up chicken
8. throw in the spices and chillies (experiment at your leisure)
9. add some dried methi (dry fenugreek leaves, and i also like to add some chopped spring onion)
10. cook on a high heat until chicken is cooked mixing constantly
11. turn off heat
12. throw in plenty of fresh finely chopped coriander leaves and mix slightly
13. serve



you can also fry the chunky onions separately if you have a deep fat fryer, effectively removing step 2 and then adding the fried chunky onions in at the end when you add the coriander step 12, i found this was the best way personally as the onions stayed "crisp and fresh", instead of "stew" like and could be cooked to exactly the way you like them and added at the end so they don't get overcooked. definetley do it this way if you can, or even fry them in a separate pan and add in at the end if you don't have a fryer. or doing it the above way will also work fine if you prefer your onions softer.

 

[pepsilol]

My version:

Chicken Tikka in the oven with spices.

Base with onions, spices, yogurt and double cream.

Om nom!

 

[Cookeh]

i think you could make this better by barbecuing the chicken instead of grilling it to make it taste as if it was cooked in a "tandoor".

also

For the masala sauce:

2 tablespoons of butter ghee or oil
1 pint of base sauce
Half of a 200g block of creamed coconut
2 tablespoons of ground almonds
1 tablespoon of clear honey (never seen this in any curry tbh)
1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup ------> 1 tablespoon tomato puree
175ml of Heinz cream of tomato soup -----> 1 cup of plain single cream (add more if you like it blander)
1 level teaspoon of salt
1 level teaspoon of paprika
1 level teaspoon of chilli powder (never seen this before in a tikka masala)
1 level teaspoon garam masala (never seen this before in a tikka masala)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of red food colouring (unnecessary)


if you take out the chilli powder and garam masala then you dont really need the honey either, get rid of the tomato sauce and tomato soup and replace with some tomato puree instead, then to make it thinner and creamier, add a cup of cream.

so basically cream and tomato pureee instead of tomato sauce and cream of tomato soup, and no need for chilli powder, garam masala or honey (they basically cancel each other out anyway and this dish isn't supposed to be sweet or spicy)

maybe they cook it differently down south but the above recipe sounds more like a chicken tikka tandoori masala than a chicken tikka tikka masala, in fact im positive its a tandoori masala recipe.

Could you substitute the cream for some natural yogurt? Or would that not work

 

[pepsilol]

Err he's suspended!

I put in both, just yogurt can work swell though.

 

[Kimi]

OP, that is the recipe from cr0.co.uk ?

Ive made that before if it is, fantastic

 

[boxman2000]

Looks nice although definitely no way use the food colouring IMO - to this day I have no idea why restaurants use it as I think natural colour of tikka is lovely.

 

[Sharlaw]

Hi guys,
I know it's a bit of a thread necro, but I came across this and decided to give it a go last week.

I tweaked it a little, but frankly was surprised how good it was. Well worth the effort.
I've pasted my amended and typed up recipie.

Was tested on my parents and niece and they all survived


Chicken Tikka Masala

Paste

Ingredients:

5 Garlic Cloves
1 Large Knob Root Ginger
1 Red Chilli
2 tsp Ground Cumin
2 tsp Ground Coriander
1 tsp Tumeric
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Garam Masala
4 Cardamom Pods

Method:
Blend all together


Chicken

Ingredients:

4 Chicken Breasts
4 Heaped tbsp Natural Yoghurt
1 tsp lime juice
1 heaped tsp paste (made above)

Method:
Mix yoghurt, lime juice and paste together for the marinade.
Cut chicken to desired size.
Cover chicken in marinade and refrigerate for as long as possible 3-24 hours


 
Base

Ingredients:

2 tbsp ghee or oil
1 kg onions
75g garlic
75g ginger
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tomato puree
1 tsp salt
2 pints of water

Method:
Roughly chop the onions and add to a large pan. Liquidise the ginger and garlic in a blender with a little water and add to the onions with the remainder of the water. Bring to the boil with lid off and simmer for 45 minutes (lid off to avoid stewing).
Leave to cool then liquidise.
Next; mix the 4 spices with a little water to make a paste.
Put ghee or oil in a pan on a medium heat, add the spice paste and cook for 30 seconds.
Now add the tin of tomatoes, tomato puree and the salt to the spices in the pan and cook for a 5 minutes.
Add this to the onion garlic and ginger mixture, bring back to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Remember keep the pan lid off and stir to stop it catching. Add some water at the end to make up to 3 pints. This can now be frozen in 1 pint batches for future use.


Masala Sauce

Ingredients:

2 tbsp ghee or oil
1 pint base sauce
100g creamed coconut
2tbsp ground almonds
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 cup single cream
2 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
½ tsp cumin

Method:
Heat the ghee or oil in a pan until very hot. Slowly add the base sauce, it will spatter at first so be careful.
Bring to boil and add the salt, paprika, chlli
Cook for around 10 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 2 minutes,
Add the pre-cooked chicken tikka pieces, simmer for a further 2 minutes, done!

 

[pitchfork]

My Garabi is better than yours

 

[Natwee]

OP, that is the recipe from cr0.co.uk ?

Ive made that before if it is, fantastic

it is!