A few years ago, my friend Steve and I were accepted to SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London). I was going to study Arabic and he was going to study Korean. And we were going to have lots of adventures. Then reality hit us. To put things into perspective, the cost of tuition alone at SOAS was more than what my parents made in a year. Needless to say, we both ended up staying in Michigan and I continued my Arabic studies at the University of Michigan. I’d like to think that if I had ended up in London, I would have gained my “freshman 15″ from Chicken Tikka Masala instead of pizza, gyros, and sugary concoctions from Starbucks. Chicken Tikka Masala, Britain’s (unofficial) national dish, is a creamy tomato-based curry. Though its true origins are disputed, the taste is undeniably delicious. If you’re intimidated by cooking Indian cuisine at all, Chicken Tikka Masala is a perfect place to start.
Chicken Tikka Masala
(Adapted from Mangio da Sola)
Print this recipe3-5 chicken breasts
salt
1/3-1/2 cup plain yogurt
ghee, butter and oil, or oil
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 T butter, oil, or ghee
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 2″ piece of fresh ginger
3 tablespoons garam masala (store bought is fine, but if you’d prefer to make your own check out this very basic recipe from AllRecipes and this more interesting blend from Epicurious)
1 28-oz can of tomatoes
1 tablespoon sugar
cayenne pepper or red chili flakes, to taste
1/2-1 cup heavy cream
fresh cilantro, for servingSeason the chicken breasts with salt, coriander and cumin. Coat the chicken breasts with plain yogurt and place about 10-12″ inches below a broiler for 5-7 minutes per side until slightly charred around the edges. Remove from oven and set aside. Alternatively, grill or pan fry the chicken.
Heat oil, butter, or ghee in a large skillet over medium heat. When hot/melted, add onions and cook until slightly browned. Add garlic, ginger, and salt and cook for another minute or so. Stir in garam masala, cayenne, and sugar and cook for about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes, lower the heat, and simmer for about 10-15. Stir in the heavy cream.
The chicken should be cool enough to handle by now. Dice the chicken into bite sized pieces and add them to the sauce. Stir in a little fresh cilantro and save a little for garnishing. Season the sauce to taste, adding more salt if needed. Serve with rice and naan.
Serves 4
Not quite what you had in mind? Try the recipe index.
Related posts:
- butter chicken
- cardamom and yogurt chicken
- chicken saag paneer
- hyderabadi-inspired chicken biryani
- spicy chicken curry in red sauce
Tags: british, chicken, curry, dinner, gluten-free, indian, indian-inspired
This looks yummy! I used Trader Joe’s Masala Sauce last time and it was really good and super easy!
Ah, yeah. I’ve gotten their masala sauce on occasion. My favorite easy Trader Joe’s meal is Indian Fare.
This is one of my favorite dishes! Beautiful picture.
This is what I always order in Indian restaurants and now I can make my own. The recipe doesn’t look so difficult.
It’s not difficult to make at all. I’m sure you’ll be very pleased with how it turns out.
Thanks, Kelsey!
Do you need to grind the ingredients, coz I dont remember biting an onion or tomato in the restaurants. They are always smooth pastes/gravys.
You could if you wanted to, but I chopped the onion pretty finely and I used a can of diced tomatoes, which cooked down quite a bit.
Is this the picture from your recipe? I tried making the dish and followed your recipe exactly and it turned out pinkish brown and the taste was slightly off. Did you do something differently then what’s listed?
Hi Jessica, sorry it didn’t work out. That is the picture from the recipe. I can only assume that if the color and taste were slightly off, perhaps the problem is in your garam masala mix? Storebought brands can be hit or miss.
Hi Rose (and Jessica),
I just made this last night, and my color was also WAY off, like a weird, not very appetizing brown. I ended up adding a bit more tomato sauce and the trick that really kinda fixed the color, was adding tumeric. This was a MUST for the color. It seems like my bag of Garam Masala didn’t have very much tumeric in it…The color still wasn’t perfect, but the taste was pretty good!
Which brand of Garam Masala mix did you use, Rose?
I used the epicurious garam masala blend I linked to. It’s been a long while since I’ve used storebought garam masala (I do use storebought curry powder from sfherb.com), so I’ve just been making my own blend at home. I also got a few emails from people about the color of their chicken tikka, maybe I should take out the bit about using storebought because it seems so many people end up with different colored curries. :\
Hi Rose,
I made this (and the naan bread). I didn’t have the fancy things at the epicurious site, so I started with the all recipes.
I didn’t realize I needed 3 TB, however, and only made 1–I tend to have everything prepared before the pan gets hot, so here I am in the middle of everything, and not enough garam masala. Luckily, it turned out I had a package of “tandoori masala” (with very similar ingredients to the epicurious masala)
It came out absolutely beautiful–I’ll share a photo once it has uploaded. It looks like restaurant tika masala.
The only problem was the flavor was a little TOO tomato–I used a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes. Next time I make this (and I will definitely make it again) I will use less tomatoes.
For the chicken, I used skin & bone chicken, and put the seasoning under the skin, then broiled them. Delicious. Took about 8 minutes bone up–8 minutes skin up–8 minutes bone–8 skin (24 total minutes). It came out beautiful.
here is the photo:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150343149045206&set=a.10150343147070206.578042.699015205&pid=16116725&id=699015205
I’m glad they turned out well! Thanks for sharing the pics. It means a lot!