Chicken Tikka Masala

[amber]

Ingredients

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]4 large chicken breasts, cut into bite size chunks
500g / 1 lb Greek yoghurt (if you can't get Greek use any natural yoghurt)
4 desert spoons of tandoori masala powder
1/4 tsp chilli powder
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 desert spoons of chopped mint (or mint sauce)
1 tsp grated ginger
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp of good quality ghee or vegetable oil
2/3 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
10 fl oz / 300ml chicken stock
Fresh coriander[/font]

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Method

• [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Put the chicken breasts, yoghurt, tandoori masala powder, chilli powder, garlic, chopped mint, grated ginger and lemon juice in a bowl, cover and leave in the refrigerator to marinate for 24 hours or a minimum of 6 hours.[/font]

• [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Heat the oil in a wok, add the chopped onions and brown. Add the crushed garlic and stir fry for 1 minute.[/font]

• [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Add the marinated chicken and sauce, then cook for 20 minutes over a low - medium heat. Add more mint at this stage if desired.[/font]

• [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Stir in the chicken stock and cook on a medium - high heat until the sauce is reduced to a creamy consistency.[/font]

• [font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Add a handful if roughly chopped fresh coriander and serve. It's great with rice and any Indian bread, or French bread come to that, and perhaps some salad.[/font]

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Dave says to hand out asbestos underpants, but I don't think most people with find this too hot to handle![/font]

[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Serves 4[/font]

I haven't tried this recipe yet but will try it sometime this week.

 

[scott123]

Chicken tikka masala involves a tomato based gravy.

 

[Ishbel]

Amber
Tikka Masala is a very, very MILD curry sauce! Asbestos underpants or knickers are not required Has to be at least Madras or Vindaloo 'heat' before you need to take that precaution.

 

[Ishbel]

Here's a little more about the UK dish known as CTM - it's from www.sonzyskitchen.com - a great site for Indian cooking. I've added some of the site comments about this dish, as I thought you might enjoy them

"Chicken Tikka Masala (CTM)

Everything you ever wanted to know about it.

Definition : chicken tikka masala , n. • mild curry dish of chicken in a tomato-based sauce, cooked tandoori style (in a charcoal-fired oven). Optional hefty dose of tartrazine lends luminescent orange glow. (As described by BBC)
Chicken tikka masala has a truly postcolonial history, produced when one of the world's greatest cuisines found itself confronted by a British palette unused to anything spicier than table salt. Legend has it one obstinate diner demanded gravy on tandoori chicken. A bemused chef responded by adding tin of Campbell's tomato soup and pinch of spices, unwittingly partaking in early example of fusion cookery.

" Chicken Tikka Massala is now a true British national dish, not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences. Chicken Tikka is an Indian dish. The Massala sauce was added to satisfy the desire of British people to have their meat served in gravy. "
- Extract from a speech by British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook.
Facts and Figures about Chicken Tikka Masala (CTM)

• Sainsbury's sell 1.6 million CTM meals every year and stocks 16 CTM-related products including chicken tikka masala pasta sauce. Other derivations include CTM crisps, CTM pizzas, CTM kievs and Marks and Spencer's famous CTM sandwiches (18 tonnes devoured every week).
• A 1998 survey by Real Curry Restaurant Guide of 48 different CTMs found only common ingredient was chicken.
• 23 million portions a year are sold in Indian restaurants.
• 10 tonnes of Chicken Tikka Masala a day are produced by Noon Products destined for supermarkets.
• Most schools and charities in Sylhet, Bangladesh are run by proceeds from its sales.
• Chef Iftekar Haris from Newport, Gwent has written a musical in praise of it.
• Organisers of Kingfisher National Curry Day claim that if all the portions sold in one year in UK were stacked they would constitute a tikka tower 2770 times taller than the Greenwich Millennium Dome.

Though there have been around 50 versions of the same dish, I give here a recipe how I would like it.

IngredientsPart I.
2 lbs. boneless chicken breast
1/4 cup yogurt
3 t. minced ginger
3 t. crushed garlic
1/4 t. white pepper
1/4 t. cumin powder
1/4 t. mace
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. green cardamom powder
1/4 t. chili powder
1/4 t. turmeric
3 T. lemon juice
4 T. vegetable oil
Melted margarine (for basting) Part II.
5 oz. tomato paste
10 oz. tomato puree
2 lbs. tomatoes, chopped
2 t. ginger paste
2 t. garlic paste
2 t. green chilies
1 T. red chili powder
2 t. cloves
8 green cardamoms
salt to taste
3 T. butter
2/3 cup cream
1 t. fenugreek
2 t. ginger, julienned
honey to taste


MethodWhisk all of the ingredients in Part I together in a large bowl. Add the chicken breast, cut into 2 inch cubes. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Bake the chicken for 8 minutes, basting with margarine twice. Drain excess marinade and bake for another 2 minutes. While doing this, make the sauce in Part II. Deseed and chop green chilies. Put tomatoes, tomato paste and tomato puree in a pot and add approximately 4-1/4 cups of water. Add ginger and garlic paste, green chilies, red chili powder, cloves, cardamoms, and salt. Cook over low heat until reduced to a thick sauce. Strain through a strainer and bring to a boil. Add butter and cream. Stir. If the sauce tastes sour, add honey to taste. Add fenugreek and ginger juliennes, stir, and serve with the chicken."

 

[scott123]

Although the English love for all things gravy tends to lead a certain believability/charm to the chicken tikka masala creation myth, it is just that, a myth.

The English didn't invent CTM. North Indians have been making both chicken tikka as well as tomato based gravies for hundreds of years.

The English do love the dish and I can see how their love for it would propel them to attempt to co-opt it as their own creation.

The dish is of Indian origin, though.

 

[Ishbel]

No-one SAID the English invented it - just that it was invented by Indians or Bangladeshis or Pakistanis IN England. A subtle distinction, but true, nonetheless. Chicken tikka is/was a DRY dish. Tomato-based sauces were/are of I/B/P origins. Slapping them together and calling the dish CTM was 'invented' in England.

Personally, I find it far too bland!

 

[Yakuta]

Scott, Ishbel it's interesting but I also suspect that there is some western influence to this dish. Back in India there are a lot of dishes that are popular in restaurants but this is not one of them. Yes Chicken tikka are but not that combined with a tomato based gravy.

I used to eat a lot of butter chicken which in India is prepared by grilling the chicken (similar to tikka) and then dicing it into small peices and then cooking it in a rich gravy of cashewnuts, cream and butter with spices.

I learned about chicken tikka masala when I came to the US. My uncle is a renowed chef amongst the Indian community in US (he has worked in over a dozen top Indian restaurants from East to West to South). Anyway, I was introduced to it but I can say that I like butter chicken a lot more than this concoction.

 

[sarah]

yakuta thats true,this dish is'nt popular in india or pakistan,and i've never found it to be something special,its bland and not very tasty as other chicken dishes.Infact a simple chicken korma or karahi is a lot better than this!
how do u make your karahi yakuta?

 

[Yakuta]

Hey Sarah I just sent you a Private Email on this.

 

[amber]

I don't know anything about curries but I am certainly learning alot from you guys! Thanks for all the great information, I really appreciate it.

 

[buckytom]

ok, so have we decided? was it the chicken or the egg?

 

[kyles]

I don't like chicken tikka masala but I love Chicken Tikka as a dry dish with nan and yoghurt mint sauce, yum.

Scott I do think Ishbel is right. The Pakistanis/Indians have been making tomato based sauces for centuries, however the masala sauce is cream and tomato based, and the westernised CTM initially contained a tin of Campbells soup rather than authentic tomatoes. It was an example of fusion cooking, before the term was even thought of. There are plenty of examples of tomato based chicken curries, but they are not chicken tikka masala. The difference is an Indian mother in the Punjab would use fresh, raw chicken. They would not use the pre cooked marinated spiced chicken (which is essentially what CTM is)

Indians would be quite insulted to think that it originated from their home country. It was created in this country by expat Indians/Pakistanis (bear in mind most of them had emigrated before division so Pakistan would not have actually existed), in an attempt to soften the British palate so that they could introduce further curry experiences to the Brits, and I must say, it has been very successful. One only has to drive along the streets of Rusholme in Manchester to see the number of Westerners enjoying the "asbestos underpants" variety of curries, rather than the watered down nursey food versions.

Ishbel will no doubt like the story that Chicken Tikka Masala was created in Glasgow in the 1950's, but I go for the Birmingham creation legend!!!!!

 

[Ishbel]

Hehheeee - Kyles! I'd never heard that Glasgow claimed the 'honour' of the dish.... I always thought it was Brum! Certainly the popularity of balti houses in the UK is down to Birmingham.

 

[kyles]

LOL Glad you saw reason Ishbel!!! I still don't really understand curry houses, not quite my cup of tea, I much prefer a Thai curry, I find the Brit-Indian curries a bit too full on and not enough veg for my liking, but I am getting used to them. My hubby is a huge curry fan. I stick to my chicken tikka and nan for the most part!

 

[Ishbel]

I like Thai food - but prefer Indian. I suppose it's all to do with what you grew up with - and, in comparison to Indian cuisine in the UK, Thai and Vietnamese are Johnny come lately Asian cuisines

I like really hot curries. My sister always makes a curry house her first meal 'out' when she comes home from Aus. She really pines for a good Indian curry! That's one thing that I never found in Australia - a good Indian curry house - and my sister has probably tried every one in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.... We tried a posh one on Darling Harbour - a kind of fusion, pacific rim meets Indian cuisine type of place - very, very SWISH... but the food was not good at all.

 

[scott123]

There are plenty of examples of tomato based chicken curries, but they are not chicken tikka masala. The difference is an Indian mother in the Punjab would use fresh, raw chicken. They would not use the pre cooked marinated spiced chicken (which is essentially what CTM is)

Not all Punjab/NW Indian families have tandoors, but many do and all the restaurants do. For a restaurant or a family with a tandoor, the chicken is marinated and then roasted either whole or in parts and then added to the gravy. This has been going on for as long as their have been tandoors - a very long time. The only difference with tikka is that it's deboned before roasting.

Dry cooked chicken added to gravy has been occuring in NW India for hundreds of years.

 

[Ishbel]

Uh, just about all Indian chicken is cooked DRY. Tikka just happens to be boneless/chunks rather than parts or whole. It's all done in the tandoor. Are you telling me that although you agree with me that tomato based gravies can be found with tandoori chicken, your contention is that no one in India ever removed the bone before adding to the tomato gravy? That no one sliced the chicken before combining the two? You act like tikka is some special dish. It's just boneless tandoori chicken. That's it.



I am extremely real. I've spoken to tens of Indian/Indian chefs about this (specifically NW Indians) and the legend is offensive to them. How would you feel if your culture produced one of the best cuisines on the planet, but in order to make it 'better' some ignorant foreigner had to demand that the dish be served with gravy? It's a tremendous insult.

I love the internet, but it has it's flaws. One of those flaws is that misinformation can get repeated thousands of times, and, in the process, appear to be fact. The misinformation has an even greater tendency to be spread if it's charming, quaint and plausible. This myth is all three. No matter how you add it up, though, charming, quaint and plausible do not translate into true.

I'm not going to try to tell you ANYTHING - you obviously know so much more than me, here in my little racist bubble....

 

[kitchenelf]

Moved to appropriate forum.