The Best Chicken Tikka Masala

I know that everyone thinks they have the “Best” Chicken Tikka Masala recipe but most of these food bloggers are cutting corners and they’re not honoring the full recipe. Simple and easy recipes usually means that your not getting all of the flavor you could be enjoying if you put in just a little more love and finesse. There are a ton of ingredients in this recipe. In fact, probably the most I’ve ever published to date but after enjoying some Authentic Indian cuisine, Valentines Day, I decided this wasn’t a recipe I was going to cheat. So I got to work on it, immediately, and I shopped around until I found all of the ingredients I needed to make the Best Chicken Tikka Masala recipe.

Chicken Tikka Masala Seasoning

The most common ingredient in Chicken Tikka Masala is Garam Masala. Though, you can buy it as one seasoning, it’s really a combination of several other ingredients indigenous to India. Ironically, though, Chicken Tikka comes from India, the Masala recipe was created in England for locals that preferred a gravy with their Chicken Tikka and rice. So if you put the two together, you now have Chicken Tikka Masala and they both have the Garam Masala seasoning in them.

Other Ingredients in this recipe include Cardamom powder, which I have seen used as green and black seeds in recipes that use a blender and a sieve to strain the sauce. Also Fenugreek Leaves are usually used but I could only find the powder. I think everything else is more commonly known, like Cumin, Tumeric, Red Chili Powder(which shouldn’t be taken lightly), Coriander, Cinnamon and Clove.

The Chicken Tikka Masala Marinade

In the video tutorial, I show you how to make the Chicken Tikka Masala Marinade and this can be used the exact same way to prepare either chicken or shrimp. Again, the Garam Masala is used for marinating but the easiest way to add in all of the other ingredients is to just mix them altogether from the start, then add spoon fulls to both the marinade and the Masala, separately. The Seasoning recipe below provides you with enough spice to have a little left over, which is great on steaks, roasts and seafood. Also, the marinade calls for Curd or plain Yogurt. Use which ever is available to you. I went deep with it and bought Greek. On a side note, instead of Heavy Whipping Cream, I also bought Crema or Table Cream from the Mexican Food section in my dairy.

If you’re interested in trying my Plain or Garlic Naan recipe, to go along with this dish, I highly recommend it. I also make a mean Curry Chicken Salad!

Chicken Tikka Masala Ingredients:

1 lbs Chicken or Shrimp

1 tbsp Garlic, chopped
1 tbsp Ginger, chopped
1/4 cup Curd or Plain Yogurt
1 cup Table Cream or Heavy Whipping
4 cups Tomato Puree
1/2 Red Onion Chopped
1 bunch Coriander Leaves, chopped
1 Lemon, squeezed
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Olive Oil, for cooking
1/2 tsp Salt

Seasoning
2 tbsp Garam Masala
1 to 2 tbsp Red Chili Powder, to taste(spicy)
2 tbsp Cumin Powder
1 tsp Tumeric Powder
2 tbsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Fenugreek Powder or Leaves(preferred)
1 tbsp Cardamom Powder
1 tsp Cinnamon Powder
1/2 tsp Clove, ground

Salt and Pepper to Taste

I use half of the garlic and ginger, all of the curd/yogurt, lemon juice, salt, and 2 heaping tbsp’s of the seasoning mix to marinade the chicken or shrimp. I use approximately 4 heaping tbsp of the seasoning mix for the sauce but you need to play that by ear and adjust the salt and pepper to taste. Just be sure to watch the short video tutorial so that you can see exactly how to make this Chicken Tikka Masala.

I love a good Curry Recipe

There are a lot of different traditions out there when it comes to making curry. If you read about it, you’ll find that it is more or less complex combinations of spices and/or herbs, usually including fresh or dried hot chilies. Many Asian and Indian cultures have different methods in their preparations as well. There are two ways to make curry; dry or wet curry. This curry recipe that I’m going to be sharing with everyone is preparing a wet curry. Wet curries contain significant amounts of sauce or gravy based on yoghurt, coconut milk, legume purée (dal), or stock. And the easiest way I can show you how to do it is with coconut milk, not to be confused with coconut cream(very important).

Curry Recipe

1 12 oz can coconut milk

2 tbls curry powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

One 12 oz can of coconut milk, 2 tbls of curry is all you’re going to need for the basic curry recipe. Heat a pan on High Heat, add the milk and stir in the curry. As soon as it comes to a complete boil remove it from the heat immediately and then add salt and pepper to taste. Now, this basic sauce can be turned into anything and will set up and get really thick in the refrigerator if you want to save it for other things; cold curry chicken salad for example is one of my favorites. 7 oz of pulled cooked chicken breast to 1 ½ oz of curry dressing and a handful of raisons mixed together and mashed into a snowball sized lump in the middle of your favorite greens makes for an excellent chicken salad. However, using the curry recipe right away for a Masala over rice like what I have demonstrated in the photo is just as easy but will take a few other preparations to kick it up a notch.

Wikipedia says a survey found that of 48 different Tikki Masala recipes, the only common ingredient was chicken; which tells me you can substitute anything you want in the curry recipe and completely make it your own! All I did here is diced up some bell pepper, green onions, pureed a couple of tomatoes in a blender with a clove of garlic and pinch of Cumin, and I was ready to roll. Originally I was going to make the Tikki, meaning chicken, but I remembered that I already had a cooked beef brisket in the refrigerator; so essentially that alone cut my cooked time in half right there.

Here’s how I did it: In a hot skillet a few tbls of canola oil, added the diced green onions and bell pepper and sautéed for just a minute before I added the sliced brisket portion. Now the beauty to doing this yourself people is that you can add as much onion, pepper, beef brisket, chicken, shrimp, WHATEVER as you want. Completely make this dish your own! Now, after you toss all of that together for just a few minutes add and combine your curry and your tomato puree. Add if you happen to have some cilantro, now is a good time to add that too. I know cilantro is one of those things you either love or you hate it. Anyway, just let this reduce just a bit, maybe 10 minutes is all and serve over your favorite rice. Now if you don’t want the Masala and you want to just stick with the curry, NO PROBLEM! Just eliminate the tomato puree and add the garlic to the pan directly instead, it’s just that simple. But don’t stop here, look around and experiment with your own curry recipe and make it your own.

Tag: Masala

Chicken Tikka Masala