Chicken Tikka Masala

About a year ago, I was newly married, living in a new city and really, REALLY craving some good Indian food. D.C. had several excellent Indian restaurants, but I didn't have much hope that Honolulu would have anything near as good. So I decided that it was time to learn how to cook Indian food myself and I started with my favorite Indian dish--chicken tikka masala.

I scoured the internet for different recipes, poring over which recipes seemed the most authentic, had the clearest instructions and the easiest preparation. I finally determined that Cook's Illustrated had the best recipe potential and set off to gather the ingredients to make the dish myself. I didn't know it at the time, since I had easily accessed [and luckily printed off] the recipe, but Cook's Illustrated recipes are generally blocked if you don't have a paid membership to their website and/or magazine.

My first attempt produced admirable results, but over time (and countless preparations of this dish which both David and I LOVE), this has become one of my absolute most foolproof and delicious meals. I've made it for several friends to rave reviews and it always comes out tasting delicious. I've passed this recipe onto several people and I know several others who have expressed interest in it, so I thought I'd put it up here for all the world [okay, all 10 people who read this blog] to see.

Without further ado, the recipe:

Chicken Tikka Masala
by Cook’s Illustrated 9/2007

Serves 4

Chicken Tikka
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 pounds (4 breasts) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (or ½ teaspoon ground ginger)

Masala Sauce
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 fresh Serrano chile, minced with ribs and seeds removed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon garam masala*
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1.) For the chicken: Combine cumin, coriander, cayenne, and salt in small bowl. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with spice mixture, pressing gently so mixture adheres. Place chicken on plate, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 to 60 minutes. In large bowl, whisk together yogurt, oil, garlic, and ginger; set aside.

2.) For the sauce: Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until light golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, tomato paste, and garam masala; cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, sugar, and salt; bring to boil. Reduce head to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cream and return to simmer. Remove pan from heat and cover to keep warm.

3.) While sauce simmers, adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat broiler. Using tongs, dip chicken into yogurt mixture and arrange on wire rack set in foil-lined rimmed baking sheet or broiler pan. Discard excess yogurt mixture. Broil chicken until thickest parts register 160 degrees on instant-read thermometer and exterior is lightly charred in spots, 10 to 18 minutes, flipping chicken halfway through cooking.

4.) Let chicken rest 5 minutes, then cut into 1-inch chunks and stir into warm sauce (do not simmer chicken in sauce). Stir in cilantro, adjust seasoning with salt, and serve with basmati rice and naan bread.

* Garam masala is a mixture of various spices. McCormick sells the mixture in the spice aisle. You can make your own mixture by combining 2 teaspoons ground coriander, ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom (which is an expensive spice), ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon ground black pepper.


A few personal notes:

When making this for more than just David and I, I generally use 5 chicken breasts instead of just four. It does, of course, reduce the amount of sauce overall, but ensures that everyone will get plenty of the delicious chicken. The recipe also recommends the use of whole-milk yogurt, but I always use non-fat (being the only kind I can find) and the meat always comes out tasting moist and delicious. (It also makes for great leftovers as the chicken reheats very nicely.)

Not being a fan of spicy (as in hot) foods, I used to eliminate the serrano chile. But now I always include either a serrano or Anaheim chile (being milder chiles) because I think it adds just a little extra spice and depth of flavor. Just be careful when buying chiles that you don't buy a jalapeno on accident like I did one time. Not only was the masala sauce very spicy but my fingertips burned for days from cutting the jalapeno. (Why must all chiles look alike?)

Be warned that this recipe is very time consuming but VERY much worth all the effort. The actual cooking does not take a great deal of time, but the prep does because you do need to cut and chop a lot of components. I do all my prep work first and then bang out the chicken and sauce in about 30 minutes. (But that is 30 minutes of constant cooking. You can't just leave the pot and come back to it. It's a progressive dance of adding new elements to the sauce, letting it simmer, stirring, and adding more.) Generally, I give myself at least an hour and half to make this dish, including the basmati rice. The naan bread takes longer because you need to let it rise for at least two hours (but of course, you don't have to stand around watching the bread rise).

I have a fairly decent naan bread recipe, but it never meets my expectations of the buttery, mouth-wateringly delicious stuff you can get from a real Indian restaurant. But then again, I don't have a clay oven, so I'll never be able to produce anything near as good. But if anyone has a good naan recipe or any other delicious Indian recipes, I'd love to try them out. While I love chicken tikka masala, I think I'm ready to branch out and try some new Indian recipes.

Because while Honolulu might not have had as good of Indian restaurant as D.C., at least they had some. I can't say the same for Korea.

Good ole home cooking....ethnic style!

I always find it interesting the foods I crave when they are most difficult to find. After a few months in Italy, surrounded by the most delicious fresh (and cheap) ingredients for Italian food--mozzarella balls, gnocchi, spinaci, cheeses, etc.--we suddenly grew desperate for anything that wasn't pasta. We made our own handmade flour tortillas. We mashed our own refried beans. We went to Hard Rock Cafe just to have real cheddar cheese on a massive hamburger. I hoarded my jar of Skippy extra chunky peanut butter like it was the most sacred truffle oil in the world. We bought a bottle of maple syrup for an exorbitant fee and drizzled it conservatively onto French toast. After a lot of the same stuff, anything that wasn't Italian was a much needed culinary break. Now, of course, I'd cut off my right hand to find fresh mozzarella balls for only 5o euro cents or delicate gnocchi for a euro a pound.

As Americans, we've adopted the cuisines of many other nations, and have one of the most varied palates in the world. One thing I loved about D.C. was the sheer variety of ethnic restaurants. My American Studies buddies and I would frequently try out different cuisines--Thai, Lebanese, Indian. There were always a lot of different choices for each group and we were always guaranteed to find excellent food. Hawaii has its own unique culinary style here--macaroni salad, poi, taro, and fish--not to mention the rampant over-infusion of Asian foods. It's generally not so bad, but lately I have been craving different foods...most especially Indian.

My sister took me to my first Indian restaurant in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London where you can find some of the best Indian cuisine outside of India. Through the years, Indian food has become one of my favorite exotic food pleasures....the aromatic spices, the creamy curries and long-grain rice, the buttery naan bread and flavorful scorch marks from the tandoori oven. My absolute favorite Indian dish--chicken tikka masala--was supposedly created in England in the 1950s or 1970s (it's origin is heavily debated); the recipe is always different, but no matter where you find it, chicken tikka masala is absolutely delicious. So, after scouring the internet to find a simple yet seemingly authentic recipe, I decided to try it for myself. It was no small undertaking. For those who might be interested, the recipe I used can be found here: http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipe.asp?recipeids=4526&bdc=54312#topOfPage.

I tried to find a recipe that gave enough instructions (I'm always surprised by recipes that just assume you know how to do something) and didn't utilize too many hard-to-get exotic or expensive ingredients. The most difficult item to find was garam marsala (which McCormick makes and is sold in the spice aisle). I couldn't find it at first, but the recipe also helpfully provides a substitution and I had all the ingredients to make it except for cardamon. So I went to the Safeway across the street (which I never shop at because it's so dang expensive) only to discover that a bottle of cardamon costs $14, but that they had the garam masala mixture for only $3.50, so that's what I ended up purchasing. The recipe is not terribly complex but it did require a lot of time, as most new and untested recipes often do. I did not include the peppers because I do not like really spicy foods but I added more of the other spices to add more flavor. The tikka masala came out really well and was very tasty, if I do say so myself.

The chicken tikka masala simmering in its pan.

I also attempted to make naan bread. Unfortunately, this endeavor did not turn out as good as the main dish, but some of the pieces were still okay and I know what I did wrong so that in the future, I can improve on it. Naan bread is so tasty. My rooommate Erin used to cook hers in a hot pan which works just as well as a pizza stone. I tried both methods. I haven't decided which I like better.

The dinner spread.

It was an absolutely delightful and delicious meal. As always with new recipes, I learned what I did wrong, what can be improved for next time, and how to make it go much quicker in the future. I'm glad I have all the spices I need now for making this dish again and again. I have a feeling I'll be craving it again in the near future. Once all the leftovers are gone.... Now if I could just find some tamarind paste, I can set about re-creating my other favorite ethnic meal--pad thai. It's such comfort food.