Restaurant Replica | Chicken Tikka Masala

Dish | Chicken Tikka Masala

Restaurant | Indian lunch buffet

Location | Anywhere, USA

The Old Man loves chicken tikka masala, but my dilemma for this post was deciding between just using a jar of tikka masala paste and doing it from scratch. I decided it's recipe and not a product review, so I'll make my own masala because I was recently a gifted a big jar of ground cumin.

And Blah! to those of you who say this masala isn't authentic Indian fare. It's like New York pizza and General Tso's anything - you can't deny it's tasty, so why cry that it's American-made? That being said, the recipe I used comes from Allrecipes.com, but was tweaked to be saucier, creamier, less salty and done indoors without a grill.

Ingredients

Marinade:

• 1 cup yogurt
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp fresh minced ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

Masala:

• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 small green chilies
• 3 tps ground cumin
• 3 tps paprika
• 2 tps ground coriander
• 15 oz tomato sauce
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, ginger, and a teaspoon of salt. Stir in chicken, cover, and refrigerate for an hour.
2. Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat. Saute garlic and chilies for a minute. Season with cumin, paprika, coriander, and a teaspoon of salt. Stir in tomato sauce, cream, and yogurt. Simmer on low heat until sauce thickens.
3. Preheat oven broiler.
4. Broil chicken, 5 minutes on each side.
5. Add broiled chicken, and simmer for a few minutes. 

I had some trouble getting the the creaminess of the restaurant buffet sauces, but I just added more cream and some yogurt. I ended up with a lot more sauce because I kept adding tomato sauce, cream, and yogurt to get the right taste. I adjusted the recipe above to be what I think would work with one large (15 oz) can of tomato sauce. Overall, the project was a success. I don't know how often I'll make it though because we do enjoy the atmosphere of the Indian buffet; muted Bollywood videos on TV with Bangra playing in the background.

Note: The dish was even better a few days later. Perhaps, all the the flavors need to marinate in the fridge overnight.