Our curry for day two of curry week is the classic Chicken Tikka Masala adapted from Jamie Oliver. It does take a little time but it was really delicious and full of flavour.
Ingredients
For the Chicken:
1 level teaspoon ground cloves (goes easy on the cloves as they are very strong!)
1 level teaspoon ground cumin
1 heaped teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
1 heaped teaspoon garam masala
3 lemons
6 cloves of garlic
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
6 heaped tablespoons natural yoghurt
800 g skinless boneless chicken breasts (I used thighs instead)
3 fresh green or yellow chillies
For the sauce:
2 onions
4 cloves of garlic
1–2 fresh red chillies (I left the seeds in for extra heat)
30 g fresh coriander
olive oil
1 level tablespoon ground coriander
2 level teaspoons turmeric
1 heaped teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
1 heaped teaspoon garam masala
6 tablespoons ground almonds
2 x 400 g tins of plum tomatoes
1 chicken stock cube
2 x 400 g tins of light coconut milk
Bunch of spring onions sliced into chunks (this is an addition of mine)
Method
- Cut chicken into 5 cm chunks and put into a large bowl
- Toast the ground cloves, cumin, paprika and garam masala in a dry pan for a minute, mix with the yogurt
- Grate the zest of 1 lemon and add the juice to the yogurt mix
- Crush the garlic and grate the ginger into the yogurt mix and add a pinch of salt.
- Mix together well with the chicken so the meat is well covered.
- Skewer the chicken along with the cut up green/yellow chillies and wedges of the lemon making sure not to pack to tightly together. Leave to marinate for at least two hours in the fridge – the longer the better.
- For the sauce, in a food processor, combine the garlic, chillies and onions with the stalks of the coriander. This can be chopped by hand but I think it works better as finely chopped as possible
- Add this to a warm pan, on a low heat, along with a glug of olive oil and gently fry for 20mins until soft and golden. The longer you fry this for the better the flavour.
- Add the powdered spices, turmeric, paprika, coriander and garam masala and cook for a minute
- Toast the ground almond in a dry pan for a minute or two taking care not to burn and then add to the pan combining everything well.
- Add in the tinned tomatoes, followed by a stock cube and 300ml of boiling water. Bring to the simmer for five minutes.
- Add in the two tins of coconut milk and stir everything well into nice and combined.
- Leave to simmer for about 40minutes stirring occasionally until sauce is nicely thickened then season to taste.
- Stir in the spring onion just before you add the chicken so they keep the crunch
- When it is time to cook the chicken, heat the grill up to high and put the chicken under turning regular so it goes very golden and brown around the edges.
- Take the chicken & chillies off the skewers and add into the sauce. Squeeze the lemon wedges into the sauce, but don’t add to the sauce!
- Simmer for 2 minutes and then you can stir though some yogurt (I didn’t add any as it wasn’t too hot and was already quite creamy.)
- Add the chopped coriander and serve.
I served this curry with boiled basmati rice and naan breads. Jamie’s original recipe served it with homemade paratha bread, but this was a little much for a Monday night supper!
