Chicken Tikka Masala

This one comes directly from our love of travel. Manny and I adore visiting Britain and Scottland. Despite a really bad reputation for food in general, we have never had a bad meal during our visits across the pond. This dish, while seemingly Indian in origin, is decidedly not. In fact most Indian people "disavow" the recipe other than its origins the chicken tikka part. What I love about cooking is that with melding of cultures comes melding of cooking. This is a classic example where an existing well-known Indian dish took on a new identity in the UK by adding a masala sauce since most of the folks over there are used to their meat being served in some form of gravy. It's so wildly popular now that it's generally accepted as the national dish of Britain. Also, true to form, there's never any two recipes that are identical. Ours stays true to that formula using our Pecking Order® and Chain Reaction® together with a good bit of fresh ginger, a lot of garlic, and some prepared garam masala (though you can definitely make your own too, and we have).

If you really want a great way to marinate your chicken tikka, take your seasoned chicken in the first step and put it into a vacuum bag and seal it. Serious flavor infusion results. It's brilliant. Don't marinate the chicken in yoghurt more than 2 hours, but definitely more than 1 hour. The chicken WILL STICK on the grill if you don't oil the grates. It will also stick more the less it's cooked, so we suggest not turning it at all until you hit the 10 minute mark. Cook the second side until you hit the target internal temperature (likely another 10 minutes). DON'T cook the chicken in the sauce. You don't actually even have to dunk the chicken into the sauce, you can put the chicken in the bed of rice and ladle the sauce over. One of the wonderful things about this dish is that it's two dishes melded into one without cooking together. Adjust heat in the sauce with more or less jalapeño as well as switching from our original Chain Reaction® and Pecking Order® to our Uncontrolled versions. Adjust thickness of the sauce to your liking. We like it fairly thick so we can pick it up in the naan easily. If you like it thinner, add more cream or a touch of chicken broth.

As always, from our table to yours... #SpiceConfidently #EssenceOfFlavor #ChemistryInTheKitchen #CasaMSpice

— Mike Hernandez

ingredients

For the Chicken Tikka:

2-1/2 pounds chicken meat
1 Tablespoon avocado oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon Casa M Spice Co® Uncontrolled Chain Reaction®
1 teaspoon Casa M Spice Co® Uncontrolled Pecking Order®
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup plain yoghurt

For the Masala Sauce:

2 Tablespoons avocado oil
1 large sweet onion, diced
2 jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
6 ounces tomato paste, mixed well into the tomatoes below
28 ounces peeled whole tomatoes with all juices, crushed by hand
3 Tablespoons garam masala
4 Tablespoons Casa M Spice Co® Pecking Order®
2 Tablespoons Casa M Spice Co® Chain Reaction®
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, plucked

Pulling It All Together:

1-1/2 cup of cooked long grain white rice per serving
1 piece of naan flatbread per serving

FEATURED QUOTE

DON'T cook the chicken in the sauce. You don't actually even have to dunk the chicken into the sauce, you can put the chicken in the bed of rice and ladle the sauce over. One of the wonderful things about this dish is that it's two dishes melded into one without cooking together.

- Mike Hernandez

LET’S GET COOKING

1.
Combine the cumin, salt, and Casa M Spice Co® seasonings in a bowl and mix well. In a second bowl, mix the ginger and garlic together.
2.
Place the chicken into a third bowl and drizzle the oil over it. Mix well to coat the chicken, then sprinkle the dry seasonings and mix well again. Finally, add the ginger/garlic mixture and mix well again.
3.
Cover the bowl (or put the chicken into a ziplock bag) and place the chicken into the refrigerator at least overnight, but up to three days. The longer the chicken marinates, the more the flavors will infuse into the chicken.
4.
Two hours before you are ready to cook this dish, add the yoghurt to the chicken and mix it well (return to the refrigerator) and let it continue to marinate.
5.
While the chicken is marinating in the yoghurt, preheat your grill to medium heat (350-400°F)
6.
When you're ready to get started cooking be prepared to juggle tasks a little. You'll be making the sauce while the chicken cooks since the timing is very close.
7.
Add oil to a thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. When the oil is shimmering, add the onions, garlic, and jalapenos to the pot and start to brown them stirring often.
8.
Once the onions start to brown, reduce the heat to medium then go out to the grill and oil the grill grates and put the chicken on the grill and close the lid. Set a timer for 10 minutes per side.
9.
Return to the vegetables and once they are browning, add the Casa M Spice Co® seasonings and garam masala and mix well into the vegetables for 2 minutes, then add the tomato/tomato paste mixture and mix it in well. Let that cook for the rest of the 10 minutes before you turn the chicken on the grill. Add the cream, stir well, reduce heat to low, and cover the pot before you go out to the grill to flip the chicken.
10.
Flip the chicken and let it cook until the internal temperature reads 155°F. Remove it from the grill and let it rest for 5 minutes before you cut it into bite-sized pieces. Turn off the heat and remove the sauce from the burner. Add the chicken and cilantro to the sauce (do NOT cook the chicken in the sauce) and mix well. Serve over rice with naan on the side.