Chicken Tikka Masala

1. Chicken: Please don’t try this with chicken breast! The high temp cooking required to achieve the char grilled crust on the chicken will overcook it and dry it out.

2. Garam Masala is a spice mix that is found in major supermarkets in Australia (Woolies, Coles etc) that is commonly used in Indian cooking. It smells like curry powder.

3. Oil – Or canola, coconut, grapeseed or other neutral flavoured oil with a high smoke point. NOT olive oil.

4. Charring – Try to keep the charred coating on the chicken, but don’t fret if most gets stuck to the pan – you still get the flavour. This is the reason I use a non stick pan – less risk of charred crust sticking to pan (though you can make this in a well seasoned cast iron pan which is brilliant for getting that charred crust).

5. Don’t skip the blending. When all those caramelised onions cooked with the garlic and ginger gets whizzed up with everything else, it’s magic. It’s one of the steps that we felt made “all the difference” – and restaurants do this too. It’s all about the silky smooth curry sauce!

I transfer into a bowl because it’s difficult to use a stick blender in a skillet. If you’re making this in a pot, you can probably tilt the pot to use a stick blender. Or let cool slightly and do this in a blender – do not blitz piping hot sauce in a blender, it might blow the lid off and curry sauce will hit your ceiling!

GENERAL NOTES: * Indian cooking uses a lot of oil. Don’t be tempted to skimp on the butter and oil for this recipe, it really affects the resulting richness of the dish at the end. We were quite surprised at the difference it made. AT MOST you can reduce the cooking oil by 1 tbsp and omit the butter at the end (but taste it first!). And even using the full amount of butter + oil, it only works out at about 1.7 tbsp per serving which isn’t as obscene as one might expect. 🙂* You can use ghee instead of the oil/butter used to sauté the onion. I find oil + butter produces a similar end result. I do use ghee sometimes – if I have it on hand (which I usually don’t).* The dish is deliberately saucy because it’s SO GOOD!* The salt level looks high but curries need it. Generally, intense flavours = more salt required.

5. Storage/ make ahead –Chicken can be marinated for up to 48 hours in the fridge, or pop it straight into the freezer then it will marinate while defrosting overnight in the fridge. Cooked curry will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freezer for 3 months (defrost then reheat in microwave or on stove with splash of extra water). However, unlike stews, curries are at their prime freshly made, when the spices are at their most aromatic. A good trick to freshen up curries is to add a pinch of garam masala when reheating.

6. Recipe references:See in post.

7. Nutrition per serving, assuming 5 servings (excludes rice, naan etc).