Quick & Easy Chicken Tikka Masala – Creamy Chicken Curry Recipe

hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with chicken tikka masala that's right I want to show you my fast and easy take on this very popular chicken curry dish and if you're thinking finally he's listened to my food wish for Indian food well keep wishing because apparently this was invented in England which is fine because if it comes from England you know it's going to be tasty but regardless just an incredibly delicious recipe and no wonder this is one of Britain's national dishes so in a bowl I have some boneless skinless chicken thighs traditionally this is done with chicken breast but for my version chicken thighs are going to work better and we're going to go ahead and drizzle that with vegetable oil and then add a whole bunch of spices so we'll start with some salt we'll also need some freshly ground black pepper some tumeric so beautiful some garam masala that is an Indian spice blend we'll also want some cumin and some coriander I'm also going to toss in some cayenne and some smoked paprika and then last but not least a little bit of ground cardamom and then what we'll do is we'll mix this up until that stuff is all coated thoroughly and evenly and please do yourselves a favor mix the spices first then put it over the chicken then mix it up since I just dumped them all in and then tried to mix it took me like way too long and I will never get those 10 minutes of my life back but anyway eventually I got it all mixed in there and at that point we're ready to brown our chicken in this clarified butter okay in an Indian restaurant they would call this ghee but all you need to do is melt some butter or microwave some butter skim off the foam a white part because all we're interested in is this pure golden butter fat and once we have that we'll put a couple tablespoons in a heavy-duty skillets set on high heat and we'll go ahead and we'll Brown our chicken thighs and we're doing this for two reasons obviously we like to brown our meats before we cook them in the sauce generally but above and beyond that we're also toasting those spices on the surface of the chicken which is just going to make everything taste better which is why we do it so we want those thighs nicely browned in that clarified butter and what we'll do once that's happened is remove those pieces of chicken to a bowl to rest just go ahead and set that aside because once it's cool we're going to cut those into smaller pieces and then right in the same pan right in that same clarified butter we're going to add one chopped onion we will lower our heat down to medium high and we will saute that for about five or six minutes just until the onions start to soften and turn translucent you know the drill and obviously we're building up a very delicious Fond all right it started with that spice chicken now we're adding the goodness of the onion so like I said we'll saute those onions until they look like this at which point we're going to add some tomato paste oh and by the way if you're wondering what happened to those delicious sauteing sounds I had to turn on the fan which sounds terrible but anyway we'll add in some tomato paste and we'll stir that into the onions and we're going to cook that for about five or six minutes until that tomato paste kind of caramelizes a little okay initially the moisture in that tomato paste is going to sort of deglaze the bottom but then relatively quickly it will wreak Armel eyes to the bottom at which point we're going to add a whole bunch of crushed garlic and freshly grated ginger and we'll just cook that for about a minute and then we'll do a little bit of an unusual step we're going to deglaze the pan but we're going to use crushed Tomatoes so I'm going to dump in some crushed tomatoes or tomato puree I think those are pretty much the same thing and just like if we deglaze with stock or wine those crushed tomatoes are going to liberate all that amazing goodness from the bottom of the pan so you can see that our found has been dissolved okay so stir that around until the bottom of the pan looks kind of clean at that point we're going to pour in our cream I'm going to use coconut milk instead of regular heavy cream I think it's better for you easier to digest and a subtle sweetness from the coconut milk really works with those curry spices okay today we're gonna stir in some coconut milk I'm also going to add a nice big splash of chicken stock or broth and then what we want to do is bring this to a simmer adjust the heat to medium low and just let it simmer for about 15 minutes of course you want to give it a stir once a while we want to let that cook a little bit to let everything kind of meld together and while we're waiting this would be the perfect time to go ahead and cut up you're now probably cooled chicken so I'm gonna take those thighs and cut them up into what they call bite-size pieces although technically that depends on the size of your mouth go ahead and cut those up into two or three pieces each and at that point we're ready for final assembly so at this point our sauce is simmered for about 15 minutes I'm gonna go ahead and add some hot red chili flakes some freshly chopped cilantro also known as coriander leaves in England and then we'll go ahead and dump in cut up chicken along with any accumulated juices never never discard accumulated juices and once we've stirred in that chicken and it's heated through you're pretty much done although I do like to simmer this for about 10-15 minutes which i think is going to make that thigh meat a little more tender and succulent so I did let mine simmer on medium low for another 10 or 15 minutes until my sauce looked amazing and the meat was tender not fork tender spoon tender and of course you're going to taste for seasoning it might need a pinch of salt it might not but check anyway at that point this procedure is officially done except you got to find some way Trice which I did and you'll notice I did a beautiful rice presentation using a ramekin and I was going to spoon over just a few pieces so I could do a beautiful elegant looking plate but unfortunately I was hypnotized by the aroma and gorgeous appearance of this mixture and I just kept spooning and kept spooning until I'd spooned out enough for like three people in hindsight though I'm totally fine with my decision at that point we only have two things left to do garnish that with some lime and some cilantro and eat and although my portion size was way too big at least my cilantro leaves stuck together hey when that happens there we go but anyway we're going to garnish with some cilantro and fresh lime and Bob's your uncle you're done I have no idea what that expression means but I love using it and I'm not being cheeky the other thing I love is eating this it is so incredibly delicious that moist perfectly tender chicken swimming in that gorgeous sauce like I said earlier I really like how that little bit of subtle sweetness in the coconut milk works with these curry spices just a beautiful beautiful combination so anyway if you've always wanted to make a curry but we're kind of afraid hey they are a little intimidating this would be a great recipe to start with so I really do hope you give it a try head over to food wishes comm for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual and as always enjoy you

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 1,685,941

Rating: 4.9033217 out of 5

Keywords: Chicken Tikka Masala (Dish), Chicken (Animal), Chicken Curry (Dish), Chicken Tikka (Dish), Curry (Food), Cooking, Kitchen, Chicken Meat (Food), Recipe, Restaurant, Tikka (Food), Recipes, Cow And Chicken (TV Program), chef, john, foodwishes, entree, main course, rice, stew, spicy

Id: NshiJSNBWNs

Length: 6min 25sec (385 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 13 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/droveby]

You can find the full recipe here: http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2014/10/chicken-tikka-masala-god-save-curry.html

But here's a copy-paste for convenience:

Directions: (you should actually just watch the video... but I've written the recipe here anyway)

Get some boneless skinless thighs together (or chicken breast, your choice). Drizzle it with some vegetable oil. Mix the spices together (in ingredients section below)... and properly coats the thighs with it.

Brown the chicken with clarified butter in a large pan with high heat. When browned, take it out and set into smaller pieces. In the same pan, put some chopped onions in. Add tomato paste until it is carmelized... at which point add crushed ginger and garlic... and then add peeled tomatoes to deglaze the pan. Then add heavy milk cream or coconut milk and some nice quality chicken broth. Introduce the chopped chicken back into the pan and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Done. Eat with naan, not rice. (but that's just my opinion... :) I don't like making my rice wet and soggy with curry mixes, I much prefer eating it with naan).

Ingredients for 4 portions of Chicken Tikka Masala:

1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoons ground turmeric

2 teaspoons garam masala

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

2 or 3 tablespoons clarified butter

1 onion, chopped

1/4 cup tomato paste

4 garlic cloves, finely grated

1 rounded tbsp finely grated peeled ginger

1 cup crushed tomatoes or tomato puree

1 can (13.5-oz) coconut milk, or about 1 2/3 cups heavy cream

1/2 to 1 cup chicken broth, or as needed (use to adjust sauce consistency to you liking)

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro

salt to taste

4 cups steamed rice

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