Chicken Tikka Masala
Jamie Oliver has the ultimate chicken tikka masala recipe in his Comfort Food cookbook. It is a rich, warming dish, which has topped the favourite British food charts for many years. With Jamie's simple tikka masala recipe, you can recreate this delicious chicken curry in your own kitchen.
From the book
Jamie’s Comfort Food
The ultimate comfort food recipes from Jamie Oliver
Crowd-pleasing family classics
All of your favourite indulgent desserts
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Introduction
Without question, chicken tikka masala is a brilliant curry that makes people very happy. Of course it’s inspired by fantastic Indian cooking, but is in fact an Anglo-Indian evolution, created to suit British palates. When you make it, you’ll be super-proud – you can use top-quality chicken, it’s loads of fun to marinate and grill, the method rocks, and it’s highly unlikely you’ll find a better expression.
Ingredients
| 1 level tsp | ground cloves |
| 1 level tsp | ground cumin |
| 2 heaped tsp | each sweet smoked paprika, garam masala |
| 3 | lemons |
| 6 | cloves of garlic |
| 1 | thumb-sized piece of ginger |
| 6 heaped tbsp | natural yoghurt |
| 800g | skinless boneless higher welfare chicken breasts |
| 3 | fresh green or yellow chillies |
| For the sauce: | |
| 2 | onions |
| 4 | cloves of garlic |
| 1-2 | fresh red chillies |
| 1 | bunch of fresh coriander (30g) |
| olive oil | |
| 1 level tbsp | ground coriander |
| 2 level tsp | turmeric |
| 6 tbsp | ground almonds |
| 2 x 400g | tins of plum tomatoes |
| 1 | organic chicken stock cube |
| 2 x 400g | tins of light coconut milk |
Method
Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes, plus marinating / 415 calories
Put the cloves, cumin and 1 heaped teaspoon each of paprika and garam masala into a small pan and toast for 1 minute to bring them back to life, then tip into a large bowl. Finely grate in the zest of 1 lemon, squeeze in all its juice, crush in the garlic, peel and finely grate in the ginger, and add the yoghurt and 1 teaspoon of sea salt.Cut the chicken breasts into 5cm chunks, then massage all that flavour into the meat. Skewer up the chicken chunks, interspersing them with lemon wedges and chunks of green or yellow chilli, but don’t squash them together too much. Place on a tray, cover with clingfilm and marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.
For the sauce, peel the onions and garlic, then finely slice with the red chillies and coriander stalks (reserving the leaves for later). Put it all into a large casserole pan on a medium-high heat with a lug of oil and cook for around 20 minutes, or until golden, stirring regularly. Add the ground coriander, turmeric and remaining 1 heaped teaspoon each of paprika and garam masala. Cook for 2 minutes, then add and toast the almonds. Pour in the tomatoes, crumble in the stock cube and add 300ml of boiling water. Simmer for 5 minutes, then stir in the coconut milk. Simmer for a final 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, then season to perfection.
When you’re ready to cook the chicken, drizzle it with a little oil, then grill on a hot barbecue, in a screaming hot griddle pan or under a hot grill, turning until it’s very golden and gnarly on all sides. Slice the chicken off the skewers straight into the sauce reserving the lemons. Simmer for 2 minutes while you use tongs to squeeze some jammy lemons over the curry, to taste. Swirl through some more yoghurt, sprinkle with the coriander leaves, and serve with parathas (check out the book for a quick easy recipe) or fluffy basmati rice.
Click here for Jamie’s Paratha recipe
Recipe © Jamie Oliver. Photography © Jamie Oliver Enterprises (2014, Jamie’s Comfort Food) Photographer: David Loftus.
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