RESTAURANT STYLE CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA

Ingredients

• Boneless skinless chicken thighs – 450 gm
• Garlic -40 gm
• Ginger – 40 gm
• Red chili powder – 3 tbsp
• Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
• Coriander powder – 3 tsp
• Garam masala – 2 tsp
• Lime juice – 2 tbsp
• Unflavoured Greek yogurt – 3 tbsp
• Sugar – 3 tsp
• Salt – 1 tsp
• Onion – 2 large
• Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
• Canned smashed tomatoes – ¾ cup
• Dried fenugreek leaves – 1 tsp
• Heavy cream – 1 cup
• Minced coriander leaves – 2 tbsp
• Oil – 5 tbsp
• Butter – 2 tbsp

Alternatives of given ingredients

Instead of chicken thighs, you can use chicken breasts and in lieu of red chili powder, 1 tsp of chili powder or red bell peppers powder can be also used. If plain unflavoured Greek yogurt isn’t available, plain unflavoured curd can be an option. But the excess water content should be drained off from it by straining in a tea strainer. For that, keep the strainer in a bowl and place it in the refrigerator for an hour, so you can get curd with a thick consistency. As an alternative to canned smashed tomatoes, you can also use tomato puree or you can make it at home. For that, blend 3 large fresh tomatoes and mix ¼ cup of tomato puree into it to get the reddish color. You can choose honey instead of sugar.  

Preparations

Cut the boneless chicken into 1 and 1 ½ inch pieces. Make a paste of ginger and garlic in a grinder by adding 3-4 tablespoons of water. The next step is to marinate chicken and for that, mix 2 tbsp of red chili powder, turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon of coriander powder, and ½ teaspoon of garam masala powder with some oil, 1 tsp of salt, and ¼ tsp of sugar. Marinate your chicken pieces in these spices and then add lime juice and yogurt into it. Now mix all together and let the spices imbibe into the chicken. Place this in the fridge for a minimum of two hours or overnight. One hour before you cook, take it out from the refrigerator.

Method

Fry those marinated chickens in three tablespoons of oil on high flame for 3-4 minutes. After getting a brown color, remove it from the pan and keep them aside. The next step is to prepare the tikka masala gravy. For that, drizzle butter and two tablespoons of oil in a pan and add cumin seeds into it. After cumin seeds splutter, add minced onions and sauté until they get pale color. Then, add one tablespoon of red chili powder, 1 ½ teaspoon of coriander powder, and cumin powder. Immediately after stirring these spices on low flame, add the ginger garlic paste. Stir the mixture on medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until the raw smell of the paste goes away.

Now, pour the canned smashed tomatoes or tomato puree and a little salt into it, but you should stir continuously on medium heat until the tomatoes are reduced down and when everything seems to be fried, it’s time to add chicken. Mix the chicken pieces well in the gravy and gradually add water to loosen up everything. Then, add the dried fenugreek leaves and one teaspoon of garam masala. Now, cover and cook for 6 to 8 minutes on low heat and after that, add the main taste rendering ingredient, heavy cream. After adding cream, cover and cook for 2 minutes on low heat, and finally, add some coriander leaves to leave an aromatic smell and freshness.

Your extremely tasteful restaurant-style Chicken tikka masala is ready to eat with rice or naan.