We love eating spicy foods when it's hot outside, so when a spike in temperature coincided with finding this recipe on the Pioneer Woman's site, we didn't hesitate! With a quick trip to the store for chicken and hot peppers, we were in business.
Here's the full recipe:
• Chicken Tikka Masala by Pastor Ryan from The Pioneer Woman
The recipe came together surprisingly fast - in about 30 minutes, in fact. The chicken broils while the rice cooks and the sauce is simmered. Amazingly, we didn't feel harried at all! There's very little prep work to do, and everything magically finishes at about the same time.
The finished dish was exactly what we were craving. The sauce was silky and flavorful with nice chunks of onion, tomato, and tender chicken. The peppers gave it a nice heat, which contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the garam masala and the creaminess of the sauce. We were grabbing for extra pieces of naan bread to mop up the last remnants from our plates!
If you make this recipe, we would recommend adding about half the garam masala and letting the sauce simmer a bit. Taste it before adding more. We added the garam masala all at once, and ended up feeling like it overwhelmed some of the other flavors in the dish.
This is a great recipe that could easily be made vegetarian with some baked tofu or lighter with yogurt and whole milk in place of the heavy cream. Now that we know how quick and easy this recipe is to make, we'll be adding it to our rotation of weeknight dishes!
Related: Indian Cooking: Making Naan Bread at Home
(Image: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)
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oh emma you tease now im going to have to go buy some b/s chicken breasts to make this tonight. yummmm love tikka masala
Good idea about the Garam masala - as with many spice blends garam masalas tend to be inconsistent in potency so is always a good idea to go light and add more as needed. My boyfriend brought us back from India when he went to visit family, and I always have to go light on it when following recipes it is so potent.
Some more substitution suggestions:
If your goal is just vegetarian, my suggestion would be to use paneer cubes, which is a cousin of cottage cheese, and a more authentic indian ingredient. When I first entered the world of indian cooking i first mistook it for tofu (by sight, not taste). In fact i think i have seen tikka prepared with paneer in restaurants before.
However, If you want to go more healthy and light, tofu would be the way to go! Paneer is not low fat!
You can also used evaporated milk in place of the heavy cream, which is lighter but still has a thicker texture. If you use milk a few ground up nuts (almonds or cashews) can be used to thicken up the sauce.
Looks delicious! The Pioneer Woman site is really fun & all the recipes I've tried are excellent. This looks like a new favorite....
Thanks for pointing out this recipe. I confess I've been curry crazed this bummer, but have been making tikka masala from an expensive pre-made sauce from Whole Foods. I'll give this method a try.
Love how Pastor has the photos for each step of the recipe, but kind of wish there was a printable version. Printing the recipe the way it is would take tons of paper.
gochrisgo- there's a printable version at the top of the page, before the recipe begins. it prints in a single page, though the text is very, very small.
@adamwa - great suggestions for substitutions. Thanks!
@gochrisgo - I think she has a link to a printable PDF at the very top of the page under the recipe title!
I've made this a couple of times- yum! This recipe is a hit at home. (Ditto with her lasagna.)
Good tip about reducing the garam masala. Next time I'll try that.
Haven't seen this recipe yet but the best tikka masala recipe i'd ever made came from Cook's Illustrated. My Indian husband agrees it's the best he's ever had (and he's not one to overpraise my cooking) - including his mother's!
@heathshah - I was just going to suggest this recipe. I saw them make it on America's Test Kitchen and then I looked it up in Cook's Illustrated. My husband and I agreed that this was the best chicken tikka masala we'd ever had.
This is the tikka masala recipe I've always used. 2 alterations to this: take out about 90% of the salt listed for the marinade and the sauce, and double the sauce for the amount of chicken they mention.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Tikka-Masala/Detail.aspx