Skytte's Kitchen: Chicken Tikka Masala

This was the first dish I posted on facebook (actually it was the second after having fried some chicken thighs). Originally it was meant as a challenge to see if anyone could improve on my version. It's one of my favourites and I'm always trying to improve it. So far this is the best version I think. But again, should you have any suggestions how to make it even better, leave a comment. Notice that you need to marinate in advance, so plan ahead before cooking it.

Ingredients:

Marinade

1/2 tbls Olive Oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Chili flakes

1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper

1 tblsp Ginger Garlic Paste (equal amounts of ginger and garlic)

Some ground coriander

1/4 cup (80ml.) of natural yoghurt

1/2 lime and some of its zest

2 chicken breasts

Masala

5-6 ripe tomatoes (or canned tomatoes): aprx 0.5l

50g cashew nuts

1 large onion

1 tbls of ginger/garlic paste

1 tbls of finely chopped jalapeños

2 tsp of ground coriander

2 tsp Garam Masala (toast and grind some cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, mace, bay leafs, if you want to make it yourself)

1 tsp ground cumin

Some whole cumin seeds

1 or 2 tsp salt

1 tsp of tumeric

Pinch of sugar

Cream (optional)

Fresh cilantro (not optional)

Mix the ingredients for the marinade.

Cut 2 chicken breasts into cubes and add to marinade.

Leave in marinade in the fridge overnight or at least 4 hours.

Now for the masala (sauce). Blend some tomatoes with a bit of cashew nuts. You want about 1/2 a litre of sauce. Canned tomatoes can easily be used and so can ready-made tomato sauce. However, fresh, very ripe and tasty tomatoes give a better result. If you only have hard, tasteless tomatoes used a good brand of canned tomatoes instead.

Chop a large onion finely and fry in olive oil till transparent.

Turn up heat and then add: ginger/garlic paste, jalapeños (didn't have them, so not in the pic), ground coriander, Garam Masala, ground cumin, some whole cumin seeds and 1 or 2 tsp salt (depends on your tastebuds).

Spices needs to get toasted a bit but careful not to burn them or the dish will turn bitter. Then add 1 tsp of tumeric which is more heat sensitive and should not get toasted.

Add your tomato sauce.

Cook well for at least 10 -15 min. Add pinch of sugar depending on the acid in your tomatos.

This step can be left out, but after the masala is cooled down you can blend it for extra smoothness. But as said, it's absolutely indifferent to the end result tastewise. And you'll have more washing up to do. A stick blender is another option.

Getting closer. Put the chicken on a quite hot grill. If there's a lot of excess marinade, first add that to the masala/sauce. Otherwise your chicken will boil and not grill.

When cooked and slightly browned they should look something like this.

Add them to the masala and cook for 5 minutes. Mainly for cooking the extra marinade, in case there was any.

Again another optional point. Add a bit of cream if you want extra-extra smoothness. Not the healthy option, but i said I would make the best version, not the healthiest.