Restaurant style chicken tikka masala !!;))

Restaurant style chicken tikka masala !!;))

I had about 1/2 kg of boneless chicken on hand & was thinking of ways to cook it up! First i thought of preparing some spicy crunchy chicken bhaji & serving them with some sambar rice, but then decided to try out some new recipe from my huge cookbook collection!:) So as i was browsing through my books, i stumbled upon this gem of a recipe!:) I read through the recipe & was tempted to try it cos it did not call out for the usual tandoori pwd, which is somewhat of a constant fixture in these sort of recipes!;)) & the picture of it in my cookbook also looked tempting enough to make me think of trying it out! So here is the recipe, i just adjusted the spice proportions & added certain things to suit my taste. This one tastes exactly like those served in your neighbourhood Indian restaurants:) Alongwith my eggless naan, it would be the perfect combo! But with the pulao( recipe coming up shortly) it was simply out of this world!

Ingredients:





Boneless chicken - 1/2 kg, cubed, ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp, oil - 2 tbsps, turmeric pwd - 1/4 tsp, onion - 1,finely sliced, tomato - 1,finely chopped, chilli pwd - 1 tsp, tomato paste - 2 to 3 tsps, green chilli - 1, chopped, coriander pwd - 1 tsp, garam masala - 1/2 tsp, fresh cream - 2 tbsps, coriander leaves( chopped) - 3 tbsps, salt to taste.


For the marinade:



Yogurt - 4 tbsp(heaped), ginger-garlic paste - 3 tbsp, lime juice - 2 tbsp, salt to taste, chilli pwd - 2 tsp, turmeric pwd - 1/4 tsp, garam masala - 1/2 tsp, coriander leaves ( chopped) - 4 tbsps ,tandoori food colour - a pinch( go ahead & add it, just a pinch is not going to kill you!;) & more over you are not going to cook this dish everyday!!).

Take all the marinade ingredients in a bowl & stir till well blended. Marinate the chicken in this mixture for about half an hour.

Now grill the chicken pieces till done. The pieces should be a little charred here & there and reserve. If you want you can stop at this stage, insert each tikka piece with cocktail picks & serve them as dry tikkas for appetizer or if you want a gravy dish, continue with my recipe!;)

Method:

Heat oil in a pan & fry the onion & green chilli till the onions are translucent. Add the ginger-garlic paste & stir fry for a few seconds.

Now add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, turmeric pwd, chilli pwd, coriander pwd, garam masala pwd & salt & stir fry on medium low heat, sprinkling a little water if necessary. Continue frying till the tomatoes & the masala paste are well blended. Now add the grilled chicken& little water & simmer till the gravy has thickened .

Simple pulao( recipe comming up shortly!)

Stir in the cream & switch off the heat. Now add a cube of butter & cover the pan thus allowing the butter to melt in heat of the pan. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves & serve hot with eggless naan or gheepulao , cheesepulao , jeerapulao , coconutrice , kushka & curd raitha!:)
For the vegetarians out there, just replace the chicken with panner & continue with the recipe( ie marinating& grilling the marinated paneer & then cooking it in the tomato sauce), it is equally mouthwatering & you have your paneer tikka masala ready!;))
And for vegans out there,replace the chicken or paneer with tofu( the firm variety) & the fresh cream with soy cream & continue with the recipe to dish up tofu tikka masala!!;)))

ENJOY!!:))

Edited on 1/07/07 to add: Tried it with tofu & 'THE POOR EATER' just loved it & fished out all the tofu pieces & declared that it was much better than the chicken version! but i prefer the chicken version to tofu anyday!!:)