Ally Bally's Blog

This is completely my own Indian recipe*. I didn’t base it from anything, so rather than following it to the letter (eg two tablespoons of this and a pound of that), I want to leave this recipe open to your tastebuds to make it as you like, so, make sure you have a teaspoon at the ready to taste that sauce when it’s cooking away to make sure it’s just the way you like it!

It’s a nice mild curry, so if you fancy you’re curries a bit hotter, then just add more chilli powder and perhaps leave a few chilli seeds in, but my advice is to add a little bit at a time because, whoa! can them chillies get hot quick!

*When I say it’s completely my own, I mean I made it up without following a recipe book, however, I’m sure that there are a million Indian (especially North Indian) dishes that are pretty much exactly the same so don’t go telling me I’m a fraud!

This recipe comes in two parts – firstly, the ingredients for the Chicken Tikka and secondly, the Gravy or Curry Sauce it’s self.

Cooking Time: 4 Hours +

Ingredients

For the Tikka:

4 or 5 Chicken Breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces.

1 tbsp Clear Honey

1 1/2 tsp or so of Ground Coriander

1 tsp Ground Cumin

8 Pureed cloves of Garlic (or around 6-7 tsps)

2 tsp of Pureed Ginger

1/2 tsp Chili Powder (or more if you want the chicken a bit spicier, wouldn’t recommend more than 1 heaped tsp though)

1 tsp Garam Masala

1 tsp Turmeric

3 tsp Lemon Juice

For the Sauce:

8 Pureed Tomatoes (You can use passata or tomato sauce if you are lazy, but I prefer boiling them for 20 min and the skin falls off, then chuck them in a blender and use a sieve to get the puree seperated from the seeds for a really fresh taste).

2 De-seeded and chopped chillies of medium strength.

75g or more Salted Butter

1 1/2 tsp Garam Masala

2 tsp Tumeric

8-10 Pureed or finely crushed garlic cloves

A good wedge (at least half the size of the palm of your hand) of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated.

3 tsp (or more) Tandoori Mix (this isn’t too hot, and adds a nice red colour).

4-5 tbsps of Heinz Tomato Sauce (experiment with this. It makes it very sweet, so if you aren’t into a sweet sauce, add less. Keep tasting it to see how you like the mixture).

1-2 tsp Coleman’s Mustard Powder (gives a good colour and sharpens the taste, experiment here too, in small amounts at a time).

2 tsp sieved Cornflour to thicken the sauce.

A handful of chopped coriander to garnish.

A handful of flaked almonds to garnish.

Shared Ingredients:

250 ml Double Cream

Utensils

1 Large Mixing Bowl

1 Medium Mixing Bowl

1 Large Saucepan (big enough for all the sauce and the chicken)

1 Large Baking Tray

Cooking Foil (wrap it around the baking tray and smear a little oil on the foil)

A Whisk to stir in the sieved cornflour.

A Sieve to sieve the tomatoes and the cornflour (maybe two, if you don’t have time to clean it in the middle of cooking).

3 Teaspoons, one for the wet stuff (eg, the ginger, garlic etc), one for the dry stuff (curry powder etc) and one for tasting with!

A sharp knife (for cutting up the chicken)

4 Skewers (preferably steel ones) to cook the Chicken Tikka with.

2 Chopping boards. One for the chicken, one for the chilli and coriander.

Clingfilm, to wrap the chicken.

A food blender, to make the tomato sauce.

Method

Grab the large mixing bowl and toss all the dry tikka ingredients into it. Once you have done that pop the wet ingredients in (eg the Garlic, Ginger and Honey).

Finally, drop a little bit of cream into the mixture and stir until you have a nice paste. It shouldn’t be too runny or too thick, so if it’s a little on the gritty/thick side, just add a bit more cream until you end up with a nice yellowish colour.

Drop the chicken cubes into the bowl and mix well. I mean get your hands in there and give it a good old mix around so that the chicken is very well coated in the mixture.

Wrap the mixing bowl with cling film and put that in the fridge for at least four hours. If you can do it over night, your friends will thank you because all the flavours will really get into the chicken!

Apart from sit around and wait for the chicken, you can get on with a bit of the sauce now by taking the six tomatoes and putting them in the saucepan. Cover the tomatoes fully with boiling water. Leave up on a high heat for around 20 minutes and the skin should start to fall off all on it’s own. Take the tomatoes out with a large spoon and carefully remove the skins, you might want to let them cool a little first! Once you have the skins off, pop the tomatoes in the blender and pulse it on a high speed until the tomatoes are just sauce. Take a sieve and the other, smaller mixing bowl and use the spoon to push the tomato sauce through the sieve, this will ensure that all the pips don’t get into the sauce.

For now, that’s all you can do, pop a bit of cling on the second mixing bowl and pop that in the fridge too.

When the chicken has marinaded sufficiently, take both mixing bowls out of the fridge and allow to come to room temperature. Whack the oven up to 200 degrees and allow it to get up to temperature. Whilst you are waiting on the oven, stick the chicken pieces on the skewers and place them on the oiled, foil covered tray.

Still whilst the oven is heating up, put the butter into the large saucepan and heat over a medium heat. Once the butter has melted pop the garlic, ginger and chilli into the pan.

Hopefully by now the oven will be up to heat so drop the chicken in and ensure that you turn it at least three times during the cooking process. You should cook for around 25-30 minutes. You can grill it if you prefer, to give a more authentic look, however it will require more attention from you during the cooking process.

Back to the sauce, stir all the ingredients so far then add the tomato sauce you made earlier, into the mixture. Next add the remainder of the cream (should be a good lot of cream here!). The colour will instantly become a light colour. Add all the dry ingredients such as the garam masala, tumeric, tandoori mix etc.

Have a little taste and see if you think it needs more dry ingredients, otherwise, crack on and add the tomato sauce. Again, do this a little at a time, stirring it in as you go. You will find that the tomato sauce changes the taste of the dish quickly so you be the judge here!

Once the chicken is cooked, remove from the oven and allow it to cool, ensuring that your sauce doesn’t boil all the time. Allow the chicken to cool a bit so that the tikka mixture is staying on the chicken well. Once that it has sufficiently cooled, pop the chicken into the saucepan and mix. You may need to raise the heat of the saucepan at this point to heat the chicken and the sauce sufficiently.

Serve this dish with fried or boiled basmati rice. I like to drop a few cloves and some saffron into a pot of boiling, oiled water. A tip for presentation, find a short-ish glass with a slight bevel in it and pack the rice into it fairly tight, then turn it upside down on the plate so that you get a nice rice ‘turret’. Garnish the rice with a little of the chopped coriander.

When plating up the curry, garnish with a light sprinkling of the flaked almonds and the chopped coriander. This isn’t exactly a diet dish, but boy is it tasty!