The Tikka Masala Recipe My Family Can't Resist

Chicken tikka masala is considered by many to be the most famous Indian dish in the entire world. I'm gonna show you two different classical cooking techniques for preparing the chicken that the entire family is absolutely going to love. We're gonna start off by prepping up the chicken for the marinade. Sound good? Let's cook. I'm gonna start with a total of two pounds of chicken meat. You can use breasts, thighs, or a combination of both, as I did. However, the thighs are bone-in and have the skin on, so what we wanna do is remove the skin, set it to the side, then using a chef knife or a boning knife, we wanna carve out that thigh bone by slicing around the sides, scraping the meat off, and then completely removing it from the meat. Now, those bones and skin that are left over are awesome for stock, so just pop them in the freezer until you need them. Now, we wanna cube up the chicken, but first, I'm going to gently tenderize it by using the spine of the knife and just pound it down a little bit on both sides. Then, you're going to wanna cut it into roughly 1 1⁄2 inch by 1 1⁄2 inch or one inch by one inch cubes, and then set them to the side. And now, for the marinade, in a large bowl, I'm going to add a half cup of full-fat yogurt. Yes, you could use a lower-fat yogurt, but full-fat brings about more flavor. Then, we're going to finely grate in one tablespoon of fresh peeled ginger, followed up with one tablespoon of fresh grated garlic cloves. Next up, we're gonna squeeze in the juice of a half lemon, or about one to 1 1⁄2 tablespoons. And now, for some spices. I have 1 1⁄2 teaspoons of Kashmiri powder, or you could just use chili powder, then a half teaspoon of ground turmeric. And then, an optional herb, I'm gonna add in a half teaspoon of fenugreek, also known as kasuri methi. Then, I've got a half teaspoon of garam masala. Now, I've got a fantastic recipe on my website or in my chana masala recipe video where you toast up the whole spices to bring about more aromatics and flavor. Then, you just add them to a mortar pestle or a spice grinder and grind it until it is finely ground. Or hey, if you wanna save some time, just go buy the pre-made version of garam masala at the store. Okay, back to the marinade. We are gonna generously season it with coarse salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Using a whisk, mix it together until it is completely combined to help marry those flavors. Then, using a spoon, just taste it. It should be incredibly flavorful. If it's good to go, then what we're gonna do at this stage is add in our cubed up chicken and then thoroughly mix it until it is combined. Now, to make sure the marinade is extremely flavorful, like I said at the beginning of the video, we are gonna fry up one piece in a small amount of oil just until it's cooked through and then give it a quick taste. So good. Cover it up and place it in the refrigerator for as little as 30 minutes or up to 24 hours. The longer the marinade, the more flavorful and that yogurt and that lemon are going to tenderize up this chicken to no end. When it comes time, there are a couple of easy ways to cook the chicken, but honestly, I think there's one procedure that stands out that just brings about more flavor. For now, though, we're gonna hook up that sauce. I want to small dice up one large red onion. Now, you could also use a yellow, white, or sweet. Then, in a large Rondeau pot, this one is six quart, I'm gonna add in three tablespoons of ghee. You could also use a neutral flavored oil. We're gonna turn the heat up to medium. Once the ghee's melted, let's add in our onions, give it a gentle season of coarse salt to help draw out the moisture and brown them more quickly. We are gonna saute them for exactly five minutes or until lightly brown and looking just like this. Then, we're gonna turn the heat down and cook it for 10 minutes while occasionally stirring. But let's be a good steward of our time and start knocking out some more prep. Beginning with finely grating up one tablespoon of peeled fresh ginger and then one tablespoon of finely grated garlic cloves, literally just like in the marinade. Now, for a little bit of spice. The common chili is known as a chuala, but it's really hard to get here in the United States, so I'm gonna use one serrano pepper. And because you know me, I can't really do too much spice. I like comfortably spicy. I'm going to remove the pith and the seeds. Remember that pith is where all that heat is. Then, I'm just going to thinly slice it like this. Now, if you love heat, leave those seeds in there and slice away. Or if you want even more heat, try some Thai chilies. Yeah, could never do this. All right, let's go have a look at those onions. Yes, you can see they're beautifully brown. We're gonna add in the ginger and garlic and cook it just until fragrant, which only takes about 30 to 45 seconds. Then, we're gonna add in our serrano chili and saute it for one to two minutes to help bring out a little bit of flavor. And now, it's spice time. We're adding in one bay leaf, two teaspoons of Kashmiri powder, or again, chili powder will work excellent. Then, a half teaspoon of garam masala. Let's mix it together for just 30 to 45 seconds. Beautiful, beautiful color in this pot, and the smells are incredible. Now, what we're gonna do is add in three cups of tomato puree. Then, just fill up that container with a half cup of water. Give it a little swoosh and add it in there as well. Nothing goes to waste here. Then, a gentle season of coarse salt, and we're gonna take the heat from low up to medium and cook it for five to seven minutes. We wanna reduce these flavors to help concentrate the tomato and spice flavors in our sauce. Now, the other option if you don't have tomato puree is take any canned tomatoes and just blend them in a blender until they are smooth, or as an alternate, you can small to medium dice size up some fresh tomatoes. I pulled these San Marzanos right from my garden. You'll total four cups here. Add it right to that pot, just like with the tomato puree, and stew it down until it becomes concentrated and looks just like this. Let's go have a look at our tomato puree. You can see it's become a much thicker sauce, more concentrated in flavor, much more delicious. And at this point, we're gonna add in one cup of chicken stock. You could also use water. And then we're gonna reduce this down for a further 10 to 12 minutes. Again, we're just trying to concentrate the flavor using classic cooking techniques, not by adding more ingredients. Now, to almost finish up this sauce, we are gonna pour in 2 1 3 cup of heavy whipping cream. All that fat is just gonna bring out so much more in this sauce. Then an optional 1 1 2 teaspoon of fenugreek. And some more cilantro. Season it up with coarse salt, freshly cracked black pepper. It's creamy, it's savory, it's got a nice little spice to it. Honestly, it's perfectly balanced. Mix it until combined, and of course, let's give it a taste. Oh my gosh, you're gonna love this. Let's briefly set this to the side and let's cook our chicken. Option one, using a large carbon steel or nonstick skillet right on the cooktop, let's take the plastic wrap off our marinated chicken, add three tablespoons of ghee or neutral flavored oil to the pan. On to high heat until it begins to smoke like this. Then add in the chicken and immediately spread it around the pan to cover as much surface area as possible. Remember, we wanna get a really good sear on this. Let it sit untouched for exactly three minutes. Then we're gonna come back and we're gonna start to move the chicken around. You can see that browning or that maillard starting to happen on our chicken. That is flavor, my friends. We're gonna continue to saute it for an additional five to six minutes or just until the chicken is cooked through about 160 degrees Fahrenheit internally. Of course, try a little peace out or wait. Option number two, and this is my favorite and definitely a more classical procedure. Soak some skewers in water for about 20 to 30 minutes and then we're gonna skewer up all that marinated chicken going on a hot grill in between 450 and 550 degrees Fahrenheit. We are gonna cook it for three to four minutes per side on all four sides with the grill door shut or until it's got some nice brown marks and the chicken is just cooked through. Again, we're looking at about 160 degrees Fahrenheit internally. Then remove the chicken from the skewer and whichever option you want, we are gonna now add it right to that sauce. And now we can completely finish it with a quarter cup of finely minced fresh cilantro. Remember, I also use the stems, so much flavor in those. Give it a stir to combine and of course have a taste. The chicken should be extremely tender from that yogurt marinade and perfectly cooked with all those flavors from the grill and the sauce. Like I said, you're gonna wanna drink this stuff. And if you're looking for some pairings, of course this would go excellent with some cooked basmati rice and some fresh hot naan. Oh my gosh, plating it up with rice, a bunch of the chicken tikka masala and some more cilantro. Yeah, I'm in heaven and apparently so is my family. That's really good. Good food, great conversations, always leads to smiles. That's one happy family right there. Now this is how you get your favorite Indian restaurant tikka masala in your very own kitchen. So good. Now if you wanna go a little bit deeper with these spices, you have to check out my chicken biryani. I've got a great recipe video. See you on it.