Chicken Tikka Masala (Butter Chicken)

We have been on a chicken tikka journey.

We have tried and tried to make it like our favorite Indian places in San Francisco. We sampled all sorts of recipes and have finally arrived at a happy place. This dish takes time to make, but the final dish is so flavorful and delicious that it is worth the work!

The night before:

Cut your chicken down in to bite sized cubes. 

Add these ingredients to your blender:

24 oz. plain yogurt

1/2 onion

6 cloves garlic

a thumbs worth of ginger

1/2 jalapeño

1 TBS whole coriander 

1 tsp turmeric

1 TBS fresh cilantro 

Blend. Pour over your chicken. Make sure every piece is covered in the yogurt mixture. Cover and put in the refrigerator over night.

Sauce:

28 oz can of tomato puree, no salt added

1 stick of cinnamon

1 1/2 onion, blended

6 cloves garlic

1 thumb worth of ginger

1 TBS ground cumin (grind your own fresh, it tastes so much better)
1 TBS turmeric
1 TBS coriander,  fresh ground
salt to taste

water for deglazing your pan

1/4 c heavy cream (if it is a special occasion and you want to throw calorie counting out the window, adding more cream tastes really good! I'll leave that to your discretion.)

Light your coals (if you don't have access to a grill, you can use your oven broiler.) You want really hot coals. Put your marinated chicken on skewers. Try to keep as much of the marinade on as you can. When your coals are ready, place your chicken on the girl. The chicken needs to have a great char. Do not cook it through, it will cook in the sauce. Do not over cook them! (If you do at this point over cook the chicken, add them to the sauce just before serving.)

Blend together your onions, garlic and ginger. After pureed, add onions and cinnamon stick to the frying pan and cook until your onions are the color of peanut butter. Deglaze your pan with water as needed. This takes about 30 minutes. Don't let it burn! When your puree is golden brown, add cumin, coriander and turmeric. Cook for a minute.  Turn your heat to medium low. Add the tomato sauce. You want to let the sauce simmer for at least 1/2 an hour to make sure there is no "can" flavor left from those tomatoes.

10 minutes before you are ready to serve, remove the chicken from the skewers and add to the tikka sauce. A minute before serving add the heavy cream.

We serve this with basmati rice and Paleek Paneer.
Enjoy!