What is your best Chicken Tikka Masala recipe?

[aceinyerface]

I am looking for a top notch CTM (Chicken Tikka Masala) recipe. I know there must be some good ones, since it is the unofficial British National dish.

I need it mild (or I can try to mellow it some) since the hot (by cajun standards) foods don't agree with my wife or the kids in the family.

Any Indian food lovers out there?

 

[YetiDave]

I absolutely love Indian food, and I do tend to go to this site quite a lot for inspiration. Although I've not tried this recipe it certainly sounds right http://www.indianfoodforever.com/non-veg/chicken/chicken-tikka-masala.html

 

[dannymayo]

The recipe YetiDave linked to looks pretty spot on, you can omit some of the chilis to make it milder. I used to work at an Indian owned health food store and learned a lot about Indian food/ingredients. The owners would always bring in Indian food for the staff after they had a party, they had a lot of parties. BTW, Mace is just the outer husk of Nutmeg. Make sure to post pics.

 

[aceinyerface]

Looking at that link I have some questions

Mace being a part of the nutmeg, does that mean I don't need it so much if I have some nice fresh nutmeg?

Chili powder, now down here we have "Chili Powder" which is a mixture of mild chilis, cumin, garlic etc... that people use in texmex style chili. There is also Cayenne Powder (which is a chili, therefore a chili powder) and Paprika (which is also a chili). There are 2 kinds mentioned in this recipe, are they one or the other of what I mentioned, or something different entirely? My guess is the first chili powder in the recipe is cayenne (due to it's small amount) and the second is paprika (a tablespoon of cayenne would melt the pot).

Ginger paste and garlic paste, is this something that you make or buy?

Fenugreek is very hard to find around here, what is that? Recipe implies it is optional since it is just added at the end, necessary or not?

Sorry for my ignorance, indian cuisine is pretty much completely foreign around here and I have little experience with it.

 

[YetiDave]

Chilli powder is literally just dried and powdered chillis so cayenne will work just fine (the tbsp of chilli powder will certainly be referring to chillis rather than paprika - just tone it down to however hot you like)

You can probably omit the mace and use a tiny bit extra nutmeg

For ginger and garlic paste just make them yourself, if a recipe calls for paste made from both it's a 50/50 mix. There's no real trick to it, it is just those two ingredients

You should get a pretty good result replacing fenugreek with curry leaves if you have access to them. Fenugreek is also known as methi, if that helps at all. You can find it in seed or leaf form. It won't be bad without fenugreek though!

You should check out recipes by Madhur Jaffrey too - you really can't go wrong with those!

 

[tchudson]

I have made the one from Cook's Illustrated several times and really like it - in fact, I had already printed the recipe out this morning so I could do the shopping today and make it for dinner tonight. Dunno how authentic it is, but my wife and I really like it and it tastes like the Tikka Masala from an Indian restaurant in Tucson that we used to go to. Here's a link to the blog I pulled it from this morning.

http://a-foodie.blogspot.com/2007/11/chicken-tikka-masala.html

 

[YetiDave]

Chicken tikka masala is actually a British dish invented in Glasgow, Scotland, so I don't think the word authentic should come into the equation! Nevertheless it's very very tasty

 

[dannymayo]

I think you should be fine if you omit the Fenugreek and Mace. If you don't see the spices in a large supermarket just let Customer service know and they should be able to get the ingredients without issue, Mace could be tricky.

 

[galopede]

I am looking for a top notch CTM (Chicken Tikka Masala) recipe. I know there must be some good ones, since it is the unofficial British National dish.

Not anymore it isn't!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...kka-masala-knocked-spot-Chinese-stir-fry.html

Gareth

 

[saf]

A little trick for garlic and ginger paste is to chop it fine and *** some course salt then use the side of your knife to smash and draw on it a few passes and it will be paste.

 

[aceinyerface]

A little trick for garlic and ginger paste is to chop it fine and *** some course salt then use the side of your knife to smash and draw on it a few passes and it will be paste.

I call that "The Pepin" or use it as a verb, "I'm going to Pepin that garlic.".