Indian food

I know what your first thought was - Colorado - buffalo -rabbit - maybe a little pemmican.

No, my wife likes the East Indian curries.  Spicy hot chunks of meat in spicy hot sauces.  I admit I like them too, but they are hard to cook.  Tikka Masala is a complicated dish. I like simple and easy.

Last week we put together a Chicken Curry from the recipes of the Hairy Bikers.  The Hairy Bikers are a couple of guys who have a food show on BBC and lots of recipe books.  I don't know why the British conflate weird characters with good food, but they often do.  Ever see the show

The ladies were fat and they rode around on a motorcycle, preparing recipes in exotic locales all over the United Kingdom.

This week we tried a dish we both like: Tikka Masala.  Chicken ṭikka masala (Hindi: चिकन टिक्का मसाला;Bengali: চিচ্কেন টিক্কা মসলা) is a dish of roasted chicken chunks (tikka) in a spicy (masala) sauce. The sauce is usually creamy, spiced and orange-colored. Chicken tikka masala has been said to be the most popular dish in British restaurants and it has been called "a true British national dish". The origin of the dish is unclear.

We started by marinating chunks of boneless-skinless chicken thighs in one cup of yogurt spiced with two T. lime juice, two t. cumin,  two t.cayenne pepper, two t. black pepper, one t. cinnamon, one t. minced ginger and a good pinch of salt.







The masala sauce is a combination of spices, cream tomato sauce.  To make it start by  melting two T. butter and sautéing chopped pepper (I used a poblano ) two t. cumin, two t. paprika and one minced clove of garlic.  Add one cup of tomato sauce and one cup of cream. Salt to taste.

 Meanwhile, put the chunks of chicken on skewers and grill over hot coals.  When the chicken is done - about 5 minutes on each side remove, from grill.  Remove the chicken from the skewers and simmer in the masala sauce for about 10 minutes. Serve over rice.  I forgot to mention - cook some of that while you are doing all the other stuff.  Sprinkle with fresh chopped cilantro.



Told you it was complicated.  It's good.  It's spicy hot.  If you are a curry beginner you might use less cayenne and less chopped pepper.  Here is the recipe I modified mine from: Chicken Tikka Masala.

The site has all the ingredients and procedures neatly organized and laid out. Remember there are no recipe police and you are free to modify and experiment.