Chicken Tikka Masala

Photo by Katie Kay

GET IN MY BELLY!  Seriously.  Wow.  I cook a LOT.  And I eat even more than I cook.  But this is honestly one of my favorites.  We don't eat a lot of Indian food because we don't know what we're doing.  And we don't like to travel more than 30 minutes from home on date night because babysitters are really expensive.  But I would love to have an experience some time like Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller in Along Came Polly with the Indian restaurant.  I'd even take the IBS afterwards.
We attended a wedding for friends of Matt's earlier this year.  The groom was born and raised in Lubbock, TX and the bride was (and probably still is) Indian.  You know how you always see the YouTube videos of the wedding recessions you wish you had the guts to have done?  (Like this one.)  This was one of those.  They did the whole shebang (aka "The Ceremony") then the groom's father (who was also the conservative minister who hates heavy metal and rock...and no this wasn't actually Footloose in a dream I had) pronounced them man and wife, they kissed, and then Beastie Boys' Sabatoge started playing in this huge, lovely, very religious church.  And the entire wedding party recessed to it.
If only I had that courage.
Anyway, the food at the reception was a buffet-style variety of Indian food.  I'm not a picky eater, but I only liked about 1/3 of it.  But what I did like, I LOVED.  They conveniently had labels on each dish so I was able to remember what my favorite dish was called.....(drumroll please)......
Chicken Tikka Masala!
Because Google is so smart, I was able to find a few recipes that looked good to me.  I'm not particularly modest when I say that I have an uncanny knack for reading a recipe and knowing if I'll like it or not.  I read recipes like fiction novels about vampire romance--quickly, with gusto, and I know what hits the spot.
I have no idea what took me so long to try this.  Maybe the prep work and the marinating for 4-8 hours?  I actually had to buy a spice.  Ground turmeric.  I pride myself on having every spice as a pantry staple.
We have busy weekends and it's a rare day that I'm able to plan, prep, and marinate something for 4-8 hours then eat it.  So with this recipe, I prepared the marinade the night before.  The next morning before work, I combined the chicken and marinade.  That evening I made the sauce, broiled the chicken, and put it on the table in about an hour.  I think I could have done it in less time, but my husband and kids were having a dance party in the kitchen and they were very distracting.  Next time, 45 minutes TOPS.
This marinade was a bit confusing to me because I wasn't sure what kind of yogurt to use (original called for "yogurt" so I used plain greek.)  And at first I thought the marinade would later turn into the sauce.  It actually gets thrown away, but the chicken that is birthed from this marinade is beyond compare.  It isn't actually fully cooked when it's removed from the broiler, but Matt popped a piece so fast in his mouth that I could only hope for the best for him.  He loved it, and he survived.
The marinade is oddly orange, isn't it?  Looks like bean dip.

Photo by Katie Kay

The beginning of this recipe tells you to cook your onions, garlic and ginger in a Dutch oven until charred.  Um, the only thing charring was my beautiful and expensive Dutch oven.  It's come back from some nasty blackness before, but it still makes me nervous to see such ugliness in the bottom of the pan.  
I stirred this baby non-stop, and amazingly enough the onions stayed moist.  Maybe too moist because they never actually charred.  Still, when I added the tomatoes, it deglazed and after a few minutes of stirring, turned a gorgeous dark, rusty red color.  Matt thought it was a chipotle sauce.

Photo by Katie Kay

Blackening the raw chicken in the oven took about 20 minutes in my broiler, but I think this is going to vary largely based on your distance to the flame, and heat of the flame.  I just kept watch every 5 minutes or so, but this is what the finished product looked like.  Remember, raw inside is normal and ok.  It's still going to cook more later!

Photo by Katie Kay

Cooking tips: 

• This recipe calls for toasted, ground spices.  I read reviews of the original recipe and did some Googling, and figured out that just using the regular ground spices out of the jar would be fine.  They were.
• Buy large chunks of fresh ginger.  They grate so much easier without losing fingertips!

Chicken Tikka Masala   Source:  J Kenji Lopez-Alt at SeriousEats.com
5 lbs bone-in chicken pieces, skins removed (I bought a package of whole chicken in pieces) 3 Tbsp ground cumin 3 Tbsp paprika 2 Tbsp ground coriander 2 tsp ground turmeric 1 tsp ground cayenne 12 (ha ha, j/k.  I used about 20) cloves of garlic, pressed (minced or grated would be fine) 3 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated (box grater or chopper) 2 cups yogurt (plain Greek, I'm guessing?) 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice 1/4 cup salt 4 Tbsp butter 1 onion, julienned 1 28oz can whole tomatoes, roughly mashed (they'll be pureed later anyway) 1/2 cup cilantro leaves (don't be scared of the stems) 1 cup heavy cream
Combine first 5 spices in a bowl, then remove 3 Tbsp and set aside.  Add 8 cloves of garlic (or a tad more,) 2 Tbsp ginger, yogurt, lemon juice, and salt.  Stir well.  If you're prepping this in advance, cover and refrigerate until ready to marinate.  Otherwise, go ahead and score the chicken every inch on the flesh side up, coat with marinade in a 9x13 baking dish, and refrigerate for 4-8 hours.  Or until you get home from work, which for me was like 11 hours.  Oh well.
When you get home from work, start your butter melting in a Dutch oven.  Chop onions, remaining garlic and ginger, and add to pan. This is the part where you try to char it until black.  Good luck with that.
Once the bottom of your pan is so black and thick with grime that you think it will never, ever be the same again, make it 10x worse by adding the reserved spice mixture from the marinade.  Stir that up and watch it thicken up like peanut butter on a dog's tongue.  Then add tomatoes and stir to work up the awfulness from the bottom of the pan.  Add about 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro (go ahead and be lazy with the stems, it's going to be pureed later anyway.)
Let it simmer about 15 minutes, then put in a blender.  Remove middle seal from blender top, cover with kitchen towel, and start blender on your lowest speed.  This will help prevent too much "jumping" by hot liquid.  Raise speed until pureed.  Return mixture to pot.
While sauce is simmering, line a pan with foil and turn broiler on high.  My pan was about 6-8 inches from the flame.  Wipe the marinade from the chicken and place on foil-lined sheet in single layer under broiler.  Recipe calls for 10 minutes until blackened, it took mine 20 minutes to get a lovely char. Remove chicken and let sit for 10 minutes.  I'm not sure why, but I had other stuff to keep me occupied so it was fine with me.  Wash some dishes.  Load the dishwasher.  Then use a knife to cut the meat from the bones.  The insides will probably still be gross, mushy, and pink.  It's ok.  Cut chicken into large chunks.
Add cream and 1/4 cup lemon juice to pot with salt to taste, then stir well.  Add chicken chunks to the pot and bring back to a simmer for 10 minutes.
Serve over rice or Naan.  We tried both and preferred rice.  Top with cilantro.
You're welcome. ;)