Chef Joel & Jenn: Chicken Tikka Masala
Its been a month since our last edition of Chef Joel & Jenn which was the Beef Gyritos from Plated. Those didn't turn out nearly as good as they looked in the promotion pictures. Sadly we've been extremely busy during April and only recently got to do another recipe. This time Chicken Tikka Masala.
I believe Jenn was the one who first introduced me to Indian Food a couple of years ago. There's something truly amazing about all the flavors that comes from a great Indian dish. A couple of weeks ago Jenn and I along with Jake tried a local Indian takeout restaurant called Dhaba that was out of this world. I got the Tikka Masala and it inspired me to try and cook it at home. I found a crock pot recipe that I really wanted to try.
This past Sunday it was the perfect day to give it a go. We started at around 9AM with getting the ingredients and throwing it all in the crockpot. The one negative of this recipe is that it has 20 ingredients. I did say earlier that Indian food is known for having bold flavor. Now I see how it was possible. We diced up the vegetables, prepared everything and put all of the spices together.
Once the sauce was made we put the chopped up chicken breast into the sauce. Mixed it all up and put it in the crock pot on low for 8 hours.
In the last twenty minutes of cooking we added the last couple of ingredients (heavy cream, corn starch, and lemon juice) and let it thicken up. We cooked some white rice in our awesome rice cooker and dinner was made.
Unfortunately the dish didn't come out all that great. The chicken completely dried out and the sauce didn't have the right consistency. The sauce was really good but it couldn't make up It wasn't bad but it wasn't nearly as good as the Indian restaurant we had a couple weeks back. We just haven't had great luck with crockpot chicken dishes.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 Chicken Breast
- 1 Large Onion (Diced)
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
- 1 (29oz) can of tomato puree
- 1 1/2 cups of plain yogurt
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 2 tbsp Garam masala
- 1 tsp tumeric powder
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1/2 tbsp paprika
- 2 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp black pepper
- 1-3 tsp of cayenne pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup of heavy cream
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- Lemon Juice from half of lemon
- Chopped parsley
DIRECTIONS
Place everything up to the bay leaves in a large bowl. With a spatula, stir to combine everything and make sure the chicken is coated well.
Gently place the mixture in the insert of the crockpot and add the two bay leaves.
Cover and cook for 8 hours on low (or 4 hours on high).
When done, in a medium bowl, whisk together heavy cream and corn starch, then pour the mixture into the crockpot and gently stir. Let cook an additional 20 minutes to thicken up. Squeeze half a lemon over the mixture then stir to incorporate.
Serve hot over a bed of white (or brown) rice.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Recipe Source: Table for Two
