Monday, 25 January 2010

Post 159: Chicken Tikka Masala, (based from a Jamie Oliver recipe)

I went to the butchers and chicken legs were on offer. So, I snapped up 10 of them. The what to do with them came next, and I thought I'd have a go at Chicken Tikka masala and google brought up Jamie Oliver's recipe as hit no 1. I didn't have quite all the ingredients, so this ended up slightly more loosely based on Jamie's recipe than originally intended.


To make the marinade, I blitzed together: Ginger (2 - 3 tsps), Chillies (about a dozen dried), paprika (a good shake's worth), coriander stalks, vegetable oil and tomato puree - just enough to make it runny. I also added a bit of tamarind paste, just half a tsps. I confess this was something of a brainwave - Camilla Panjabi seems to use it a lot and I thought why not. I'd also forgotten garlic, so that was missing too (most unusual for me, not to have garlic)

Here it is pre-stirring with the chicken legs. It wasn't the most appetizing of starts to a meal. Jamie left his to marinade overnight, but I only had ~6 hours. Maybe this didn't help.

Next was the sauce:
- fry a big chopped onion (Yay, a proper recipe telling me to do my favourite onion frying!), along with a dash each of ground coridander and cinamon
- added 2 x tins of chopped tomatoes, 1 x 200g plain yoghurt and the marinaded chicken bits and simmered
Because I'd used  legs instead of breast, as this was simmering quite a bit of oil/fat came out of the legs, which took some spooning off.
- Once the chicken was cooked, I added some chopped coriander leaves and cream and stirred through.

This is what it looked like. Which is probably a pretty reasonable colour.

However, it just tasted like tomato-ey chicken in a mildly spices. The chicken legs weren't a success; the fault there is clearly mine, I should have skinned them or taken them out and grilled them at the end to make the skin nice. The tamarind paste, despite there only being 1/2 a tsps in came through far too strongly.

In short, it just wasn't like having a curry. Worst meal of 2010 to date.
Posted by VegBoxBoy at 11:19
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6 comments:

  1. Janice25 January 2010 at 18:53

    Oh what a shame. I've made one of Jamie's curries before (not this one) and it was fab. The skin can be a bit oily, I usually skin the legs and thighs.

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  2. VegBoxBoy26 January 2010 at 07:54

    I'll try with one of Jamie's currys again; but not this one. I don't think I strayed that far from the recipe that it would have made a huge difference.

    I'll take your tip on skinning the legs and thighs if I try this style of cooking again though. Sounds like it would improve things.

    Thanks, x

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  3. Anonymous26 January 2010 at 07:54

    No good telling you I skin the legs and thighs too is it? ;0)

    I think the key to a successful curry is probably to follow the ingredients to the letter - in fact , if I didn't have garlic, I'd make something else - but also I'd personally avoid Jamie for curries. Thats just me though.

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  4. Catherine26 January 2010 at 12:57

    Thats a shame, especially after marinading it for 6 hours! I agree with greedyrosie, maybe Jamie Oliver isn't the best guy for curries, hopefully someone can point you towards a better source!

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  5. Kath28 January 2010 at 12:39

    I try curry recipes now and again and I am afraid I always return to a jar of Pataks. I hope to find a good recipe one day though.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Indian Foodie11 February 2010 at 17:57

    Your chicken tikka masala recipe looks great. My favorite chicken tikka recipe is at chicken tikka masala recipe Give it a try.

    ReplyDelete

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