Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken Tikka Masala is the nation’s favourite dish, so I simply had to take the One Pound Meals challenge and create this dish for under a quid! And it was a huge success! By griddling marinated chicken thighs, I managed to recreate that charred tandoor tikka effect. Then, by reducing tinned tomatoes and enriching the sauce with cream, the sauce has that local takeaway authenticity that a ready meal just can’t provide.
Ingredients (1 person):
Basmati rice
Chicken thigh, deboned
3 tsp tandoori curry powder
¼ onion, sliced
½ a tin of tomatoes (approx 200g)
50ml single cream
Oil
Salt & pepper
Recipe:
Gently simmer half a mug of rice with 1 mug of water in a saucepan with a lid, when all the water has been absorbed, remove from the heat, ready for serving.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, coat a chicken thigh in 1 teaspoon of tandoori curry powder and a splash of oil. Then char-grill each side of your chicken on a hot griddle pan until cooked through.
While the chicken is cooking, gently fry the chopped onion over a medium heat in a splash of oil. When the onions are softened, add the tinned tomatoes along with 2 teaspoons of tandoori curry powder and simmer for 5 minutes until reduced a little. Next add the cream and continue to simmer until you reach the desired takeaway masala sauce consistency. Chop your chicken into cubes and stir into the sauce to create your chicken tikka masala. Serve with rice and enjoy on a friday night with a beer!