Chicken tikka is a traditional Indian delicacy where chicken pieces are initially marinated with spices and yogurt before starting the preparation.
Tikka basically means ‘pieces’ or ‘bits’ in Urdu and Persian languages. The tikka pieces are generally boneless and are baked in large clay ovens called tandoor.
You can have chicken tikka as starters along with coriander chutney and onions but there is another form of this dish called chicken tikka masala which has more flavours and spices as compared to simple chicken tikka.
So here is an illustration of the preparatory steps of this delicious mouthful delicacy.
Ingredients required
For marinating the chicken
- 2 lbs boneless chicken breast, cut into 2-3 inch cubes
- ¼ cup yogurt
- 3 tsp garlic in crushed form
- 3 tsp minced ginger
- ¼ tsp cumin powder
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- ¼ tsp chilli powder
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder
- 3-4 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- Melted margarine for basting
For cooking the sauce
- 5 oz. Tomato paste and 10 oz tomato sauce
- 2 finely chopped tomatoes
- 2 tbsp garlic and 2 tbsp ginger paste
- 2 tbsp green chilli paste
- 2 tsp cloves
- Green cardamoms atleast 8
- 3-4 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
- 2/3 cup milk
- Honey as per taste
- cream
- Salt to taste
Preparation
Mix the chicken breast with ingredients like yogurt, crushed garlic, minced ginger, cumin powder, nutmeg, pepper, cardamom powder, turmeric, chilli powder, lemon juice and vegetable oil which are mentioned in the marinating section in a large bowl and allow it to marinate in the refrigerator for overnight.
Then preheat the oven to 350º F and bake the marinated chicken for about 8 minutes, basting twice with margarine.
After 8 minutes drain the extra marinade and again bake the chicken for 2 minutes. Take out the chicken from the oven and keep it aside. Now you need to start your preparation for the sauce.
Prepare sauce side by side in a pot using finely chopped deseed green chillies, tomato cubes, tomato paste and tomato puree with 4 cups of water.
Later add the ginger and garlic paste, green chilies, cardamoms, clove, and salt as per taste to the mixture made up of tomato paste and puree.
Cook the sauce on a low heat and stir until the sauce becomes quite thick. Strain the sauce using a strainer and boil it further. You can add cream to the sauce for more flavours and stir again.
After sometime, taste the sauce, if it tastes a bit sour because of tomato puree then you can add honey to it to neutralize the taste.
After adding honey, add fenugreek seeds and stir well. Serve this delicious hot sauce with chicken tikka masala and enjoy the flavours with your friends and family.
Author Bio
This article is written by Sanjeev Batra, a famous five-star cook who is also associated with Shahiya, a famous English and Arabic recipes website. He is a regular writer of several blogs related to recipes on Chicken Tikka Masala.
