I’m not much a fan of Indian food or many exotic foods for that matter. Hell I’ve never even been to a Thai Restaurant. However, I chanced upon this recipe and by reading the ingredients it was something I could deal with. I figured what the hey, why not just try it out? At worst I’ve spent money on food I’ll end up tossing down the garbage disposal. Not so bad right? So I tried it out and not only loved it, I luh-hoved it. I mean first taste of lasagna loved it. Cheesecake loved it. That’s some serious love there people. It was rich and flavorful and savory. The rice lightened up the weight of the dish significantly and it was a perfect pair. So even if this is something you might not typically try, give it a shot and see if it changes your mind. Because it certainly changed mine.
Before we start cooking anything we need to marinade the chicken. You can marinade it for as little as an hour or as much as 24 hours. It starts with 6 ounces of plain yogurt. I use fat-free because in the end it doesn’t make much of a difference in flavor and hey, if I keep eating cheesecake at breakneck speed I’ll be on my way to starring in those shows titled “The woman who weighed 1 ton!!!”.
Add a good scoop of garlic, a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of corriander and some black pepper. Then give it a good stir. Now because I’m a foodlunatic and I greatly enjoyed it, take a good whiff of the coriander. Love that smell? Yeah, me too. Mark me down under the converts to corianderdom. Anywhoo, give it a good mix.
When you’re done set it aside and grab your chicken. I use about a pound. These are tenderloins because the whole breasts at the store were a little grim looking. If it was an open air market there’d have been droves of vultures circling. Okay, maybe that was a little too much. Back to the task at hand, cut them into one inch chunks.
Add it to the sauce and give it a good stir.
Whoops, because on occasion I’m an airhead, I forgot the lime. Squeeze in about half a lime and stir it up again.
Cover it with saran wrap and toss it in the fridge for 1-24 hours. Now, check it out. One good thing about living in Alabama is this - yeah its January and I’ve got the door open. It was about 70 degrees. Don’t be that jealous, its likely the only benefit.
Now when you’re ready to actually make dinner, start with the rice (of course unless its instant). I’ve got a handy dandy rice cooker so I’m using that. You could easily use a saucepan on the stove or cook it in the microwave. Just make sure to cook it so that its warm when its time to serve.
Now for the main event. Retreive your chicken bowl, set a pan on the stove set to medium heat. Look how awesome that looks already.
Grab the chicken out of the marinade trying to to take too much of it with you. Nobody wants a gloopy piece of chicken do they? No, Alton Brown would know that is certainly not good eats.
In batches, brown them on both sides and set them aside. As time goes by the yogurt will darken on the pan and make the residual batches darker and darker.
Once all the chicken has been browned take out the ingredients for the sauce. The basis is 8 oz of tomato sauce and 12 oz of evaporated milk. That + spices = yummeh!!
Add the tomato sauce to the pan and give it a stir. Then add the evaporated milk. Stir it up pretty quickly with a wisk so that it gets thoroughly incorporated and you get those yummy bits of the cooked chicken off the bottom of the pan.
Now its spice time. Add a teaspoon of cumin and a heaping half teaspoon of paprika. Then chop up about half a jalapeno and add it to the sauce. Oh and add the chicken back to the pot too. Don’t forget about our luscious chicken.
Pop the lid on and let it simmer for a few minutes or at least enough time for rice to finish.
Once the rice is finished pile some up on the plate.
Look at that. Okay fine it looks kind of gross but its delicious I promise.
Spoon it over the rice and don’t be stingy with the sauce either. The rice will soak it up and it’ll be faaaaaaaabulous.
Now I get that its not the most beautiful dish ever but its definitely fantastically delicious. Enjoy!
15 responses so far ↓
1 Steph // Jan 7, 2008 at 9:18 pm
YUM! YUM! And more YUM! Also? YUM! Plus? YUM AND NO MUSHROOMS!!
Also, I have a rice cooker, too. From Pampered Chef, of course. Hee.
2 d // Jan 8, 2008 at 7:26 am
That looks good. Can’t go wrong with any of those spices. Once again, chicken over any starch is an A+ on my list!
3 Missy // Jan 8, 2008 at 11:06 am
Stephteph - Dude its so good and seriously. Its really easy. If my pan was bigger than 2 inches in diameter I could cook the chicken all in one whack and be done with it in maybe a half hour. So good dude.
D - For reals dude, its so good. I’m totally hooked on ground corriander now. It smells so floral. Its A+ fo sho.
4 Steph // Jan 8, 2008 at 11:18 am
It’s saved. I’ll try it.
5 Missy // Jan 8, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Sweet! Let me know how you like it when you do dude.
6 Robbi // Jan 9, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Dear Lord. I don’t visit your site for a couple of days and you have *this up?? Plus the chicken margherita (I know I spelled that wrong, but I’m lazy and don’t feel like looking for it.) I am trying this one for sure. And for seasonings you need some stuff called Alpine Touch. It’s made in Montana, and it says it only has garlic powder, salt and pepper and … well, I forget what all, but they make it sound deceptively simple, but it’s *beyond good on … well, almost everything but ice cream. If you can’t find it online, I could send you some, and Steph can vouch that I’m not an axe murderer and I won’t stalk you or anything. In fact, I’ll probably have to ask you 45 times for your address, (which Steph can also verify) that’s how terrible of stalker material I am.
(Steph can also vouch for the fact that I really *can type a grammatically correct sentence, but that’s neither here nor there, now, is it?)
7 Missy // Jan 10, 2008 at 8:47 am
Robbi - Oooohhhh, that sounds yummy. I found it online here http://www.alpinetouch.com/shop.html
When I get home I’ll definitely have to order some. Thanks for the offer of sending it though. I appreciate it! When I get it I’ll try to do a review of it here.
re: this recipe. You totally have to try it. its fantastic. So yummy.
8 Bruce in Idaho // Mar 2, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Trying it tonight - hope it’s good!
9 Missy // Mar 2, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Bruce - Hope you enjoy it! I’d love to hear how it turned out!
10 Amber // Jun 12, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Duuude. Where’s the garlic naan? You can’t have tikka without naan. What on earth do you use to scoop up all the lovely gravy?!
If you ever find yourself in Hoboken, NJ, head to the Karma Kafe, on Washington between 5th and 6th. On the weekend, they do a $10 buffet with all the fresh pillowy naan bread and chicken tikka masala you can eat.
I’m drooling just thinking about it.
You see, this is what happens when I end up having a Chef Boyardee Mini-Bites bowl for dinner and nothing else.
The husband and I are hitting the buffet this weekend. He just doesn’t know it yet.
11 Missy // Jun 15, 2008 at 6:09 am
Amber - I know! I made this while still living in Alabama where they most definitely didn’t have Naan in stores. We do have it with Naan now that we’re home and can easily find it!
Thats the spirit! Oddly I said the same thing about sushi this weekend!
Thanks for reading!!
12 Diane the chocoholic // Jun 27, 2008 at 7:45 am
I’d use yoghurt rather than the carnation, works just fine. You can also use yoghurt with flour to make some flat breads to toast just like naans! And don’t forget some cucumber and yoghurt salad to go with it!
13 Missy // Jun 27, 2008 at 7:53 am
Diane - The yogurt doesn’t curdle when its heated? That would be my worry. Also I’ve never made naan from scratch. Do you have a recipe that you particularly care for?
14 Diane the chocoholic // Jun 27, 2008 at 8:06 am
I had some yoghurt curdle about 15 years ago! My own fav recipe is
yoghurt, ginger and garlic crushed, tomato puree, tumeric, salt, lemon juice, tiny bit of chili powder, garam masala (tsp) - mix. Coat chicken (or other meat) and leave as long as possible in the fridge. Skewer meat and grill but take the yoghurt mix and cook over a medium heat for long enough to cook any chicken juices.
Or cook it all in the pan on the stove top until the chicken is done (I prefer this lazy way tbh as I hate cleaning the grill pan and you’d die waiting for some sunshine for a barbq.)
As long as the marinade is thoroughly cooked too there’s no problem using it as the sauce.
Serve with naan made from flour, yoghurt, pinch of salt. Roll a firm dough into shapes and slap down in a dry frying pan until bubbling brown then turn.
15 Andrea // Jun 29, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Yummy! But the rice! You’ve got to have basmati rice! There’s something about it that just makes Indian food taste even better. Even plain, plain basmati rice. Basmati rice for Indian, sticky rice for Chinese, and that Uncle Ben’s converted rice for, um, for…
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