To go with all the naan I'd been baking, I made Quick Chicken Tikka Masala. I love Indian food, and so I was excited to try this. I have some reservations about making ethnic food from general food magazines; I've found that some popular general lifestyle magazines don't use enough spices in their recipes, since their main audience is (often) middle-aged with pretty Western (and sometimes boring) tastes. I've had luck with a lot of the recipes from Eating Well, though, so I thought it was worth giving a shot.
I was out of garam masala, so I made some. [Garam masala is the most prominent spice in this recipe, so you want to be sure yours is a good mix; I made this recipe, but microwaved the spices rather than toasted them on the stove.] The recipe was simple to make. I have a tendency to try to prep as I go, but this isn't a recipe you can do that with. In any case, chopping onion and mincing garlic was the only real prep work that was necessary before starting. First you season and brown the chicken; next you saute garlic, onion, and ginger separately. Add spices, and then flour; then add tomatoes and simmer. Add cream and chicken, and cook until the chicken is done. Garnish with cilantro.
This was really pretty good. It had a good flavor, and was creamy even though I hadn't added that much cream to it. I didn't mince my ginger enough, so we had some rather gingery bites. There were lots of tomatoes. I didn't want more chicken in this dish, but I wish I had cut it into bite-size pieces rather than leaving it as strips. I really enjoyed this recipe, and encourage you to make it. You could alter the seasonings to your taste if you don't find it flavorful enough (or, if you think it's got too much spice).
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