Chicken Paneer Tikka Chilli Masala
Chicken Tikka Masala is a favourite in the ‘Ome Made house. Only thing is, we have to have it a little hotter. Madras hot is about right for us. Paneer is also a great addition. If you’re not a fan or you’re struggling to get hold of some, it can always be left out.
Chicken Tikka & Paneer
For this recipe I use chicken breast which I coat with a basic Tandoori Marinade and bake in the oven. I also coat the paneer in the marinade as well and bake that alongside the chicken.
For this recipe I use 1kg of chicken and 400g of paneer. This will feed the six of us with a little left over for 2 more light meals. If you want less just halve the ingredients.
For the marinade I take 4 teaspoons of ‘Ome Made Tandoori Masala (you can use your own mix or another brand) and mix that with about 4 tablespoons of plain yoghurt. I also added about half a teaspoon of red food colouring powder, this is optional as it’s purely cosmetic.
I leave the chicken breasts whole, just scoring the tops of them slightly to help the marinade stick. I also leave the paneer whole in a block. It’s a lot easier and less fiddly to cut the paneer in to blocks and slice the chicken after they’re cooked. I also like the contrast of the red marinade on the outside against the white interior of the chicken and paneer.
The chicken and paneer want cooking in a pre-heated oven at 200℃ for around 25 minutes.
Onion Paste
Quite often when I’m cooking curries I will purée the onions, garlic and ginger before frying. However for this recipe I fry sliced onions with a little salt until they are starting to caramelise. I then add sliced garlic, ginger and fry some more before adding some chopped coriander stalks, some diced red pepper and sliced chilli. The mixture is then cooked to soften the peppers before being left to cool so it can be blended in a food processor.
This paste is the fried again before adding the spices and everything else.
This method gives a lovely deep and sweet, from the natural caramelisation of the onion, base to build the curry on.
Spices
For this curry I use my ‘Ome Made B.I.R Curry Masala which is a Madras style masala with a few added extras to give that authentic Indian restaurant flavour. Of course you could make up your own masala, or use one of the recipes from the many curry chefs out there such as Mistys, Dans or Als! And of course you could use any shop bought curry masala/powder.
I also use Kashmiri Chilli powder. This is mainly to give a deep rich red colour. If you haven’t got any either leave it out or use a little sweet paprika instead. Also I add some chilli powder for some heat. If you don’t want extra heat and prefer a more ‘traditional’ Tikka Masala, then leave the chilli out.
Tomatoes
For the tomatoes in this curry I use a little tomato purée and tinned tomatoes. The tinned tomatoes get blitzed in the food processor for that smooth texture that you get in an Indian restaurant or takeaway.
If you haven’t got a food processor you could get a way with cooking the onion etc and instead of pureeing them as described above you could carry on adding the spices, tomato purée and then use a stick blender to blitz the whole lot in the pan.
I think that about covers everything.
If you want to read some more about curries have a look at my other post British Indian Restaurant Curry.
So here is the recipe… enjoy!
Chicken Tikka Masala With Paneer & chilli
Ingredients
- 1 Kg Chicken Tikka
- 400 g Paneer
- 3 tablespoon oil (sunflower, vegetable or ghee)
- 3 medium white onions sliced
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 8 fat cloves garlic sliced
- 1 thumb sized piece ginger peeled and sliced
- 2 red chillies de-seeded and sliced
- 1 medium red pepper deseeded and sliced
- 1 handful Coriander stalks chopped
- 3 teaspoon kashmiri chilli optional
- 2 tablespoon mild curry masala/powder
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 3 400g tins tomatoes
- 400 ml water one empty tomato tin full!
- 2 tablespoon Sugar
- 35 g creamed coconut
- 1 teaspoon Tamarind concentrate optional (add a splash of vinegar if you have none)
- 1 tablespoon Katsuri methi (dried fenugreek leaf)
- 3 teaspoon mango chutney
- 300 ml cream I used double but whipping or single is fine
- large handful fresh coriander chopped
Instructions
- Heat a little oil in a heavy based pan. Add the onions and 1 teaspoon of salt. Fry on a very gentle heat for around 20 minutes until starting to colour light brown.
- Add the ginger and garlic to the pan and continue to fry gently for a couple of minutes.
- Add the peppers and chillies and fry very gently for around 10 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and add the coriander stalks to the pan and stir in. As the mixture cools any caramelised juices that have stuck to the pan can be scraped off and stirred in to the mix, it's all flavour you wan to get in there! Leave the mixture to cool before blending well in a food processor.
- Once the mixture has been blended add some more oil to a pan (2tbsp). As long as the original pan is reasonably clean you can just use the same one. Once the oil is hot add the onion mixture to the pan. heat through on a medium heat for a couple of minutes.
- Add the Kashmiri chilli to the onion mixture and stir through. Add the curry masala to the pan and fry for a couple of minutes. If the mixture is sticking you can add a splash of water to loosen the mixture.
- Add the tomato puree to the pan and continue to fry gently for a minute.
- Add the tinned tomatoes and water and stir through. Once the sauce begins to splutter and form little craters turn to a low heat.
- Add the sugar, tamarind, coconut block, methi and mango chutney. heat gently, stirring until the coconut has melted.
- Add the chicken and paneer to the pan and continue to cook gently for twenty minutes.
- Add the cream and fresh coriander and cook for a further 15 - 20 minutes.