The quest for chicken tikka massala

Photo by TeresaS

Controversy, it seems, continues to surround this delicious post modern culinary masterpiece from it's origins to it's status in British society. The famous Chicken Tikka Massala, codename: CTM to the initiated, is believed by many to of Pakistani origins, but I was informed when I ordered the dish in San Francisco that it was actually an American invention. No more Pakistani than hamburgers are German. But the prevailing theory it seems is that CTM actually originated in Scotland. Legend has it that a Scotsman (of which no true example exists), upon ordering the chicken tikka at a Pakistani restaurant, complained that dish was too dry, so the owner dumper on a can tomato soup. Then magic occurred. Some consider this account apocryphal, but most agree that the dish is not of purely eastern origin. This has not harmed it's popularity however, as CTM is the most popular dish in almost any Pakistani restaurant. This cross cultural popularity prompted former UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook to declare CTM Britain's national dish... which has also sparked endless controversy.

Going over my budget I discovered that I spend an exorbitant amount of money on CTM at restaurants. So, I embarked on a quest to unlock the secrets of this ubiquitous dish. After doing some creative Googling I ventured my first attempt using this recipe from allrecipes.com. I omitted the paprika because I don't like paprika, and I was excited to see cayenne pepper, ginger and garlic... three of my favorite spices. I was surprised to see cinnamon. Also, peculiar was that when the dish was finished it turned out red, and not orange like I've grown accustomed to in restaurants. This recipe was way more spicy than I expected, which I'm fine with. I'm a masochist when it comes to spicy food. Reviewers at allrecipes.com agree that this dish is best served with less cayenne, and less salt. When I served the dish to a friend more in the know than me he informed me that this was a British recipe. Apparently even across the pond here in American it's different. It was an exceptional dish, despite the unexpected results, but I was resolute in search for that restaurant flavor, so I returned to Google to try again.

My next attempt was this recipe from recipezaar.com. Still the ginger, still the garlic, but chili powder instead of cayenne. This recipe has some interesting ingredients that the other did not. First, garam masala. *facepalm* Of course! Who makes Pakistani food without Pakistani spices? But also, this dish called for "liquid smoke." Liquid Smoke? I had never heard of it. No idea what it even was. Turns out it's available in almost any grocery store near the barbecue sauce. This stuff is awesome! If you like to barbecue buy a bottle of this stuff! But be careful, it's potent stuff. I don't know what kind of crazy chemistry went into this product but imagine scraping all the black cajun charcoal carcinogen flavor off your barbecue grill and distilling it down into a single teaspoon of black fluid. This is essential! If you're not going to barbecue your chicken, this gives it that authentic tandoori oven flavor you get in the restaurants.

So, I was close, but it still wasn't quite right. I went back to Pakwan, ordered myself some CTM, and ate it one teaspoon at a time. Laugh if you like, but was parsing out every flavor, every ingredient, every nuance I could put my palate on. Then I started with the recipezeer.com recipe as a base, with a few alterations. First, it was still a little spicy, so I reduced the chili powder and removed the jalapeno. Second, for the life of me I could not get the sauce as creamy as the restaurant. I tried straining it which just made a mess. So, I replaced most of the chopped ingredients with powder or paste equivalents. If you've got a food processor you won't have this problem, and by all means use fresh ingredients. Finally, I let the meat marinade for a full 24 hours to really let the flavor sink in. Here's what I've come up with.

Restaurant CTM

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless chicken breast, cubed

Marinade

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon garlic paste
• 1 lime, juice of
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke

Sauce

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
• 1 tomato, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions

1. Mix all marinade ingredients into yogurt. Pour over chicken and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate over night.
2. Put the chicken pieces on a metal skewer. For best results grill them on your barbecue, but you may also broil them in your oven. Turn occasionally. If you don't have the metal skewer you can also cook the chicken on a skillet. I like the meat a little blackened personally. Remove from the skewers and set aside.
3. Heat the oil over medium heat. Add all the sauce spices, stirring into the oil until well blended.
4. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste. Cook on medium low heat until ingredients are aromatic. This is important because the spices will not dissolve if you don't do this before adding the cream.
5. Add the chicken and the cream and heat through but do not boil.
6. Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro and serve over basmati rice. For color, I like put a finely chopped orange bell pepper in the rice.

That's the best I've come up with so far. I'll update this as a I refine it. If you're like me and you want to make this often I recommend you perfect the spice blend just the way you like it and then premix a big patch of it. This way you don't need to struggle with fractions of teaspoons and you can just drop 1 tablespoon in the marinade and 1 tablespoon in the sauce. If you've got a food processor you might buy your fresh garlic and fresh ginger and make a jar of your own paste with the spices right in there. I hope this has been helpful, and I certainly appreciate any feedback or suggestions you have if you decide to make it.