Chicken Tikka Masala

Tonight I'm having another fancy dinner party. This one's Indian themed, though the dessert decided not to play along. I should have made cardamom ice cream! Ah well. The recipes are all taken from More Best Recipes. Reproducing recipes verbatim in naughty, but giving the ingredients and summarizing the preparation is okay, so that's what I'll do here.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Chicken & Rub:

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast (trimmed)

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. table salt

Cut the chicken into large (~1 inch) cubes and place in a bowl. Mix the chicken in the bowl as you apply the rub. Refrigerate until you need it later. The original recipe actually calls for a normal rub on whole breasts, covering the chicken in a mix of yogurt, garlic, ginger, and oil, then broiling it. It tastes great, but is a bit too much work for me in a recipe that already takes me more than an hour to finish. I'm not sure if spicing cubed chicken does anything, since it probably all comes off when it later goes into the sauce, but I pretty sure that the salt does it's thing.

Masala Sauce:

3 TBSP. vegetable oil

1 med. onion, diced fine (~1 1/4 c.)

2 med. garlic cloves, pressed through a fancy garlic press

2 tsp. grated ginger

1(or more) serrano chile

1 TBSP. tomato paste

1 TBSP. garam masala

1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes

2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 c. heavy cream

1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Heat the oil in a large dutch oven (that you may have purchased at Wal-mart) over medium heat until it reaches that magical shimmering state, toss in the onion and cook for ~12 minutes. The book says to add the garlic, ginger, chile, paste, and garam masala all at the same time and cook for ~3 minutes. Indians typically heat their spices in a dry pan before cooking with them. If you want to try that with the garam masala before you throw it in the pot, that's cool too. Open up the can of tomatoes, and add the sugar and salt. Dump it in before you burn stuff. You can now scrape off anything that may have stuck to the bottom of the pot. Bring it to a boil, then cover it and lower the heat to medium-low, and then let it simmer for ~10 minutes. Stir it a few times in the process. Add the chicken and stir to distribute it in the sauce. Cook until the chicken reaches 155 degrees F. Time will vary. Add the cream after the chicken is done. Add the cilantro and consider adding more salt. After you're cooked this once, you might decide to add more garam masala too. I usually add another teaspoon. Serve with some delicious basmati rice.