When I lived in London, I watched the Naked Chef with Jamie Oliver all the time. I moved home, bought his cookbooks, and enjoyed his cheekiness from afar, until I met him at a party in Chicago. His cookbooks are simple and full of bright glossy photos. I don't think I've ever made a bad Jamie recipe. I bought his Comfort Food book years ago, but never cracked it.
Flipping through it to choose this week's recipe, it was hard to pick one that would be easy to find all the ingredients in the era of coronavirus shopping and that all three of us in the house would enjoy. I finally settled on Chicken Tikka Masala, as my 2 year old never passes up a good curry. Surprisingly, pizza took her some convincing. I do not understand this child's palate, but that's a story for another day!
I'll note that on first read, this, and my backup recipe (chicken shawarma), seemed to be missing steps. Most importantly, details on how long to cook the meat. That said, I decided to go with freewheeling it a little (more than usual).
Unlike Jamie, I'm going to break down the recipe step by step (which I hope helps).
Ingredients:
Marinade:
1 level tsp ground cloves
1 level tsp ground cumin
2 heaping tsp sweet smoked paprika
2 heaping tsp garam masala
3 lemons
6 cloves garlic
1 thumb sized piece of ginger (I used the frozen cubes of ginger since Safeway won't give me big chunks of ginger in Drive Up & Go #covid)
6 heaping TB plain yogurt
3 fresh green or yellow chiles (I didn't use A. because in the US we call chiles by more than just color and couldn't figure out which to buy; B. Drive Up & Go didn't give me the chile I picked; and C. Two year old)
1 3/4lb skinless boneless chicken breasts
Sauce:
2 onions
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 fresh red chiles (See above chile rant)
1 bunch cilantro
olive oil
1 level TB ground coriander
2 level tsp turmeric
6 TB ground almonds (I ground about 1/2 c. roasted almonds)
1 28oz can of plum tomatoes
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 14oz cans of light coconut milk
First marinate the chicken!
Heat cloves, cumin and 1 heaping tsp each of paprika and garam masala in a frying pan and toast for 1 minute - add to large bowl.
Finely grate in the zest of 1 lemon, its juice, the garlic cloves (crush them first), the ginger (grated if your Safeway will give you good ginger), the yogurt, and 1 tsp of sea salt. Mix all together.
Cube chicken into 2 inch pieces. Add to marinade and stir to cover.
Jamie at this point skewers the meat interspersed with lemon wedges and chunks of those elusive yellow/green chiles. I did not.
For the sauce:
Finely slice the onions, garlic, the non-existent red chiles, and cilantro stalks (save leave for later). Add to a large skillet - saute with olive oil 20 minutes or until golden.
Add ground coriander, turmeric, and remaining heaping tsps of paprika and garam masala. Cook for 2 minutes.
Toast and add the almonds. Add tomatoes, bouillon cube, and 1 1/4 cups of boiling water. Simmer 5 minutes.
Stir in coconut milk. Simmer for a final 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, then season to perfection...
[Jules Addition] I blitzed with a stick blender (i.e. made it 2 year old friendly) and thickened with a slurry of corn starch (2TB) and water. Then, I added 1/2 tsp cayenne, 1/2 tsp of extra garam masala, and about 3 TB of salt plus a healthily amount of pepper.
Skewer chicken (if you're like me) then:
Drizzle with oil and either: barbecue on a grill, cook in a screaming hot grill pan, or under a hot broiler.
Jamie says to turn until it's "very golden and gnarly on all sides"... I say cook until darkly golden and 160-165F, about 20 minutes
Slice the chicken off the skewers into the sauce.
Squeeze the cooked lemons into the sauce and cook for 2 minutes.
Finish with a little yogurt, sprinkle with cilantro leaves.
Serve with basmati rice and/or Indian breads. I tried Trader Joe's parathas - I prefer naan.
True to form, Jamie's recipe is delicious - all three of us had seconds! I played with the sauce a little with additions at the end. The chicken was really tender, the sauce was super flavorful, but I wished that I had ground the almonds finer. I'd make this again - next time with the chicken on the grill!
An oldie, but a goody! (Circa 2003)
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