Chicken tikka masala with fagrant rice

Preperation Time  55 minutes (plus 12-24 hour marinade)

Content

Chicken 

Ingredients:

For the marinade

• 1 tbsp tikka masala curry paste
• 150gms Curd
• Chicken  Boneless 1/2kg 
• Salt
• Chilli Powder 1tsp

For the sauce

• 1 heaped tbsp tikka masala curry paste
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 200ml coconut milk
• 1 tbsp curd
• Handful of coriander, chopped

For the fragrant rice

• 1/2kg basmati rice
• Pinch of salt
• 5 curry leaves
• ½ tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Pinch of saffron (optional)

Method:

1. To make the marinade, mix the curry paste,curd,chicken,salt,chilli powder together, cover and leave overnight in the fridge to absorb all the delicious flavours.

2. Preheat a conventional oven to 220ºC 

3. Wipe the marinade off the chicken and place, piece by piece, onto a baking tray. Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly charred, but not cooked through.

4. You are just trying to get some colour here because the chicken will finish cooking in the curry sauce. Set the tikka chicken aside while you make the sauce.

5. Heat the curry paste in a saucepan. Add the onion and sweat slowly over a low heat for five to eight minutes or until the onion is translucent and soft.

6. It is important to take the time to do this slowly because the onion will then release its natural sugars, producing a sweeter dish, but be careful not to do this over too high a heat because the curry paste will burn.

7. Add the passatta and coconut milk and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and add the tikka chicken.

8. Cook over a low heat for five minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Finish by stirring through the yoghurt and coriander.

9. To make the fragrant rice, add the rice, a pinch of salt and the aromatics to a pan and cover with enough water to come 1cm over the top of the rice.

10. Bring to the boil and simmer for eight minutes, covered.

11. The rice should have absorbed almost all of the water, but still be a bit wet.

12. Remove from

 the heat and leave to absorb the remaining water for 10 minutes, covered. Remove the cinnamon stick before serving with the curry.