It is finally cold in Los Angeles. Like, where is my jacket cold? This is the perfect kind of weather for a nice big bubbling pot of something delicious waiting for you when you come home from work. Unfortunately there is not a magician in my kitchen before I come home from work so we tend to rely on easy go-to’s for the week night. So you can imagine I was pretty bummed when my favorite seasoning packet was no longer available at the grocery store.
This stuff was magic. It made making something like Chicken Tikka Masala which is basically a base of vegetables cooked down to unload their rich aromatic flavor, lots of spices and then it is reconstituted with broth, tomato sauce, water or whatever liquid you choose. Then you throw your protein in of choice and you have yourself a beautiful Indian dish. Making this from scratch can be daunting and time consuming so this was such a short cut that didn’t skimp on the flavor. Our pantry was always stocked with a few packets so the last time I went to go throw some in my cart and realized they were GONE, not even a little opening of the hope of a backorder, just completely missing, I had to come up with a backup plan.
Luckily I had one more packet at home and I measured how much the packet was which was a little less than 1/4 of a cup. Then I went to a local Indian store and stocked up on all the spices that were listed on the back of this package. I had to to guess how much of everything to put in. I figured the ingredients listed first were probably more dominant so those got a tablespoon each and I lessened how much of each ingredient as I went down the list. I had 24 jars to fill so I did 25 servings for each spice. I made this a little spicy. I only added a tablespoon and a half of cayenne pepper for 25 servings and it was spicier than normal which is easy to fix with either adding yogurt to your bowl to cool it down or if you are feeling more decadent you can add a touch of cream at the end of the cooking process. Both will temper the spice. Next time I do this I will put just one tablespoon and not heaping but leveled off. Since I was going to make this for myself, why not make these as a holiday gift too????
Chicken Tikka Masala Spice Blend:
salt (I went light, you can always add more later)
ground coriander
ground black pepper
ground cumin
ground chilies (I used cayenne pepper)
ground nutmeg
ground mace
ground cinnamon
ground cloves
ground cardamom
ground tumeric
I also used a lemon, pepper and salt mix I had on hand.
I got the jars from here. Then I made a simple hang tag with my logo and on the other side a digital (wrote with my tablet) hand written “Happy Holidays” and directions on how to get to this post to make this delicious meal and tied it all together with string I already had.
Now that I had my spice blend I was ready to start cooking.
Add olive oil to a pan. Chop an onion, add grated ginger (I buy mine already grated – saves me the hassle of peeling it) let simmer for about 10 minutes until a nice golden color.
Once the onion/ginger mixture is broken down and soft add your garlic for a minute. Then throw your rough 1/4 a cup of your spice blend. Let cook for a couple of minutes to cook the spices a bit. Then add your liquid, in this case is tomato sauce. It asks for a cup but I added two because I like my chicken tikka masala saucy.
Let the tomato sauce spice mixture cook for a couple of minutes, then add 3/4 a cup of water. At this point you can add raw chicken cut into bite size pieces and simmer for 20 minutes. I like to speed up the process by add bite size pieces of chicken to a baking tray, seasoned with olive oil, salt + pepper and bake it while I am cooking the sauce. Usually by the time the sauce is ready so is the chicken. I like to serve this with rice – which I add english peas to and cook in chicken broth for flavor and some naan (which I pick up in the frozen section from Trader Joe’s)
It’s delicious. Feels like a slow-cooked meal on a Sunday night, only it’s Tuesday and your falling back into the work week grind.
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
2lbs boneless, skin-off chicken – cut into bite size pieces (tofu or potato would work too)
1/2 cup of olive oil (The recipe calls for 3/4 of a cup but I use less all the time and you cannot tell a difference)
1 medium onion – I used a red onion here but you can use whatever you have on hand.
1/2 cup of minced ginger – I buy it already minced but you can torture yourself trying to peel ginger. Yes, I have used the spoon trick to use for peeling but it’s still a hassle and a time sucker, so I save myself and a buy a jar.
4 cloves of garlic- minced | I use my trusty microplane here.
8 oz can tomato sauce (sometimes I double this)
Cilantro – totally optional
