Chicken Tikka Masala

It’s all too easy to be put off by curry recipes that seem to consist solely of a list of intimidating sounding spices. At uni you don’t want to spend money on multicoloured powders that you may never use again. Nor do you want to spend hours creating something that turns out like witches’ brew. But don’t let preconceptions put you off. Once you’ve tried one recipe, there are a myriad more to get stuck into.

Below are two recipes for the same dish. The first is a really quick recipe that you can make in the time it takes to cook your rice (providing your rice takes about 15 minutes). The second is more complex, involves more spices and takes longer. Try making it with friends to speed up the preparation and have fun watching each other getting emotional over onions. Both are delicious. Enjoy.

Speedy Chicken Tikka Masala – makes 3 big portions or 4 smaller portions

2 chicken breasts – cut into bite size chunks
1 medium onion – finely chopped
1 garlic clove – finely chopped
½ can chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree
1-2 tsp chilli powder
1 stock cube – chicken or vegetable
80-100ml single cream
1 tbsp coriander leaf

1. Fry the onion and garlic in a medium sized pan on a medium heat for a few minutes.
2. Add the chicken while the onion is still crunchy and fry until the chicken is cooked (check by taking a piece out and cutting it open – should be white the whole way through).
3. Add the chilli powder and fry for another minute.
4. Add chopped tomatoes, single cream, tomato puree and crumbled stock cube. Simmer for 5-10 minutes (the longer you simmer it, the thicker the sauce becomes but it doesn’t take long!)
5. Add the coriander leaf and serve with rice, naan bread, poppadoms – the choice is yours…
6. If you happen to have any cumin or garam masala, adding a tsp of either of these at the end works really well – they add a bit more spice to offset the creaminess.

Longer Chicken Tikka Masala – serves 4

2 chicken breasts – cut into bite size chunks
1 small onion – finely chopped
2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
50g butter
1cm ginger – finely grated
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
100ml double cream
75ml natural yoghurt
2 cardamom pods – crushed
1tsp garam masala
Small tsp chilli powder
Small tsp ground coriander
Small tsp ground cumin
1tsp paprika

1. Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the onions and crushed cardamoms and fry on medium heat for 5 minutes. (Sometimes the cardamoms make a popping sound – they’re not exploding!)
2. Add the spices – garam masala, chilli powder, ground coriander, ground cumin and paprika – and fry for 1 minute.
3. Add the garlic and fry for a further 4 minutes.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and ginger. Simmer for roughly 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile lightly fry the chicken in a separate pan until cooked through.
6. Add to sauce and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
7. Serve with rice.

Ideas – The first recipe has quite a lot of spare ingredients at the end – half a tin of chopped tomatoes, two thirds of a carton of cream… Don’t let that put you off. See it as an opportunity to experiment further.

– Make a quick pasta sauce with the rest of the chopped tomatoes, some onion, garlic and pepper. Grate some cheese over the top or add some cream to make it even more delicious.

– Chop up a couple of rashers of bacon, and fry them with the onion and garlic, before adding the chopped tomatoes and puree.

– Chop up a sausage into small meatballs and fry them with the onion in the same way to make a quick meatball sauce.

– Add the cream to that lifesaving coffee in the morning to make it a little bit more refreshing … or just use it as an excuse to buy cake!

Three is an unusual number of portions for the quick curry. If you’re just cooking for yourself, it doesn’t have to be curry with rice for three evenings straight. Cook it for a friend one evening and then it can be used as a filling in some fajita wraps for lunch the next day. Chuck in some lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, pepper; grated carrot goes really well in wraps because it has a sweetness to it that’s just a little bit different.

Making food doesn’t have to be daunting – enjoy experimenting!