Chicken tikka masala, with fragrant rice
from Cook Yourself Thin
What would be considered as being the most popular of curries is also the most calorific, but by simply removing the ghee, (clarified butter) and swapping the cream for coconut milk, we get a lighter tastier version. - Gizzi
Ingredients
For the marinade
- 1 tablespoon tikka masala paste Patak's brand
- 150 g 0% fat Greek Style Yoghurt
- 2 free range chicken breasts each cut into 5-6 large chunks
- Salt
For the sauce
- 1 tablespoon tikka masala paste
- 1 medium Onion finely chopped
- 200 g Passata
- 200 medium 1/2 fat Coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon 0% fat Greek Style Yoghurt
- Coriander chopped
For the fragrant rice
- 100 g Basmati rice
- Salt
- 5 curry leaves
- ½ teaspoon black Mustard seeds
- 1 cinnamon quill
- Saffron optional
Method
For the marinade
- For the marinade. Mix the curry paste, yoghurt, chicken and salt together, cover and leave overnight in the fridge to absorb all the delicious flavours.
- Heat a griddle pan until smoking. Wipe the marinade off the chicken and place on the pan piece by piece. Griddle for 1 –2 mins on each side. You are just trying to get some colour and griddle marks here as the chicken will finish cooking in the curry sauce. Set the tikka chicken aside while you make the sauce.
For the sauce
- Heat the curry paste in a saucepan. Add the onion and sweat slowly over a low heat for 5 – 8 mins or until the onions are translucent and soft. Be careful not to do this over to higher heat as the curry paste will burn. Add the passata and coconut milk and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and add the tikka chicken. Cook on a low heat for 5 mins or until the chicken is cooked through. Finish by stirring through the yoghurt and coriander.
For the fragrant rice
- For the rice, salt and aromatics in a pan. Cover with enough water to come 1cm over the top of the rice. Bring to the boil and cook for 7 mins. The rice should have absorbed almost all of the water but still be a bit wet. Remove from the heat and leave to absorb the remaining water for 10 mins. Remove the cinnamon stick before serving.
