Showing posts with label Weeknight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weeknight. Show all posts

Friday, June 7, 2013

Chicken Tikka Masala

Did everyone decide to stop cooking or something? Let's keep it rolling.

Ok so for today, I made a delicious concoction using one of those pre-made sauce packages. You can buy these in any grocery store in the ethnic food aisle (or if you're a baller, you can make your own). However, these sauces can be improved tremendously with a few little additions to make them really delicious. As such, they are highly customizable. I'll list the ingredients that I used, but using your favorite ingredients is what will really make this dish come together. Also this can be easily made vegetarian and still is delicious.

Ingredients:
  • 1 Tikka Masala sauce package
  • 1-1.5 lbs chicken
  • 1/2 onion, sliced
  • 1/2 jalapeño, diced
  • 1 tomato, chopped
  • 1 cup baby spinach leaves
  • 1 can (14.5 oz) garbanzo beans/chick peas
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Curry powder (cumin with a little paprika is a good substitute for curry powder, or garam masala if you have it), salt, pepper, hot sauce to taste
Directions
  1. In a cast iron skillet (aka best invention ever), sauté onions until tender in a liberal amount of olive oil
  2. Once onions are tender, sear chicken on both sides for ~3-5 minutes per side, depending on the temperature of your skillet
  3. While chicken is cooking, add diced jalapeños to the skillet
  4. After both sides have been seared, add sauce, 1/2 cup water, tomatoes, chick peas, spinach, bay leaf, simmer for 20 minutes
  5. While simmering, use tongs (or utensil of choice) to shred chicken
  6. Add curry powder, salt, pepper to taste
  7. Serve over Basmati rice
  8. Enjoy, gorge, repeat as necessary

The key to this dish is having lots of different textures. The spinach, chick peas, and chicken totally make this an adventure in your mouth.

Even with a cold, the Chicken Tikka Masala was flavorful enough to taste, and cleared up my sinuses nicely. A really great meal.

Happy cooking mailmanning!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Chai Chicken

Here is a little recipe of my own invention. Being that almost all the meat I eat is chicken, I get bored of it frequently. However, this recipe is excellent at breaking up the monotony and allowing your taste buds to have a little vacation from the daily grind. Also it only takes ~30 minutes to cook, so its great for during the week.


Yum in the tum!

Ingredients:
Chicken breast(s)
Cinnamon
Garam Masala

Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350º F 
  2. Coat both sides of chicken with cinnamon, then with garam masala (cinnamon is the base layer)
    • Be generous with both spices (cinnamon especially), such that the entire chicken breast is covered with spice
  3. Bake for ~30 minutes at 350º F, depending on thickness of chicken breast (30 min for thin, 45 min for thick)
  4. Enjoy!
After a tough day at work, Natalie got a nice spicy lift out of Chai Chicken

Happy cooking mailmanning!