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!

Sauteéd Chile Relleño

Here is an interesting little dish that can be personalized in a number of ways: Chile Relleño

Spanish rice is a good side!

Ingredients:
Poblano peppers (1-2 per person, Anaheim peppers also work nicely)
~1/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese shredded per pepper
Olive/Canola/Vegetable Oil

Optional:
Chicken (seasoned with paprika and chili powder and baked for 30 min at 350ºF)
Breading (typically chile relleño is served breaded and deep fried, but I don't know how to do that, and I wasn't particularly interested in deep frying)

Directions:

• Cut off top of pepper and remove core and seeds (see picture below)

I love poblano peppers, so I like to use them, but Anaheim peppers are the normal pepper of choice

• Stuff pepper with cheese Note: Optional chicken can also be stuffed into the pepper here
• Replace top of pepper to hold stuffing in

Chile Relleño is only as good as the peppers you use, so be sure to be picky at the store/farmer's market

• Sauté over med-high heat in lots of oil for roughly 12-15 minutes a side
• The goal here is to get the pepper really tender and caramelized. If you cook it properly, the pepper should cut easily and should have a nice sweet and slightly spicy flavor. If you under cook, it will still taste good, but it won't have that sweet, soft texture that characterizes chile relleño
• If you decide to deep fry, you also want the pepper to end up nice and soft, so keep that in mind as you cook

You will start to see the skin of the pepper bubble. This is normal, and you want to see it all around the pepper. Remember to cook the pepper until a fork can easily pierce through the meat of the pepper

• Serve, gorge, and repeat as necessary 

Natalie with a Captain Morgan style mailman, difficulty 6/10, style 9/10 (would have been full points if not for the napkin). Also note that Sherlock is on in the background. We are officially addicted.

 Happy cooking mailmanning!