Chicken Masala

I absolutely adore Indian food, in fact the very first thing I did when I arrived in England after my summer in Armenia (who generally don’t use a lot of spice in their cuisine, besides cilantro and bayleaf) was take the Tube from Heathrow to Leicester Square, London to get amazing Indian food. I’ve heard the best Indian food outside of India is found in England. I have wanted to attempt an Indian influenced dish for a long time, so I decided to make an oven-cooked chicken masala.

Ingredients:

Chicken thighs
Two tomatoes
Half a can of diced tomatoes
Two green chillies
Four garlic cloves
Handful of coriander leaves
Tablespoon flour
Salt to taste
Five tablespoons cooking oil
Half of a lemon
Half a dried birds eye chilli
Four cloves Four cardamoms
Half tablespoon thyme
Half tablespoon red chilli powder
Half tablespoon turmeric
Half tablespoon cinnamon
Half tablespoon nutmeg

PS: Spice measurements are totally estimated... probably inbtween a half and whole teaspoon... but I don't measure things. Add as much as you think you can hanlde.

Directions:

First dice fresh tomatoes, and add the additional diced canned tomatoes to a large bowl with the cooking oil. Add all of the spices and cloves and then mix well. Next add your coarsely chopped garlic, and the chilli peppers sliced in halves. Next add your cilantro leaves, stems removed. Now add your chicken and cover over with the tomato mixture and cover the bowl. Let the chicken marinate overnight in the fridge. The next day remove the chicken from the sauce and add to a pan on high heat until the skin shows a little colour and then place them in the oven until fully cooked. Next add the sauce to the pan and let simmer down for 15 minutes, and then remove the cloves and chilli peppers and add the flour to thicken the sauce. The last step is to take a potato masher and soften up the tomato chunks. Pour over chicken and rice, and spoon some of the chicken broth from the bottom of the oven pan... Can’t waste that amazing stock!

Rory <3