Chicken Tikka Butter Masala

The Chicken Tikka Butter Masala is a world renowned dish and always a hit in restaurants. While it was rarely made at home in the past, this has changed in recent times as recipes and cooking equipments became more easily available (and more affordable). This is simply one of my favorite chicken concoctions and I love this dish every bit now as the first time I tried it.

While the tikka was originally known to be prepared on a grill, this has changed lately and you can just do this on your pan or tawa. The masala itself uses the cream (or butter) which adds to the smooth texture and flavors it with its own richness while the spices add their signature flavors here leading to a dish that is rich, smooth and mildly spicy.

And here's how you do it.

1. If you don't get the chicken tikka pieces cut in cubes, you can cut your raw boneless chicken into 1 inch cubes.

1. Marinate the chicken pieces with curd, a little salt, turmeric powder, juice of one lemon, 1/2 tbsp each of coriander and cumin powder, tikka masala, 1 tbsp of ginger-garlic paste and keep aside for an hour.

2. Make a paste of onions and tomatoes in your blender/mixer.

For making the Tikka -

1. Arrange all the chicken pieces on skewer (refer to the figure - you'll get a good idea how to do this). If you don't have a skewer, never mind - just place the the chicken pieces on your pan.

2. Take a pan/tawa, heat 2 tbsp of oil and keep your skewer with the pieces on the pan and shallow fry it, regularly rotating the skewer so that the pieces get evenly cooked and roasted on all sides. While cooking the pieces occasionally lid your pan so that the pieces cook in their own heat and get tender, Remove your skewer from the pan and take out the tikkas and keep them aside.

If you don't have a skewer handy, just arrange the pieces separately on the pan and shallow fry as mentioned above, in the end removing only the pieces and leaving the oil for later.

3. The tikkas are ready now.

For the making the tikka masala -

1. Add 2 tbsp of oil to the pan (in which you shallow fried the tikkas) - it should already have the oil left over from shallow frying the tikkas. Heat on a medium slow flame.

2. Add bay leaf and whole garam masala and when they splutter, add the onion and tomato paste. Fry for 5-7 minutes until it changes its color, now add ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander and cumin powder, and dry fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi) powder and fry for another 5-7 minutes until the oil separates from the masala.

3. Add the chicken tikka pieces to it and stir for 2-3 minutes. Add garam masala powder, salt and sugar and stir for a minute and add 1 cup of hot (not boiling) water to it and cover the pan and cook on a slow flame for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally..

4. Add the cream (if you don't have it, then use 1 tbsp butter). Garnish with coriander leaves.

5. Your rich and delicious Chicken Tikka Butter Masala is ready.

This can be served with any type of rice or roti, paratha or nan. This is great to serve when you have some family or friends over and is a always a hit with my guests. While I often used to have this dish in restaurants, I prefer cooking it at home as it is just as flavorful and the tikka just as juicy. I hope you try this out and enjoy it to your fullest.