Chicken Tika

I’m not much a fan of Indian food or many exotic foods for that matter. Hell I’ve never even been to a Thai Restaurant. However, I chanced upon this recipe and by reading the ingredients it was something I could deal with. I figured what the hey, why not just try it out? At worst I’ve spent money on food I’ll end up tossing down the garbage disposal. Not so bad right? So I tried it out and not only loved it, I luh-hoved it. I mean first taste of lasagna loved it. Cheesecake loved it. That’s some serious love there people. It was rich and flavorful and savory. The rice lightened up the weight of the dish significantly and it was a perfect pair. So even if this is something you might not typically try, give it a shot and see if it changes your mind. Because it certainly changed mine.

Before we start cooking anything we need to marinade the chicken. You can marinade it for as little as an hour or as much as 24 hours. It starts with 6 ounces of plain yogurt. I use fat-free because in the end it doesn’t make much of a difference in flavor and hey, if I keep eating cheesecake at breakneck speed I’ll be on my way to starring in those shows titled “The woman who weighed 1 ton!!!”.

Add a good scoop of garlic, a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of corriander and some black pepper. Then give it a good stir. Now because I’m a foodlunatic and I greatly enjoyed it, take a good whiff of the coriander. Love that smell? Yeah, me too. Mark me down under the converts to corianderdom. Anywhoo, give it a good mix.

When you’re done set it aside and grab your chicken. I use about a pound. These are tenderloins because the whole breasts at the store were a little grim looking. If it was an open air market there’d have been droves of vultures circling. Okay, maybe that was a little too much. Back to the task at hand, cut them into one inch chunks.

Add it to the sauce and give it a good stir.

Whoops, because on occasion I’m an airhead, I forgot the lime. Squeeze in about half a lime and stir it up again.

Cover it with saran wrap and toss it in the fridge for 1-24 hours. Now, check it out. One good thing about living in Alabama is this – yeah its January and I’ve got the door open. It was about 70 degrees. Don’t be that jealous, its likely the only benefit.

Now when you’re ready to actually make dinner, start with the rice (of course unless its instant). I’ve got a handy dandy rice cooker so I’m using that. You could easily use a saucepan on the stove or cook it in the microwave. Just make sure to cook it so that its warm when its time to serve.

Now for the main event. Retreive your chicken bowl, set a pan on the stove set to medium heat. Look how awesome that looks already.

Grab the chicken out of the marinade trying to to take too much of it with you. Nobody wants a gloopy piece of chicken do they? No, Alton Brown would know that is certainly not good eats.

In batches, brown them on both sides and set them aside. As time goes by the yogurt will darken on the pan and make the residual batches darker and darker.

Once all the chicken has been browned take out the ingredients for the sauce. The basis is 8 oz of tomato sauce and 12 oz of evaporated milk. That + spices = yummeh!!

Add the tomato sauce to the pan and give it a stir. Then add the evaporated milk. Stir it up pretty quickly with a wisk so that it gets thoroughly incorporated and you get those yummy bits of the cooked chicken off the bottom of the pan.

Now its spice time. Add a teaspoon of cumin and a heaping half teaspoon of paprika. Then chop up about half a jalapeno and add it to the sauce. Oh and add the chicken back to the pot too. Don’t forget about our luscious chicken.

Pop the lid on and let it simmer for a few minutes or at least enough time for rice to finish.

Once the rice is finished pile some up on the plate.

Look at that. Okay fine it looks kind of gross but its delicious I promise.

Spoon it over the rice and don’t be stingy with the sauce either. The rice will soak it up and it’ll be faaaaaaaabulous.

Now I get that its not the most beautiful dish ever but its definitely fantastically delicious. Enjoy!

Tagged as: breakfast, Main Meal