Yoghurt-marinated chicken thighs charred under a hot grill, then folded into a spiced tomato and cream sauce. The char is what separates this from a generic curry, so the tikka is cooked on its own before it meets the sauce. Dried fenugreek leaf crushed in at the end gives it the savoury note people can never quite name.
6 Steps
Cut the chicken thighs into 4 cm pieces. Mix the yoghurt with the grated ginger, crushed garlic, lemon juice, kashmiri chilli, turmeric, cumin, garam masala, oil and salt, then turn the chicken through it. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 8 hours.
Heat the grill as high as it goes. Thread the chicken onto skewers or spread it on a wire rack set over a foil-lined tray, leaving space between the pieces. Grill for 10-12 minutes, turning once, until the edges are properly blackened in places and the marinade has dried onto the meat. Rest to one side.
Melt the butter in a wide pan over medium heat and cook the finely chopped onion for 8-10 minutes, until soft and golden at the edges. Add the crushed garlic and grated ginger and cook for another minute.
Stir in the kashmiri chilli, ground coriander and garam masala and let them fry for 30 seconds, then pour in the passata and 100 ml water. Simmer for 12-15 minutes, until the sauce darkens and beads of oil rise at the edge of the pan — that separation is your cue that it is cooked out.
Blend the sauce smooth with a stick blender if you like it silky, then return it to the pan and stir in the cream, the sugar and the fenugreek leaf crushed between your palms.
Add the grilled chicken and any juices from the tray and simmer for 5 minutes. Check the salt, then take it off the heat and leave it 10 minutes before serving with rice and coriander — it tastes rounder once it has settled.
Do not cover the tray while grilling — trapped steam gives you pale, boiled chicken instead of blackened edges. If you want a restaurant-smooth sauce, blend it before the cream goes in; leave it as it is for a more homely texture.
Comments (2)
the fenugreek leaf finally makes sense to me
marinated overnight and the char under the grill was perfect