chicken tikka masala

I love curries. I'm going to admit right now that those instant Japanese curries (the ones w/ the curry roux squares) is one of my favorites. Spicy, sweet, rich and full of great flavor. It is one of the ultimate comfort foods.

Chicken Tikka Masala is a type of curry that's light and creamy with a tomato based sauce. The tomato adds an amazing sweetness that goes well with the spiciness of the curry. Adding the yogurt at the end makes the sauce so velvety and creamy, it just melts in your mouth. I will warn now that this recipe contains turmeric (like almost all curries) and will stain your blender and/or countertops if spilled. There are various ways to clean up but I find that a solution with dish soap, bleach and hot water works best to remove these stains. This is a very simple and inexpensive dish that can be made in about 30 minutes. Give it a try on busy weeknights!

Chicken Tikka Masala
By Gordon Ramsay, Serves 4

Ingredients:
- 1 large onion, cut in half and sliced
- 1 to 2 green chiles (use 1 for a less spicy curry)
- 1" piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed - 0.5 teaspoon chile powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1 heaping tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 1 can of diced tomatoes
- 4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
- 4 to 6 tablespoons of plain yogurt
- bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped once

1) Add oil to a hot pan and throw in onions. Add in the deseeded and cut chiles, ginger and crushed garlic cloves. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes until onions begin to soften. 2) Make a well in the center of the pan and add in the spice mix. Dry roast the spices for a minute or two to intensify the flavor of the spices. Add in the sugar to enhance the carmelization of the onions even more. 3) Make another well in the center of the pan and add the tomato purée. Cook off the bitter flavor of the purée for about a minute and add in the can of diced tomatoes. Cook for another minute. 4) Transfer the sauce to a blender and blitz/blend until smooth. This is why the vegetables don't have to be finely diced, etc. because the blender does all of the work for us. Set aside. 5) In the same pan, add a little more oil and toss in the cubed chicken breasts. Get a good color on the chicken and add in the blended sauce back to the pan. Bring the sauce back up to a boil. 6) At boil, add in the yogurt. Add in more yogurt if you want a lighter and creamier tikka masala sauce. Stir in the yogurt until the sauce lightens in color. 7) Add in half of the chopped cilantro and stir in. 8) Serve over a bed of rice and finish off by garnishing with more of the chopped cilantro. Serve immediately. ______________________________________________  
A nice trick for removing the seeds of the chiles is to roll the chile in your hands, cut off the stem end of the chile and shake the seeds out. I do recommend using 1 chile if you're a curry virgin so the spiciness isn't overpowering.