Рецепт Healthy Indian cooking, by the book: Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala
Healthy Indian cooking, by the book: Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala
The classic Indian dish Chicken Tikka Masala is made slow cooker simple—and healthier. Recipe below.
We first met cookbook author and journalist Anupy Singla at a dinner she hosted in her home almost six years ago. Born in India, raised near Philadelphia and now living in Chicago’s Lincoln Park with her husband and two daughters, Anupy is on a mission to make authentic Indian cuisine approachable and accessible to American home cooks. She’s also making it healthier.
This Chicken Tikka Masala dish is a great example. It’s from her first cookbook, The Indian Slow Cooker. Like many of the recipes in the book, it contains no fats from cooking oil or ghee, and nothing is fried. There is a bit of cream added at the end to add its, well, creaminess and balance some of the spiciness.
We only recently begun exploring slow cooker recipes again. While the long cooking process can render even tough cuts of meat truly fork tender, the flavorings can often be reduced to blandness. Everything tends to end up tasting like canned Dinty Moore beef stew. And I know you can (and should) add spices and herbs late in the cooking process, but that kind of defeats the purpose of starting something in the morning and coming home to a finished meal. These Indian recipes are so chock full of spices and aromatics that, even after long cooking, they are wonderfully fragrant and flavorful.
In addition to her three cookbooks, Anupy has a growing line of prepared sauces and seasonings to make cooking Indian food at home faster and easier. They’re available in a number of Chicago-area stores as well as on her website, Indian As Apple Pie. You’ll also find links to her blog, recipes and more there.
Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala
Adapted from The Indian Slow Cooker
- Makes about 7 cups
- For the chicken:
- 1 cup plain yogurt (see Kitchen Notes)
- 1-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 inch fresh ginger, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika (not smoked)
- 1-1/2 teaspoons red chile powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1-1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into large chunks
- For the masala:
- 3 medium tomatoes
- 2 medium yellow onions, peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 3 green chiles, Thai or serrano, stemmed (see Kitchen Notes)
- 1 6-ounce can tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1-1/2 teaspoons red chile powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1-1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 cardamom pods, slightly crushed with mortar and pestle
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish
- basmati or jasmine rice (or naan—see Kitchen Notes)
Marinate the chicken. Whisk together all the marinade ingredients except the chicken in a deep mixing bowl. Stir in the chicken until all pieces are coated. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
Make the masala. Bring a pot of water to boil. Cut an X into the bottom of each tomato with a sharp knife. Add tomatoes to boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon and cool. Peel tomatoes and cut into large chunks.
In a food processor, combine onions, garlic, green chiles, tomato paste, garam masala, red chile powder, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon and water. Process until completely smooth, scraping down the sides with a spatula as needed. Anupy says to be patient, “as this might take 5–10 minutes.” For me, about 6 minutes did it.
Add tomatoes and pulse a few times until they break down, but are not completely blended.
Cook the chicken. Transfer masala mixture to the slow cooker and add cardamom pods. Using a slotted spoon, transfer chicken to slow cooker, stirring to combine everything. Discard marinade. Cook chicken on low for 6 to 8 hours (6 worked for me).
Stir in cream and 1/2 cup of cilantro. Serve over rice and garnish with cilantro.
Kitchen Notes
Plain yogurt? Greek yogurt? I used Greek yogurt, which is thicker than other plain yogurt. So most of it clung to the chicken in the transfer to the slow cooker, even with a slotted spoon. If you use non-Greek yogurt, you have the option of adding some of the leftover marinade to the slow cooker to slightly thin it.
Chiles and heat. Know your heat tolerance—or enthusiasm. I used serrano chiles and removed the seeds and ribs (the parts that contain the heat) from 1-1/2 of the chiles. Despite the calming influence of the yogurt and cream, the dish still packed plenty of heat. So use 3 chiles for flavor and adjust the heat by removing or leaving seeds and ribs.
Rice? Naan? Anupy calls for serving this dish with naan. We like rice. Either is good.
chicken tikka masala recipe,
The Indian Slow Cooker