112/18 – Tandoori Methi Chicken Tikka:
I am a big fan of Dan Toombs (The Curry Guy) and have been cooking recipes from his website for a number of years now. Last year Dan released his first printed book “The Curry Guy” which had some great recipes in to recreate typical British Indian Restaurant dishes. Dan has now followed that book up with “The Curry Guy – Easy” which follows a similar theme but with dishes that are a bit easier to prepare and cook. Dan was kind enough to send me a copy of the new book. We really enjoyed reading through the book and have picked out loads of recipes to cook indoors and outdoors. First up was Tandoori Methi Chicken Tikka.
This recipe is from The Curry Guy Easy cook book – You can buy the book by clicking the link below:
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One of my favourite dishes from the first book were these awesome Grilled Lamb Chops:
The Meat:
600g Chicken Thighs from Gartmorn Farm – £6.73.
I buy all my chicken from these guys as they rear slow growing birds which have full, 24 hour access to acres of grassland and a pond! The birds are raised to full maturity which along with the slow growth and exercise results in some fantastic tasting meat.
The Prep:
The chicken was sliced into 3 inch pieces then lemon juice was squeezed over the top before garlic and ginger paste was rubbed into the meat. This was set to one side whilst I made the marinade: fenugreek leaves were blitzed into a paste then fried in mustard oil along with cumin seeds. In a large bowl I added Greek yoghurt, garlc and ginger paste, coriander, chilli paste, chilli powder, garam masala, gram flour, cream cheese and rapeseed oil. This mixture was stirred until smooth then the fenugreek mixture was added along with the chicken. The bowl was covered and placed in the fridge for 24 hours.
I was going to make naan breads to go with this but I ran out of time and am also trying to eat a bit less to work off the excess holiday weight! With this in mind, rather than standard rice another side dish from the book stood out – Cauliflower Egg Fried Rice.
I added rapeseed oil to my new Finex cast iron pan and poured in whisked eggs. Once scrambled, they were chopped into small pieces. More oil in the pan then in went spring onions, garlic, ginger, carrot, peas, red pepper, green chillies and cauliflower rice (cauliflower pulsed in the food processor). After about five minutes the eggs were added along with flaked almonds and soy sauce.
As this dish is cooked on skewers the Thuros T1 was going to be ideal for the job. I placed 2 handfuls of Oxford Charcoal Oak Lumpwood in the tray and lit three flamers underneath. After ten minutes the Thuros was ready to cook on so I threaded the chicken onto the skewers and placed them on the grill.
After a few minutes I turned the skewers. The skewers on the far edges weren’t cooking as fast as the centre ones so I moved the middle skewers to the edges.
Coming along nicely!
A couple more minutes and the chicken was hitting 65c+ internal on the Thermapen so it was almost ready to come off.
The recipe says to baste the meat with melted butter near the end. I knew it was going to flare up but it was a raging inferno! I grabbed the skewers and put them to the side.
Time to Serve:
Cauliflower Egg Fried Rice:
Tandoori Methi Chicken Tikka:
Plated up:
Time to Eat:
Looking and smelling fantastic!
SUMMARY:
This was a really nice dish, great flavours. The chicken tasted fantastic and was so soft, sitting in the marinade for a day had really helped.
The Cauliflower egg fried rice was also a really tasty dish. We didn’t eat the meal and think we were missing rice but we also enjoyed it so much we will have it more often instead of rice.
Quite a simple dish to prepare and cook but a good one for a bit of spice.
| Cook Difficulty: | 2/5 |
| Cook Duration: | Short: 2/5 |
| Cook Equipment: | Thuros T1 |
| Cook Method: | Direct / Skewers |
| Charcoal: | Oxford Charcoal Oak |
| Smoking Wood: | N/A |
| Cook temperature: | Hot! |
| Cook time: | 10 minutes |
| Internal temperature: | 70c (Thermapen) |
| Notes: | 1: Make the cauliflower rice more often! |
This recipe is from The Curry Guy Easy cook book – You can buy the book by clicking the link below:
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