Tandoori Chicken Masala
We would like to present you with the recipe for our favourite curry on Mongolian Kitchen. The tandoori chicken Massala, also very similar to our vegetable tikka masala recipe. You may be wondering why this is our favourite curry. The answer lies in cooking the chicken pieces separate from the curry gravy. The chicken is marinated in tandoori spices and yoghurt and then grilled (even better if you have a tandoor oven or BBQ!). You then prepare the curry sauce and combine the chicken at the last minute.
Of course marinating and grilling the chicken separately is not the only thing that makes this curry (but the slightly charred pieces of chicken will have a great texture). The curry gravy is an intense sauce with plenty of flavour but is mild on heat. We prefer not to use too much chilli so that you can taste the flavours in the curry. This sauce has a hint of sweetness which comes from using mango chutney and brown sugar in the sauce.
Tamarind paste, amongst other spices add a contrasting sour flavour and the red colouring within the tandoori spice mix gives a vibrant red colour. Finish this with fresh coriander and fresh naan bread and you have the perfect curry (in our opinion). This curry is also very similar to our Pathia Curry Recipe.
Tandoori Chicken Masala Recipe
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Ingredients
For the Chicken Marinade
For the Gravy
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil or ghee
- 1/2 Cinnamon Stick
- 4 cardamon pods
- 4-5 cloves
- Fresh Curry leafs (5+ depending on your taste)
- 3 large onions, finely chopped
- 1 tsp garlic puree
- 1 tsp fresh ginger puree
- 1 tsp tomato puree
- 150g Creamed tomatoes (or tinned tomatoes)
- 100ml chicken stock (or water)
- Fresh Coriander
- 1 tsp mango chutney
- 1/2 tsp tamarind paste
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
Spice Mix
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp red chilli powder (more if you like it hotter)
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp tandoori spice mix
Method
Marinade & cook the chicken.
- Cut your chicken breasts into equal pieces
- Place the marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
- Place the chicken in the marinade, cover with cling film and refridgerate for 3 hours (or overnight)
- When ready to cook skewer the chicken and grill on a high heat until cooked and golden
For the Curry Gravy:
- Place the oil or ghee in your pan (or wok as we’ve used) and gently heat on a low heat with the cinnamon, cardamon pods and cloves to gently infuse and flavour the oil.
- After 2 minutes remove the cloves, turn up the heat to high and throw in the fresh curry leaves, fry for 20 seconds.
- Add the chopped onions and fry on a medium heat for 10-20 minutes until golden (add a 1/2 tsp of the brown sugar with the onions to help caramelise them).
- Add the ginger and garlic puree and fry for a further 2 minutes.
- Turn the heat to the lowest, create a well in the onions and add the dry spices and tomato puree.
- Slowly increase the heat to medium and fry for around 2 minutes (if its looking dry..add a touch of oil).
- Add the tomatoe puree along with the mango chutney, tamarind paste and brown sugar
- Fry for around 2 minutes to release the flavours and aromatic oils from the spices (you will see the oils released through the sauce).
- Add a little chicken stock to add some liquid into the gravy and turn the heat to a medium low to simmer for a further 10-15 minutes.
- If the sauce runs dry add extra stock or water, making sure not to make the sauce too runny.
- Check the seasoning and if the consistency of the sauce is right, add the chicken pieces, stir in and allow to simmer for a further 5 minutes.
- Season with fresh coriander, stir and serve.
wow this seems like a great recipe, I’ll be trying this sometime for sure!
hi, love yr recipes! may i ask hw much chicken was used in the recipe? i dont think the quantity was stated. would love to try this recipe next weekend. Thanks!!
Hi Nora, about three chicken breasts or four if they are small. It’s better to have more sauce than chicken than the other way round. Good luck.
hey i’m thinking of cooking thisfor n assessmn. just wondering how long it takes to do after the chcken been marinated
An hour or ideally overnight.
I’ve made this three times now & it’s amazing curry. My kids favorite Indian dish. It does curdle when I add the chicken though – how can I avoid that? Thanks. P.s. Definitely marinate the chicken overnight.
You need to try and scrape the yogurt off the chicken before grilling it and also again before adding it to the sauce. Hope that helps, enjoy.
definitely gonna try this recipe , but how many people does this serve for with the 3-4 chicken breasts/thighs ?
I would say at least four people