Chicken Tikka Masala

Chicken Tikka Masala

            It is deeply comforting to taste the creamy tomato sauce and its heady spices of chicken tikka masala. However, it seems like no laymen attempt to cook it at home due to the complicated ingredients. Last Sunday, I went to the Little India, a very popular Indian restaurant near University of Denver campus. The menu defines chicken tikka masala as one of the world’s favorites. Pairing chicken tikka masala’s delicious sauce with the wonderfully chewy bread is really impresses me, appealing me to discover the story behind the charming flavor.

            Indeed, chicken tikka masala is a traditional British dish, but it has become one of the favorites dishes among Indian chefs. It combines roasted chicken chunks or tikka, with a spicy sauce or always calls masala. Sukhdev defines that the popularity of chicken tikka masala is a symbol of how Britain had become a multicultural country, because one-seventh curries sold in the UK are chicken tikka masala. It is absolutely that chicken tikka masala has become a national dish in the UK (2). An explanation of the origins of chicken tikka masala is that a Pakistani chef Ali Ahmed Aslam created it in Glasgow, UK. He combined yoghurt, cream and spices to constitute the special sauce. The other explanation says that chicken tikka masala was originated from the street of Delhi. It was an improvisation of peddler (Nelson and Andrabi). In any case, this dish has popular around the world for more than 50 years. Whether it was created in Punjab or Glasgow, there are two things we cannot deny. To begin with, chicken tikka masala is the most popular dish in the United Kingdom, and second, the sauce is amazing delicious.

Regardless of the mysterious origins of chicken tikka masala, food lovers say that to explore the food production process is the happiest thing. The sauce of chicken tikka masala is creamy, spiced and orange-colored. A news article from BBC news, “Glasgow ‘invented’ Tikka Masala,” states that there is a wide range of variable ingredients in it, such as the puree of tomatoes, coriander sauce, coconut cream, and various spices. The Real Curry Restaurant Guide did a survey in 1998, which shows that about 48 different CTMs are founded in the sauce, and the only common ingredient was chicken (“BBC News Online” para.6). The complicated sauce decides there is no standard recipe for chicken tikka masala. However, after I did some research, it seems easy to make the masala sauce at home. You need to prepare butter, onion, garlic, ginger, pepper, cumin, tomatoes, cilantro leaves, sugar, salt, and heavy cream.

To start with cooking the puree combination of onions, garlic, and ginger with ghee, oil, and butter in a saucepan. Then, adding some canned tomatoes with simple spices, such as cumin, coriander, and chili. After that, we puree the whole deal with cream and cilantro. Stirring-fry until onions, garlic, and ginger change into blackened and charred. Instead of sauting all of these aromatics, we should wait and cook these aromatics for long enough in order to get a sweet complexity flavor. Finally, we add some cilantro leaves to the saucepan along with some tomatoes and lemon juice, stirring together. The complex and rich sauce thus has completed (López-Alt).

            I have never cooked curry at home before and I knew seldom about the secrets of aromatics. However, after I did some research about chicken tikka masala, the relationship between the food and I have changed implicitly. To know the history and the production process of chicken tikka masala help me become a better lover. I used to “eat” delicious curry, but now I begin to define each flavor when I taste them. I would like to share the difference of each spice with my friends. Some spices have medicinal value. For instance, clove has a role in dispelling cold and warming stomach. It is a very common spice in curry. Unlike there are appetizers in Western-style food; laurel is another common spice in curry, which can be as an appetizer.

            To discover the story behind a specific food is a way to experience a different culture. Through exploring the production process of chicken tikka masala, I understand a variety of spices as well as how people in different countries connect their health with food.

Work Cited

BBC News Online. Glasgow ‘invented’ Tikka Masala, 2009. Web. 8 May.2013.

López-Alt, J.Kenji. “The Food Lab: How to Make Chicken Tikka Masala at Home.”

Serious Eats. 4 Jun.2012. Web. 8 May. 2013.

Nelson, Dean, and Jalees Andrabi. “Chicken tikka masala row grows as Indian chefs

reprimand Scottish MPs over culinary origins.” The Telegraph. 4 Aug.2009.

Web. 8 May.2013.

Sukhdev, Sandhu. “A Love Supreme and Dim Sum.” The Journal of Food and

Culture, Vol.4, No.1 (Winter 2004). University of California Press. Print.