There are always those recipes that are your easy go tos… whether it’s for a quick week night meal, a last minute dinner party, or an easy meal while on vacation. They typically consist of ingredients you have on hand that can be thrown together in a few steps ideally using as few dishes in possible. (Those that know me.. or should I say clean up after me.. will contest to the mass amounts of dishes I tend to accumulate creating the simplest dish.. so anything I can do to alleviate that is a plus.) The problem with these dishes is I typically forget along the way to take any photos…. And as I find it difficult to even read a recipe without a photo… I certainly can’t blog about it.
Well it so happens, I was at a friends cabin over the holidays and made one of the easy meals I just wasted over 100 words blabbing about…and I took photos (well 1 photo). It is a recipe from Vij’s at Home. (If you are in the unfortunate situation where you have never been to Vij’s Restaurant in Vancouver.. you must at some point make the trip.. you won’t regret it.) It is a play on traditional butter chicken served on breaded schnitzel. Delicious as is, but I find that sometimes I don’t have the patience to pound, bread, and fry chicken…. But the sauce on its own is so good, and so easy…so I use that, mix in some chickpeas (butter chicken meets chana masala anyone?), and grill some marinated chicken thighs. The outcome is a flavourful and easy meal and best of all can be made in 1 pot.
Butter Chicken Sauce – minus the chicken, add in the chickpeas – with Grilled Tandoori Chicken.
Adapted from Vij’s at Home
Serves 4-6
Sauce
4 Tbs oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 can tomato paste
1 Tbs paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 ½ c. water
1 ½ c. heavy cream
1 can chick peas, rinsed
Chicken
10 chicken thighs, skin on
2 Tbs Tandoori Spice Rub (or your favourite Indian rub)
2 Tbs water
For the chicken mix the tandoori spice and water to make a paste. Put chicken in large ziplock bad and pour paste over top. Massage into chicken with hands, and allow to marinate for atleast 6 hours, overnight is even better.
When ready to cook, preheat grill on medium. Oil grill and place chicken on hot grill. Cook until skin is crispy and chicken is cooked through. (For those that prefer white meat, try thighs once. I promise you you will like them cooked this way!)
For the sauce, heat oil in a pan over medium. Add garlic, and stir for 1 minute. Garlic will begin to stick to pot but keep stirring. Add tomato paste and stir to combine. Bring heat to high and add spices, while continually stirring for about 2 minutes to toast spices. Add cream and water and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Once mixture is boiling, add chick peas and bring temperature down to low. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes to warm chickpeas and then remove from heat while you grill chicken.
Serve with rice and raita.
RAINY DAY DISH 