Indian Dinner recipe: Chicken Tikka Masala

I had a craving - actually, this started yesterday.  Last night, I ordered take out from my favorite Indian Restaurant. I casually mentioned that I would need their Tikka Masala recipe because it was to die for.  The host told me that it would be much easier for me to continue to order from them. I saw this as "challenge accepted!" :) I felt confident that I could master this dish.

Therefore, on tonight's menu we have:

Chicken tikka masala and garlic naan.

I got most of my spices from Trader Joes.  

First, take chicken breasts and marinade them in a mixture of: yoghurt, cumin, coriander, cayenne, and paprika. Let this mixture sit in the fridge for a few hours.

Then, you can start with the sauce.  Chop up garlic, ginger, onions and tomatoes.  Sauté in 2 tablespoons of oil until the onions are translucent.  Then add a large can of tomatoe purée. 

Add some more spices to this: cumin, salt, garam masala, and cayenne. 

Meanwhile, the chicken is ready to go into a 375F oven for 10-15 minutes.

The last step is to dice up the chicken and mix it with the sauce.  Add about 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream.  That's it!

Now on to the naan.  I used 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 Tbs sugar, a little salt, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup water, yeast and a little oil. Let the dough rise for a few hours.  Then knead the dough into small balls and roll them out.

I finished by heating up a large pan, and putting the naan into the pan with a little bit of oil. When finished, rub a crushed garlic clove on the naan. Enjoy :)

Green Juice

After a long couple of weeks on the road, my body was feeling the affects. When I travel for work life gets busy, and working late/focusing on the client sometimes means excise and eating healthy are de-prioritized. Now that I'm home for a few weeks my body needs to be reset.  This means green juice smoothies! If you can get over the green color, it tastes great and is very healthy for you.

Here's the recipe:

Green apple

Frozen kale

Spinach

Ginger (about an inch)

Honey

Lemon juice

Note: I have a Ninja blender, which is wonderful at chopping everything up. But I still had to add a good amount of water to make sure the mixture is easy to drink. A juicer would be ideal.