Chicken Tikka Masala

Step 1

Put the vegetable oil in a big pot and heat it up. Add the bay leaf, cumin seeds, green cardamoms, black cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and fry them for a minute. Add the chopped onions and sauté until golden brown. Now add the ginger and garlic pastes and cook them for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato purée (passata), stir and cook it for a couple of minutes.

Step 2

Now add the coriander powder, chilli powder and turmeric. Stir in the ground cashew nuts and salt to taste. Cook this masala until the oil separates from it. Add the chicken tikka and 250 ml – 1 cup of water and let it cook for 5 minutes.

Step 3

Now add the onion and capsicum and cook for another 5 minutes. At this point, add the cream, melted butter, garam masala, lemon juice and coriander leaves. Cover it and let it simmer for a few minutes on a medium flame until the sauce thickens.

Step 4

Serve hot with some simple basmati rice or my Kashmiri pulao, garlic naan or simple naan!