Welcome Friends welcome back to the
kitchen today we're going to make
uh chicken tikka masala kinda um So when
Julie and I were younger we spent six
months uh traveling through India by
train that's about 1/4 cup of plain
unflavored yogurt
uh that's a pretty high-fat yogurt it's
strained it's very thick
and so we traveled across India top to
bottom side to side
um and one of the things we noticed is
that that depth and breadth of Indian
food and that you could travel by train
like three or four hours to the next the
next town the next city and the foods
may be called the same thing but the
flavors are completely different they're
spiced differently um different methods
of cooking all of that sort of thing and
so
if you look online for chicken chcka
masala you're going to find so many
variations and I love all of them
they're all really good this is just the
one I'm making today so into the yogurt
I'm going to put some
salt gar
Masala
turmeric Kashmir chili
powder and ground coriander seed and
just give that a bit of a stir bring it
all
together now what I've got here is some
boneless skinless chicken thigh that
I've chopped up and so I bought whole
chicken thighs bone in skin on uh boned
them skin them put the bones in the skin
in the freezer for chicken stock that
I'll make later and I just cubed this up
so we're going to marinade this right so
we're going to mix this up get all the
chicken fully coated in the marinade and
I'm going to stick this in the fridge
for anywhere from a half an hour to an
hour and uh let that marinade set in
okay so in the meantime I made a
chickpea Curry that's going in this pot
right here going to have that with
separate as well um that'll be in
another video I don't know if it's
already come out or if it's about to
come out haven't decided yet so I'm
heating up this pot and I'm going to put
a little bit of oil in neutral oil is
best for me neutral oil is best um
definitely you could use ghee use
whatever oil you have you just want
something to to Really to oil the bottom
of your pot cuz we're going to fry off
the chicken now and um one of the things
about about frying the chicken is if if
it was a little bit warmer if I had a
little bit more time
today um I would have started up the
barbecue put uh put this chicken meat on
skewers and I would have grilled it over
charcoal to get that charcoal flavor
into it that really makes this dish but
if you don't have that convenience um
frying it works just as well you could
put it on a sheet pan and bake it in the
oven as well that would work really well
too so uh we're just going to fry it
today okay the oil is hot and
shimmery and in go the chicken
pieces and you just want to fry it until
it's like 90% cooked uh um cuz we're
still going to build a gravy around it
and bubble it in that gravy for a while
so that's going to finish the cooking
okay we're ready to move on now in goes
the green
pepper yeah I know that was red and
orange um I buy the peppers I buy at the
store are the ones that come in a bag
and they're called ugly or imperfect
they're the ones from the hot houses
down in Niagara that just aren't quite
the right shape they're not the
beautiful ones um they're sold at a huge
discount and you sort of take what you
get in the bag and sometimes there's a
whole mix of colors and sometimes it's
just one color uh the one that I was
able to get this week just had red
yellow and orange in it so that's what
I'm using but green you know use green
okay next in some cumin seeds and some
diced Hot Chili
Pepper I'm also going to add some of
these this is Curry Leaf if you can't
get Curry Leaf don't worry about it that
much I'm going to put in uh maybe a half
dozen leaves down from one side of the
stem I'm able to get it so if you're in
the Toronto area Blue Sky usually has it
um ick balls always has it down in
Thorncliffe ick balls and Ajax has it
quite often
uh and
so that's what I get a giant mess of
Curry leaves now I'll take this down and
hang it up in our basement and let it
dry out and then I will uh pull off the
leaves and use them from
dry for the next time I need a curry
Leaf so stir that
in love that sun coming through um in
the
springtime since we've lost a bunch of
trees in our yard in the springtime now
that light comes in just when I'm
cooking supper it's really
nice okay next in chopped up
onion and this is uh Ginger paste and
garlic
paste smelling really good smells
fantastic now this is uh this is a quick
dish this is not the slow simmering dish
um that is often associated with with
chicken chka masala this one specific
style I don't remember which kitchen I
picked up this recipe from um when we
travel I always go into the kitchen I
always ask questions I always write
things down and take little notes and I
came back from India with a notebook
filled with just basic recipes and some
of them I read them back and I think
that doesn't make sense I've missed
something um and some of them I've made
again and again and again and I really
enjoy them and this style of this dish
is fantastic for me works for
me but there's so many options for that
next in are the dried spices so so I've
got whole coriander seed feel free to
crush those up if you want
turmeric and Kashmir chili
powder okay next in is cashew paste this
is cashew paste you're probably not
going to find cashew paste in paste form
at your grocery store I've never seen it
at my grocery store so what I do
is I take a handful maybe a dozen raw
cashews not roasted raw cashews put them
in a mortar and pestle and just crush
them down until they become they become
almost like a kind of like a dry powder
and then I put in a couple tablespoons
of water and I just grind it just a
little bit more until I come up with a
paste that took me like 3 minutes it's
not a big deal it's not difficult to do
um it's not all that timec consuming
don't get freaked out by making cashew
paste it's really easy so that goes in
next in goes some tomato tomato that's a
couple of tomatoes chopped
up wintertime Hot House Tomatoes
um use canned
tomatoes you can get away with using
canned tomatoes uh just cut back on the
amount of water that you're going to add
in The Next
Step so I'm going to cook this just
until the tomatoes start to break down
they release their juices normally I
would wait until the tomatoes break down
a little bit more than that uh uh I'm
feeling impatient and I've got some
other things I need to do so I'm going
to move on because we're going to let
this stew so in
goes put 3/4 to a cup of
water give that a
stir okay so I've got this on medium on
my stove top and I'm going to let this
come up to a simmer the last thing I'm
going to add in is this this is meti or
this is fresh
fenugreek um if you can't get fresh
fenugreek
it'll be okay because we're not going to
use a whole lot um just going to cut off
about maybe that many
leaves and just break them up with my
fingers and mix them
in there you
go lid on maybe a half an hour or so
okay so we just had the chickpea Curry
Julie's already here because we tasted
the chickpea Curry look for that video
it did come out last week well I guess
now it's coming out last week since we
tasted it first but now we're going to
add uh chicken chica Masala you know
what I'm going to do its own Bowl just
so that we can taste it on its own okay
but there is often a joy in mixing
different foods together when flavors
when we traveled through India we would
order a bunch of food that we thought
was going to go together and the um they
would always kindly offer suggestions
little bit of fresh cilantro on top if
you like cilantro if you don't like
cilantro don't feel you have to use it
but they would always say oh you might
need some of this you might need some of
this with that those things don't go
together you you should try something
else so I'm curious CU not only did you
just put some uh cilantro on here you
have raising koala bears like what's
going on back there I yeah so that's
that's the curry Leaf okay so c not for
koalas but you know smallest amount of
Curry Leaf I could get at Blue Sky
today um and I also got fresh fenugreek
Leaf in there as well oo so we're going
to have toh come up with some other
recipes for that I'm just going to hang
that in the basement let it dry can you
dry it perfect yeah okay all
right
mhm that was pry good mhm completely
different yeah I'm wonderful so this is
Afghani flatbread cuz that's the bakery
that's The Afghani Bakery is close and
that's the one that we go to and they
make fresh flatbread there it's
a
mhm
oh I'm digging that that's really good
we're not going to talk at all we're
just going to
eat that's fantastic
today even better tomorrow and the next
day always is um I'm going for the mix
okay so lay out your ingredients cuz
there's a lot of
ingredients take your time don't feel
like you have to do this in 20 minutes
take your time don't worry about the
amount of stuff that you have going on
but if you're ready for it it'll all
just sort of slide in and you saw the
way that I laid the ingredients out on
the table my Mis on
PL and so I put them in the order that
I'm going to use them and then just kept
moving them closer to the pot as I threw
them in
it helps me keep it straight on camera
MH but if you're sort of unsure of
yourself it'll make the uh the cooking
experience just so much easier at home
it was really good I'm enjoying this a
lot thanks for stopping by see you again
soon
you're still here since you're still
here let me tell you about give hope
wings um last year
2023 I flew in a charity fundraiser
called give hope wings uh that raises
money for a charitable organiz iation
called Hope Air and you my viewers uh
donated
$27,000 um and really changed some lives
made a difference you made a difference
in people's lives so hope a is a charity
that uh that works in Canada and they
provide free flights and lodging to
people that live in the more remote
parts of Canada um if they need to get
to somewhere like Toronto Montreal
Vancouver Edmonton Calgary something
like that a larger urban center in order
to receive some sort of care cancer
treatment uh different types of
operations that sort of thing that they
that can't be done in their own
Community the health care is covered by
the government of Canada it is free it's
part of our Universal Health Care but
getting yourself to that
healthare can be an incredible burden
for people who live in those more remote
communities where um driving isn't
practical or driving isn't possible
because we have a lot of communities in
Canada that are
fly in or boat in only so that's where
hope air comes in um they pair private
Pilots like myself with small aircraft
to fly to these communities pick people
up and bring them either directly to the
larger urban center or to a larger urban
center where commercial um traffic is
available commercial flights are
available and then from there they cover
the commercial flight to the larger
Center uh something that I definitely
believe in um having lived in some of
those smaller communities in my younger
years I know how difficult it is how
isolating it is uh and that you you
cannot get out when you need to
sometimes um so I would encourage you
please if you can I will drop the link
below in the description
box um take a look into Hope Air and if
you're able to um please uh help out and
donate thanks for stopping by see you
again
soon