MMMMMM, Indian cuisine. It is so aromatic and flavorful. So many interesting spices and combinations of spices put together to make unique and tasty dishes.My friend, woowoomama, recommended a chicken tikka masala recipe that she had tried and raved about. I thought "Ah yes, chicken tikka masala - that should be fairly simple" and the recipe seemed pretty easy (the photos were wonderful, too!). But when I read how much butter and heavy cream was in it, I became hesitant. Hmmmmm, wonder if I could make it more low-cal? Maybe use less heavy cream or none at all? A new challenge was ahead of me.
Since the original recipe post is very well explained and shown, I won't attempt to re-create the entire wheel (just the fatty parts). So click here, to see the original recipe and then if you want to make it lower calorie (and a few other modifications), follow these steps:
- Instead of butter for sauteeing the onions, I used a couple drizzles of olive oil.
- I used my food processor to chop the onions and then also the garlic and ginger.
- Instead of 1.5C of heavy cream I put in 2 TBL butter, about 1 C of plain lowfat yogurt, and a few splashes of regular milk. I also added 2 more TBL of suagr (three total) to sweeten it up a bit more since I wasn't using real cream.
- I made jasmine rice with saffron and whole cloves. I used about 2 TBL of butter in it and salt to taste.
The Verdict:
WOW, incredibly tasty! My husband and I both loved it and agreed that it is one of the best dishes I've ever made. Maybe better than the restaurants?!?! The kids weren't fans of the sauce (they're picky) but they did enjoy the chicken (I put some aside for them without sauce). Speaking of the chicken - the chicken broiled just by itself was wonderful. If you didn't want to make the sauce you could just simply enjoy the chicken with some rice and veggies.
So that's it. Please comment if you make it.
Sidenote: If you're ever in the Boston area, take a little jaunt a bit north to Arlington. There you must dine at Punjab - wonderful Indian food!
