Topic: Last Night's Dinner: Curryhell's Chicken Tikka Patala

[Naga]

I always like to try new recipes posted to this site and elsewhere. I've still loads of dishes to try out from Rich's 'Josephine' thread, for example, but there's only so many days in the week! Anyway, I fancied that CH's Patala would go down well with my good lady wife, so that was yesterday's dish of the the day.

As it happens, the Patala went down extremely well. It was pronounced as being full of flavour with just the right heat levels and, once the plate was polished, it received the accolade of being her favourite curry! There can be no higher praise!

I liked it too. It was very nice indeed. I followed the recipe to the letter, using Abdul's 8-Spice mix powder, JB's base gravy and Pat Chapman's tandoori powder. I also reduced the amount of almond powder as revised by CH.

It turned out to be very saucy in the pan, and I wasn't able to reduce the sauce sufficiently without over-cooking the chicken tikka (the tomatoes were nuked!), so there was plenty to mop up if only I'd done a naan or some chapattis! It's probably down to the heat levels I'm able to generate with my hob, but next time, I'll revert to my usual method of adding less base gravy at a time and reducing the sauce more prior to adding the tikka.





Given that the Patala was such an instant hit, there's no doubt that it will become a regular on the menu in this household. Recommended!

[DonnieH]

That looks really tasty. Looked for the recipe here but couldn't find it. Have you got a link? Thanks

[curryhell]

Good looking food there Naga.  Glad the wife enjoyed it or i'd have been in trouble    Thanks for trying the dish and reporting back.  I'm sure you'll sort out your reduction problem or counter it with a naan  ;D

Link to the patala
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,14190.0.html

[Micky Tikka]

Great stuff Naga
And a very comprehensive report 
As you said there is so many recipes to try now and with all the great pictures it's hard to keep up 

I Love this site and all that's in it   

[loveitspicy]

If her indoors says its the best - you did something right mate

the pics look great - might have to give this one a go - got a couple of days free this week -

best, Rich

[Madrasandy]

Looks great Naga, shouldnt be looking though as Im craving curry and am all outta base 

[chewytikka]

Nice one Naga good looking fluffy rice too.
Curious, How much Tandoori powder did you use in this one?

[Stephen Lindsay]

Looks great Naga, Pat Chapman gets a bad rep on here sometimes but I've been using his Tandoori Masala recipe for years and I think it's superb.

[Naga]

...Curious, How much Tandoori powder did you use in this one?

Whenever I double up a single portion recipe, I use half-as-much-again for everything except the meats and accompaniments. In this case, I raised the amount of tandoori powder from 2 tsp to 3 tsp.

[Naga]

...I'm sure you'll sort out your reduction problem...

I think it comes down to pan selection as discussed in Bristol86's recent thread, CH. The smaller base surface area of my flat-bottomed non-stick wok won't get the same heat exposure as a standard ali pan. I have similar reduction issues with Rich's excellent Chasni recipe which has even more additional liquid/wet ingredients and few vegetables. I generally mitigate the problem by adding a little less base gravy at each reduction stage so I can increase caramelisation and regulate consistency. A schoolboy error on my part this time around!