Inspiration: Once again, while baking bread, I listened with half an ear to Alton Brown and Simon Majumdar discussing Tikka Masala on Good Eats (the newer seasons). As my household enjoys tomatoes, chicken, spices, and rice, I decided to give this dish a go.

However, due to my stupid, stupid allergies, I couldn’t use Alton Brown’s recipe as it calls for coconut milk. (Though, I’ve gotta say Mr. Brown’s dish does look spectacular.)

Completely forgetting I own a massive British cookbook, I took to the interwebs to find a non-coconut milk based version of this recipe. (As I was unsure if I could swap moo juice for tree juice.) Whereupon I found one by Recipetineats, which looked promising.

Even better? It turned out great the very first time!

(Okay, this recipe is worth trying at least once, for the moment when you add the cream and butter to the tomatoey gravy. The swirls are absolutely magnificent!)

Helpful Hint From Me to You: As this dish calls for you to lightly char the meat before adding it to the sauce — I’d advise you NOT to use your brand new cream-colored castiron pan to complete the deed. Otherwise, you might end up making your pan appear well-loved/distressed long before you’d anticipated.

Christie: As this is now considered a quintessentially British dish….Depending on the circumstances, I think all of Christie’s detectives would have tried Tikka Masala at one point or another! (Well, in the books set after 1960, as that’s about the time when this dish was invented!)

My 52 Weeks With Christie: A.Miner©2023