Chicken Tikka

So day 2 of clean eating and I've been obsessing about what to cook.  So many things in my repertoire I'm learning contain processed ingredients.  I'm longing to have tomato and pesto soup but I buy the pesto ready made and, although the bread I have in the freezer is sourdough, it's made with white flour and I didn't make it.  This could be tricky and time consuming for what is normally a 10 minute meal.

Chicken tikka is something I regularly make from preprepared pastes and similarly it's quick and easy to prepare.  With my clean eating experiment, I couldn't do that so I tried to make one myself.  I was fairly happy with the result.

Chicken Tikka (makes enough for 1 hot and 2 leftover portions)

Ingredients

450g, 1lb Boneless, skinless chicken thighs
200g, 7oz yogurt

For the paste
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Turmeric
1 fresh tomato
Juice of 1/2 lime
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp Ginger paste
1 tbsp Paprika
1 dried chilli
1/2 onion
1 tsp honey
Pinch fennel seeds
Few grindings black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Method

Put all of the paste ingredients into a food processor and blend until it makes a paste.  Pour into a bowl and add in the yogurt (you can use greek style or low fat, both work but the latter will split slightly on cooking.)

Pour the marinade on the chicken and refrigerate for as long as you have time for, 1-12 hours.

When ready to cook, put the chicken pieces into a baking dish, bake for approx 30-40 minutes at 200oC, 400F, Gas Mark 6 or until well browned and cooked through.  If the pieces are put close together you may find you have some marinade left in the bottom after cooking especially if you've used low fat yogurt.  Space them more widely if you want a dryer result (or just use the cooked marinade in the bottom as a sauce if serving with rice.)

I'd love to say I was completely 'good' and didn't have pre made mango chutney with this but I did, albeit mixed half and half with yogurt to cut down on the sugar content.

I made this on Wednesday night and had some leftovers with cauliflower rice on Thursday.  Cauliflower rice.  Oh dear.  People will tell you it's indistinguishable from white rice.  They're lying.  It tastes like chopped up cauliflower and doesn't fill you up like rice.  That said, it's 25 calories per portion and a great source of vitamins so over 100 calories saving on the real deal.  But it didn't stop me wanting white rice.  I think going forward, cauliflower rice will be an occasional recipe I make, ok, perhaps rare.  I'd be more inclined to boil brown rice for hours instead or have salad.  Or maybe I will eat it if desperate to lose a few pounds before the Christmas party but let's face it, it's a massive compromise and I actually like cauliflower.

Here's the recipe if you are completely committed to this kind of thing:

Cauliflower Rice - Serves 1

Ingredients

100g, approx 4oz Cauliflower (or how much you would like)

Method

Pulse pieces of cauliflower in a food processor until they are about rice sized.  Take a microwavable bowl and put the cauliflower in (dry) and put a microwavable plate on top.  Microwave for approx 3 mins (stirring once during cooking) or until the cauliflower is cooked but not soggy.

Serve with curry (perhaps something saucier would hide the fact you're eating cauliflower rather than rice better?  I will let you know.)