There are a few TV shows that I religiously follow – one of them is The Walking Dead (this show is totally preparing me for the Zombie Apocalypse – KIDDING sort of) and the other is The Killing. Hmm, I’m not sure this is painting a good picture of me – I ALSO love puppies and rainbows…LOL.

 So, when The Killing season finale was broken down into two episodes, we decided to invite our equally as addicted friend over and have a dinner-viewing party to watch the last two episodes together.  So, let’s see The Killing takes place in Seattle and the only really “cultural” part of the show was that the victim’s family was loosely connected to the Russian mob…what do I make for dinner? Indian Food!!  Makes total sense right?  I mean there IS a connection somehow right? LOL I think I am lacking in my ability to pair food with events.

The recipes I use for these dishes are so very good that I don’t do any real modifications, except for using less onion than the recipes call for.  BUT, I do that for any recipe because, while I totally understand and appreciate the importance of onions in a recipe, they are not my favorite. However, I do love extra crispy onion rings though I often pull out the onion and just eat the crispy coating.  Mr. E. LOVES my onion ring leftovers…ha ha – not really, it usually embarrasses him a bit.   I think that’s why he eats my leftover onions; he doesn’t want the waitress to see a pile of onion rings without their coating sitting in the basket… This is reminding me of a time I was making fried chicken and decided to make little batter balls and fry and eat those instead of the chicken pieces…. It was delicious!  (Mr. E. did not partake in eating the batter balls – he stuck with the fried chicken – Fool)  LOL.

Chicken Tikka Masala via Food & Wine, contributed by Grace Parisi; Basmati Rice via Food Network, courtesy of Curtis Aikens.  The Garlic Naan was store-bought – I know, I know, I’m disappointed in myself too, but Trader Joe’s does such a good job!  Even though I didn’t really adapt the recipes, I’ve still included some pictures, because I always think it’s helpful to visually see some of the steps in a recipe.

The first time I made these dishes I had to make a run to the spice store because I didn’t have some of them.  I’ve become a huge fan of Penzeys, they have a great selection. The spices and herbs, I think, are good quality and I find the prices to be really reasonable. Plus you can buy smaller sizes!

I don’t remember where I saw or read this trick, but I think it’s really cool!  Using the tip of the spoon you can really easily scrap off the skin on a ginger root which is nice when working around all of the offshoots!

The recipe for the Chicken Tikka Masala has two steps; one is making the marinade and letting the chicken sit in it overnight.  Below is a picture of the marinade ingredients.  Lots of yummy garlic and ginger!!

The next day, you wipe of most of the marinade and then broil the chicken in the oven.  This step is really hard for me because the marinade smells so good and you just end up throwing it away!  I’m sure (at least I think) that you could cook the chicken with more of the marinade on it and make a dipping sauce and have a completely different meal.  I’m going to try that next… I’ll keep you posted regardless of its good or a FAIL.  The directions say to place the chicken about 8 inches from the broiler.  I was really worried about doing this and kept peeking every few minutes to make sure the chicken wasn’t burning.  Mr. E was making fun of my neurotic-ness until I reminded him about the times I’ve overcooked (aka burnt) garlic bread. 🙂

One of the ingredients for the sauce is using blanched almonds that you sauté in a pan with some oil until they are nice and golden… I don’t really think you need a visual of this, but I thought the picture came out pretty LOL.

The dinner came out fantastic and there was even some leftovers for us the next night!  A word of warning – if you use the amount of chili powder and cayenne the recipe for the sauce portion of the Chicken Tikka Masala calls for, it will be spicy.  Even more so the second day.  I thought it was perfect, but I do like it spicy.  If I had been making it for my mom, I would have halved the amount of both ingredients. 

I hope you give this a try – it is a bit time consuming and does require some planning, but the results are so worth it!!