Chicken Tikka Masala

 I have no energy or motivation at the moment!  That has got to change, all I want to do at the moment is sit or fall asleep!

We still have to eat though, and sometimes that is why we need pre-prepared meals on the shelf.  I cheated tonight buy using a very good quality bought in chicken Tikka Masala sauce using a Meah's sauce mix that we get from the local butcher and which is kept in the fridge.  This is one of the nicest sauces we have come across.

OH came home with some reduced chicken fillets/Tenders three packs which had been reduced to £1.65 a pack.  That amount goes towards at least a four serving meal, plus the cats had a small tender each as did the Dog.  So everyone had a little treat.  We are careful what we give them, however they are all rather fond of chicken!

All I do is use a large pan which has had some oil added to the base and the tenders are then fried gently in that pan.  I turn them at least a couple of times., but do not have a high heat and then once they start to show that they are cooked I then take them out of the pan and leave them to rest.  

In the meantime, using the meat juices left and a little more oil if necessary I then fry two medium sized onions which have been sliced.  I start to fry these off gently, and then add a little sugar (not much) this encourages the onions to caramelise.  Once I have them to the colour I want, I then add in a little water, a little at a time until there is like a small amount of "gravy" and then add in the sauce,  This is then cooked off for about 10 minutes and I add a little bit of butter to smooth the sauce out a bit.  The previously cooked chicken is then sliced into chunks and added to the sauce in the pan where it is cooked off for another 10 minutes.  I then serve piping hot with a Pilau rice and it goes together beautifully.  I would have had a Naan as well but none were available at the shop.  I like the Naan as it helps soak up the sauce.

A quick cheap and filling meal which has gone down very nicely.

Pudding is a Toffee and mixed peel Pannetone which basically is wedges of the Pannetone served with tinned oranges and some of the juice and then topped off with some cream.  The Pannetone has a lovely chocolate topping which matches well with the Mandarin Oranges.  I am thinking some Grand Marnier would be good with it as well.  Am also going to make a Bread and Butter Pudding out of the remains so some Grand Marnier well may go into this..  Extremely Yummy though and bought by a lovely friend as a surprise.  Thank you.  Really tasty.

All in all have had another lovely tea tonight which has gone down extremely well.  Half the battle is eating things that you actually like.  When we first started buying in the Meah's sauce I was doing what it said on the packet, however, now I have cooked it a few times I am getting familiar as to what the sauce needs, hence me coming up with the above way of cooking it and making it taste really nice without too much faffing.  Adding in the onions adds in a sweetness to the sauce which seems to round the spices off quite a bit.  Probably not to everyone's taste, but it suits us.

Hope everyone has had a good day, and is keeping warm.

Take care.

Pattypan

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