C46 Chicken 65

This is said to originate from the time of the British Raj in India and many reasons for the name have been offered, the most plausible being that it was number 65 on the restaurant menu but who knows?
This is an updated recipe but the original can still be found here. Many recipes are available for this, but this has been converted to a BIR (British Indian Restaurant) style of cooking. Red colouring is traditionally used, but I use tandoori masala and tomato purée to provide the red colour and a delightful additional spicing. (Many brands of tandoori masala do contain some red colouring). This has an unexpected but delicious flavour. An excellent curry.

Ingredients

For 1	Continued...
2 tbspn oil	½ tspn dried mint
30 gm onion (prepared weight)	300 ml c46 curry base sauce (see note 2)
¾ tspn ginger (5 gm prepared weight)	1 tspn tomato purée
1½ tspn garlic (10 gm prepared weight)	1 portion c41 pre-cooked chicken
1 tspn chilli powder	¼ tspn salt
½ tspn tandoori masala spice mix (see note 1)	1 tbspn fresh coriander
¼ tspn garam masala	2 tbspn yogurt

Preparation

Slice the onion.
Grate the ginger, crush the garlic and mix together with a little water to make a paste.
Finely chop the fresh coriander.
Dilute the 300 ml of c46 base sauce with 100 ml of water and heat before use.

Cooking - 8½ min

Heat the oil in a suitable pan and fry the onion, stirring regularly, for 2 min.
Add the ginger/garlic paste and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds.
Add the chilli powder, tandoori masala, garam masala and mint and cook, stirring continuously, for 1 min, adding a little c46 base sauce if needed to prevent drying and burning.
Add the tomato purée and 40 ml of c46 base sauce and cook, stirring, for 1 min adding a little more c46 base sauce if needed to prevent drying.
Add the c41 pre-cooked chicken, 80 ml of c46 base sauce and salt and cook, stirring regularly, for 3 min, adding c46 base sauce as needed to maintain the desired sauce consistency.
Reduce the heat, stir in the fresh coriander and yogurt and cook, stirring regularly, for 1 min.

Serving

Serve with rice and garnish with a little freshly chopped coriander and optionally a little freshly chopped mint.

Notes

(1) Tandoori masala spice mix can be purchased from many supermarkets and any Asian outlet.
(2) Dilute the 300 ml of c46 base sauce with 200 ml of water and heat before use. If defrosted from frozen the base sauce can be warmed and briefly blended to reconstitute the colour and consistency.

The main ingredients

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The finished meal

Tandoori Masala

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