Its Saturday night… Apart from being addicted to watching talent shows like X factor /Britain’s Got Talent and The Voice a Saturday night in has become synonymous with a home made curry in our house. Preferably with home made naan bread (SOOO good!) but definitely a curry in whatever shape or form we fancy. So here is the recipe for my Chicken Tikka Masala which we love with rice. As I mentioned with the Prawn Jalfrazi curry recipe we love our curries spicy with lots of thick vegetables. I usually stir in a tablespoon of greek yogurt at the end to make it less spicy for Bailey so you could always try that too.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 1 inch cube of fresh ginger, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 4 chicken thighs, skinless and boneless, cut into small chunks
• About 300g sliced butternut squash, cut into smaller chunks
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 80g Ready washed fresh spinach
  
• ½ jar of Tikka Masala spice paste (I always use Patak’s)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp of cardamom seeds (or seeds from 2 cardamon pods)
• Handful of chopped coriander leaves
• A cupful of white rice or naan, to serve

1. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large deep pan (use a pan that has a lid). Add the chopped onion and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the chopped garlic and ginger and stir in, cook for another few minutes.
3. Add half your jar of Tikka Masala spice paste and stir in. Add the other spices, cumin seeds/garam masala and cardamon seeds.
   
4. Add your cut up chicken and stir around the pan so each piece gets coated with the spice paste. Cook and keep turning until the chicken loses the pink/red colour.
   
5. Add the chopped butternut squash pieces. Then add the tinned tomatoes plus a little water used to rinse out the tin to get the last of those tomatoes out.
   
6. Place the lid on your pan and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring and turning every few minutes, until the chicken looks cooked through and the butternut squash has softened (you should be able to easily put a knife through and it should feel soft not hard). You can now boil the kettle and put your rice on to cook for 10 minutes.
   
7. About 2 minutes before the end of your rice cooking time, add your spinach to the curry, I usually just place the spinach on top and then replace the lid as the spinach will steam cook into the curry, then you can stir it through the curry easily.
   
8. Add your coriander to the top.
   
9. Place your rice and curry in a bowl, add a little extra coriander if liked or yogurt if you want to tone down the spice and enjoy!