Food for thought: 1 - Chicken Tikka Masala

Nova Corcoran

Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in England by a Bangladeshi chef, and it is claimed that the chicken tikka (“chicken pieces”) part is an Indian dish but the masala (“spice mix”) sauce was added to satisfy the British need to have meat served in gravy (Cook 2001).

Chicken tikka masala is the most popular dish on the Indian restaurant menu (Smith 2010). Around 15% of sales in restaurants are from this dish, and 23 million portions are sold each year in Indian restaurants (Grove & Grove 2008). Although very few recipes appear in Indian cookbooks, ingredients include chicken cooked in a tandoor, and a masala sauce usually including yogurt, tomatoes, cream and spices.

Chicken tikka masala fits the general ‘healthy balanced meal’ profile, with chicken being a good source of protein and low in fat. Making it at home also means you can be generous with the yoghurt and tomatoes and go easy on the cream. Serving it with rice or naan provides carbohydrate. Health benefits also stem from the spices themselves. A number are used in traditional medicine and have medicinal uses. Chilli for example has been used in to relieve pain and cure a variety of ailments. It is also high in beta carotene and vitamin C (H2G2 2010). Other spices such as turmeric have been reputed to fight dementia (BBC news 2009) and arthritis (BBC news 2006) and curry leaves have been cited as helping to control diabetes (Glendenning 2004).