Topic: Food Lab: Chicken Tikka (and Masala sauce)

[StoneCut]

Hey everyone,

I've become a fan of "The Food Lab" on www.seriouseats.com over the past year. Many of their experiments yield at least some new knowledge and most deliver stunning results (the analysis on how to make proper chips/french fries yourself is pure gold, for example, and really elaborate).

As you can imagine, I was quite surprised but also happy to see the food lab take a look at Chicken Tikka (and Tikka Masala sauce).

Here are the respective articles and recipes:
Tandoori Chicken Food Lab: http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/08/the-food-lab-how-to-make-tandoori-chicken-without-tandoor-grill.html
Tandoori recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/08/tandoor-style-grilled-chickens-tandoori-cornish-hens-recipe.html
Tikka Masala Food Lab: http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/06/the-food-lab-how-to-make-chicken-tikka-masala-at-home.html
Tikka Masala recipe: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/06/chicken-tikka-masala-for-the-grill-recipe.html

Beware, though: this is a US website - they obviously know little about proper british curries - and the article is not actually based on the BIR method either. However, there's still lots of new info to get from it (and the occasional error, too).

Namely:

• The chicken preparation method is not very "Tikka" since the chicken remains whole ("butterflied") and not in pieces, but the way it's actually done makes a whole lot of sense. Definitely worth checking out for the novel approach.
• The point to which the chicken should be cooked in order to keep succulent is also interesting (not very BIR, of course, since you usually get dried out chicken due to the pre-cooked approach)
• The most interesting aspect is the analysis of the marinating process. According to the article it could be detrimental to marinade chicken for more than 6 hours. The reason gives is that the citric acid in the marinade actually "cooks" the meat and marinating it too long inevitably produces over-cooked meat before actually cooking/frying/grilling it. This is probably an area with lots of room for discussion, however I found the point very interesting.
• It also talks about the importance of the surface area (and how to extend it) when marinating. This was also a very important point when wanting to get crispy chips, as Food Lab's experiments previously showed (and I verified at home). Heston Blumenthal came to similar conclusions in his TV show months later.
• There's even a bit about Naan thrown in for good measure

I didn't test any of this, and I'm sure these recipes don't taste like any BIR. I still think the articles contain valuable info, though.

What do you think ?

[PaulP]

Thanks for the links Stonecut, I've been on that web site before as it has some interesting stuff on it and in my pursuit of sous vide cooking experiences, of which the author has experience.

Cheers,

Paul