Meal No. 3908: Murgh Makhani

This past Sunday night, it was a pleasure to stay inside and out of the oppressive heat while preparing the dinner fare fare, anchored by an adapted version of murgh makhani. This was served on a nicely-spiced Indian-style basmati and accompanied by a new bread trial: no-knead garlic tear-and-share bread. I'm always happy when seconds are pursued after the initial plated round, and even more so if leftovers are willingly accepted as the night draws to a close.

We were still stuck in a dangerous weather pattern, reaching nearly 100 on the thermometer but also being careful while the heat index climbed as high as 112°F. Trips out with the pooches were brief and always shaded, and water bowls and glasses were kept filled, for sure.

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Based mostly on "Indian Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)" and "Indian-Style Basmati Rice," from Andrew Janjigian. In Cook's Illustrated, No. 158 [May & June 2019], p. 6-7.

Additional inspiration came from "Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)," from Namrata Hegde. Published on TheKitchen.com. [17 December 2024]

"No-Knead Garlic Tear and Share Bread," from Izy Hossack. Published on TheKitchn.com. [02 May 2019]

Meal No. 3768: Murgh Makhani

Thurday's supper gathering included two visiting additions: Jeremy and Mark, who'd come down for a few days from Virginia. In hopes it might please all five of the seated palates, I put together a menu of butter chicken and a new trial of Indian-style basmati rice, which was particularly enticing. The sauce was really excellent but the chicken was a bit disappointing. Nonetheless, we managed to mostly clean our bowls and there was still plenty for snacking on subsequent days.

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"Indian Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)" and "Indian-Style Basmati Rice," from Andrew Janjigian. In Cook's Illustrated, No. 158 [May & June 2019], p. 6-7.

Meal No. 3726: Murgh Makhani

The Sunday night meal last week was quite a feast: Indian butter chicken, or murgh makhani, with yet another different recipe to guide me in making this regularly fantastic dish. This version really produced a hearty full-flavored sauce, and the broiling of the spiced-yogurted chicken gave an approximation of tandoori-style cooking. With basmati rice and roasted cumin-coriander cauliflower, this was a tasty abundance, and an overindulgence.

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"Indian Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)," from Andrew Janjigian. In Cook's Illustrated, No. 158 [May & June 2019], p. 6-7.

Meal No. 3700: Murgh Makhani

On the somber day of September 11th last week, the household was graced with a gorgeous soul for dinner who brings with her always both light and joy. Amy has been central to Roediger House life for over 15 years, and here as summer wraps up, she's joining us for several Wednesday nights while her husband is tied up with some work-related endeavors. That night, the dinner menu included murgh makhani, also known as "butter chicken," which brings a fullness of flavor and a touch of heat. I also roasted some cumin-coriander cauliflower, as it seemed a complimentary side, and of course there was plenty of basmati rice for that grandly-spiced tomato-garlic-ginger sauce that adorns it all.

The latest rolling of the Dungeons & Dragons recipe-selection dice brought me to the March 2016 issue of Food & Wine, and the recipe I decided to try was lemon-blueberry yogurt loaf cake, with a zingy-zangy tingly-tangy lemon glaze. That was our evening finisher before Amy departed; we rather liked it! Also: I wish I'd made the glaze thicker, because I ended up with a bit of a mess.

In the spirit of noting how great it's been to have Amy as a friend this last decade and a half, I dug back into the photo archives. I think this is my earliest picture of her, from a movie night gathering on 28 June 2009:

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"Finger Lickin' Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)," by Marzia Aziz of Little Spice Jar.

Cauliflower adapted from "Roasted Cauliflower," from Cuisine at Home, Issue 85 (February 2011), p. 15.

"Lemon-Blueberry Yogurt Loaf Cake," from Justin Chapple in Food & Wine, March 2016, p. 108.

Meal No. 3689: Chicken Tikka Masala

It was a distinct pleasure on the final Wednesday of August to welcome friend, colleague, and former grad student Bradley Phillis back to the house. He's joined the faculty at Appalachian State University, just about 90 minutes from here, and is therefore much closer than when he was at the University of Southern Mississippi. This is very good news. He was willing to come on short notice and was gracious about the meal I threw together that night: prepped spiced chicken from the sous vide, a simmering pot of tomato sauce with Indian spices and herbs, and fresh-steamed basmati rice. We had some roasted asparagus spears as well, and I also attempted garlic naan, with mixed results.

We deserved a light and refreshing dessert after all that, which is what led me to make a lemon meringue pie on a homemade crust. I'm still a frustrated baker when it comes to blind-baking these DIY pie shells, but we were all still reasonably okay with the slices of pie that were served up.

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"Chicken Tikka Masala," from Cook's Country, October/November 2014, centerfold recipe cards.

"Garlic Naan," from Chef John Mitzewich of the FoodWishes Blog and AllRecipes.com. [Updated 02 February 2024]

"Lemon Meringue Pie," based on a classic and common recipe.

"All-Butter Pie Crust," from King Arthur Test Kitchen of King Arthur Baking. See also "Butter vs. Shortening: The Great Pie Crust Bake-Off," by PJ Hamel of King Arthur Baking. [Published 23 November 2013]

Meal No. 3621: Weeknight Chicken Tikka Masala

The freezer is again a bit stuffed with prepped and vacuum-sealed meats, so Sunday's plan was to bring out a package of spiced bone-in chicken thighs to drop into the sous vide immersion circulator. That gave me space and time to work on updating the plans for this week's professional development sessions. Then it was also pretty simple to get an appropriate portion of basmati rice going in the rice cooker. Close to dinnertime, I then only had to make the tikka masala cream sauce to go over it all. These time-savers and shortcuts to still get something decent on the table, when also trying to be mindful of work obligations, continues to bolster my gladness for the impulsive immersion circulator acquisition!

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"Chicken Tikka Masala," from Cook's Country, October/November 2014, centerfold recipe cards.

Meal No. 3549: Weeknight Chicken Tikka Masala

Last Thursday's dinner occurred a bit early, befitting the age of the Roediger House occupants, perhaps. On a bed of basmati rice was laid an abundance of well-spiced tomato cream sauce and delicious morsels of chicken, all in an easy take on chicken tikka masala. I still had some spiced roasted cauliflower to add, and in this I did not hesitate.

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"Chicken Tikka Masala," from Cook's Country, October/November 2014, centerfold recipe cards.

Meal No. 3540: Weeknight Chicken Tikka Masala

Monday night was a bowl of goodness, a shortcut version of chicken tikka masala with pre-prepped spiced diced chicken first cooked via sous vide; then, a well-simmered tomato sauce with extra attention to its own collection of spices, smoothed out with a bit of heavy cream, was the luscious cover so that it all might sink into fresh-steamed brown rice. I had low expectations for it, frankly, right up until the moment I tasted how good it was.

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"Chicken Tikka Masala," from Cook's Country, October/November 2014, centerfold recipe cards.

Meal No. 3472: Murgh Makhani

Last Saturday's happy evening was due to another delightful visit from my college suitemate Ronnie and his wife Tina, who've been dear friends of mine for nearly 40 years. I picked out a menu that I thought would be tasty and less-than-ordinary but that could still be put together with relative ease and that would allow plenty of time to visit and interact. Classic full-flavored butter chicken fit that bill, served over basmati rice, with roasted cumin-coriander cauliflower florets. I'm always happy to see guests willing to have seconds, but we also all still left just enough room for a terrific dessert to follow. More on that in an upcoming blog post!

The high that final Saturday of October was a remarkable 84°F, which I found pretty glorious. For that I also had good company:

I blew the leaves from the driveway but by the next day you'd have no idea that I had done so. That had me out on the driveway again yesterday, blowing and raking an even bigger pile of them, in hopes I could get it done while the good weather remained and before the arrival of the anticipated chill and rains on the final day of the month. (Too bad about Halloween night for the kids!) Since temps were heading into the first freeze of fall, I also drained and shut down the irrigation system yesterday afternoon.

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"Finger Lickin' Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)," by Marzia Aziz of Little Spice Jar.

Meal No. 3455: Murgh Makhani

Once more I blame the cauliflower being on sale at the same time that chicken breast was marked down, and it led me to try a new recipe for murgh makhani that was pretty darned good, just so that I could have roasted cumin-coriander florets as a suitable side. 'Twas a most filling mid-week dinner Wednesday, with plenty in the pot once the dishes were served, so leftovers were definitely appreciated.

By early afternoon that day, I finished stacking onto the rack the rest of the firewood that was delivered the Monday before. It was also an opportune time to go ahead and lay the first set of logs in anticipation of the coming cold of winter: I do like to be ready to just strike a match and get a good blaze going!

We enjoyed beautiful weather for the opening of this past week, and that gave plenty of outside time for Sumner and Scarlett. This photo catches Sumner's stunned expression right after Scarlett snagged away the wood fragment he'd spirited away from the debris left from the firewood delivery:

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"Finger Lickin' Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)," by Marzia Aziz of Little Spice Jar.

Meal No. 3446: Make-Do Murgh Makhani

With a sufficient portion of saved butter chicken sauce, and a seasoned pounded chicken breast sealed and stored in the freezer, a saucepan and the sous vide let me create a thrown-together approximation of murgh makhani over steamed rice last Saturday night. With spiced roasted cauliflower, it warmed my soul on a dreary weather day.

Autumn arrived that Saturday, on a day where Winston-Salem was once again in the outer bands of a passing tropical system that made landfall on the North Carolina coast in the wee hours of the morning. We had some gusts and on-and-off rain throughout the day, knowing all the while that it could always have been much worse. I certainly felt bad for our houseguests and the larger Bookmarks Festival attendees whose busy agenda of authors and talks and books, and authors talking about books, was marred, or at least complicated, by the nasty conditions.

The next day’s swept-clear skies and the full sunshine to greet us made for good Sunday morning sitting and coffee-sipping with Sumner. With the season’s shift came the early indications that the trees were ready to comply: high above the driveway I noted with mixed feelings the coloring coming to one of the maple trees.

Meal No. 3435: Indian Butter Chicken

Blame the cauliflower head that I'd bought on sale, if you must, but as we approached the end of last week, I knew it was time to cut out the florets, toss them in olive oil, spice them well, and roast them in a good hot oven...just so they'd be the perfect tag-along for a second go at Instant Pot Indian Butter Chicken. This was one of those Instant Pot community buzzed-about recipes that everyone circled around when the initial popularity of multi-cookers exploded onto kitchens everywhere. And my one previous experience of this butter chicken recipe left me happy enough, and this latest version proved quite tasty as well.

While September started with two or three phenomenally gorgeous days, we quickly settled into quite a little heatwave, temps up into the mid-90s, and dry as a bone. I actually scheduled the irrigation system to run in the front and back yards, which I've had to do very little of for most of the summer.

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"Pressure Cooker Indian Butter Chicken," from Jay's Sweet -N- Sour Life.

Meal No. 3418: Weeknight Chicken Tikka Masala

It was a throw-it-together-and-hope meal last Tuesday, given there's still been no grocery run and I wanted to pull something into decent shape from what's on hand. Prepped spiced chicken tenders went into the sous vide, and I brought out some reserved tikka masala sauce, bulked it up with some of my extra pizza sauce, topped it off with additional herbs and spices, and served it over bowls of fresh-steamed basmati rice. The dinner was a success, if I might say so!

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Based on "Chicken Tikka Masala," from Cook's Country, October/November 2014, centerfold recipe cards.

Meal No. 3407: Weeknight Chicken Tikka Masala

This past Sunday evening's meal was the straightforward and simple take on chicken tikka masala that appeared in an issue of Cook's Country nearly ten years ago, and it's been featured regularly here ever since. The end result cannot mask the shortcuts that keep this a quick meal to prep, but that does not mean it's not quite tasty. Its bed in the bowl to rest on last weekend was the brown rice variation, just to shake things up while imagining it was a nudge healthier.

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"Chicken Tikka Masala," from Cook's Country, October/November 2014, centerfold recipe cards.

Meal No. 3380: Chicken Tikka Masala

Friday night's abundance of supper goodness was another take on chicken tikka masala, warm and spicy and served over plenty of basmati rice. I pulled together ideas from two different recipes, and also took a few liberties, and the outcome was more than pleasing to the palates.

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Chicken Tikka Masala was based in part on:

• "Tandoori Chicken Thighs," by Becky Hardin. Found on Easy Chicken Recipes. [Published 10 August 2020 / Updated 09 October 2020]
• "Chicken Tikka Masala Bake," by Sabrina Snyder of Dinner, Then Dessert. [Published 17 February 2021]

Meal No. 3371: Coconut Chicken Curry

Thursday ushered in the start of a new month, and with it came an ill-formed notion to pilot a new recipe: coconut chicken curry over Basmati rice. It was fine, and made better with spiced roasted cauliflower on the side, but it was also educative: this ain’t exactly what pleases the tastes and preferences of the Roediger House. Now that I’ve been there and done that, the recipe I used can head right on over to the undercabinet rubbish bin.

I started the draft of this entry in the full-sun quiet of morning, on that first day of June, and boy howdy had that sunshine truly been missed. Oh, not to overlook that small snatches of sunlight managed to break through, ever so briefly, in May’s last gasps, but that Thursday was the first day in a week where I could take my ragged camp chair out onto the driveway to soak in the warmth and to enjoy the lushness of a late spring’s breezy start-of-day. Sumner was pretty stoked as well. We were loving making it two days in a row, on Friday morning as well (photo above).

The earliest daylily bloomers at the front wall are so far ahead of their companions, and I only caught a just-past-prime photo of its peachy loveliness (above); nearby is the calla lily whose color makes me happy:

All the rain and drear we had suffered through for nearly a week meant I did not keep up well enough with the rapid spread of the two cherry tomato plants. They were past the time when I should have staked and supported them, but I did the best I could to gently nudge them into submission.

That calendar transition coincided with the bittersweetness of other deeply-felt transitions: the arrival (down in Mississippi!) of new baby Russell to Brad and Lauren, who are so dear to the Roediger House; and the passing of the great Joe Milner, a friend of 41 years and department chair in Education both when I was a grad student and on faculty at Wake Forest University.

There is a time to dance, and there is a time to mourn.

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"Easy Coconut Chicken Curry," from Ajoke of The Dinner Bite. [Published 02 August 2020]

Meal No. 3308: Weeknight Chicken Tikka Masala

A quick return to a recently-made house favorite occurred on the first day of March: weeknight chicken tikka masala. Served in creamy saucy abundance over Basmati rice, and accompanied by cumin-coriander-roasted cauliflower florets, it was the latest reminder of how awesome might be the simple joys of kitchen endeavors.

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"Chicken Tikka Masala," from Cook's Country, October/November 2014, centerfold recipe cards.

Meal No. 3294: Weeknight Chicken Tikka Masala

When I made chicken tikka masala pizza (for National Pizza Day, supposedly), I ended up with more than a little leftover spiced chicken pieces. With a spare chicken breast still chilling in the fridge, it made perfectly good sense to make a good ol' regular batch of chicken tikka masala to be served over basmati rice, bulked up with what I already had on hand. Delicious? Sure! And here's the state of my fine yellow crocuses as of that morning:

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"Chicken Tikka Masala," from Cook's Country, October/November 2014, centerfold recipe cards.

Meal No. 3292: Chicken Tikka Masala Pizza

These legions of "National Day of..." things aswarm in social media and boosted by filler news articles are mostly goofy. Every day is something. It seems that last Thursday had been designated (by someone somehow?) as National Pizza Day. That's worth observing no matter how ridiculous the designation. So I tried a different same-day pizza dough (which was fine but I did not love) as well as a new topping or style: chicken tikka masala. At first blush I looked askance at the small individual size of the two pizzas but they were more than filling!

Every once in a while, I appreciate even the subtlest colors emerging over the city as the day dawns; I might capture the sight and, less often, also post it. This past Wednesday morning's obscuring shadows not yet touched by those rosy fingers of young daylight are why I did not even bother to try to catch a photo of the stealthy sneaking silhouette of the raccoon Sumner and I spotted across the street in the driveway of my alarm company (their building is visible in the lower right of both this photo and this photo). In 20 years of downtown living, this is only the second raccoon I've seen; the other was way over in the undeveloped southern portion of the Innovation Quarter along Research Parkway.

Although it was a mostly overcast day that Wednesday, I was very happy to see the first crocus bloom. And when I drove down to Montgomery County for an afternoon session with new teachers, the grey gloom was more tolerable with an early February afternoon that reached 70°F.

By Friday morning, the earliest daffodil blooms had emerged, helping boost my spring-seeking soul just a bit more into the realms of approaching joy:

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"Roberta's Pizza Dough," from Carlo Mirarchi, Brandon Hoy, Chris Parachini and Katherine Wheelock. Adapted by Sam Sifton. Found on New York Times Cooking.

Chicken tikka masala was contrived by me with some inspiration from:

• "Chicken Tikka Masala Pizza," from Bee Yinn Low of Rasa Malaysia.[Published 07 April 2007 / Updated 15 May 2022]
• "Chicken Tikka Masala Pizza - Naan Pizza," from Colleen Milne of The Food Blog. [Published 01 March 2017 / Updated 08 June 2021]

Meal No. 3252: Weeknight Chicken Tikka Masala

December 15th rolled slowly through the fair city of Winston-Salem, plodding and cruel in its deeply-chilled wintry wetness, corraling the afternoon into an upper 30s temperature trap, locking me indoors with chains of my own design because I despise the cold. It is still autumn. Soup was my first thought, until I turned instead to the warming spice and sauce of a simple skillet chicken tikka masala. It was a filling and soothing one-bowl meal once dusk had fallen, leaving barely enough room for yet another huge slice of death by chocolate cake.

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"Chicken Tikka Masala," from Cook's Country, October/November 2014, centerfold recipe cards.