Chicken Tikka Masala from the Tomb Raider Cookbook

One of the dishes I was most excited to make from the Tomb Raider Cookbook was Chicken Tikka Masala. An Indian-British fusion staple, it's very similar to the more traditional butter chicken, but perhaps anglicized for the Londoner's palette. Either way, it's something I love to make at home and I always get it whenever I have Indian takeout. You can do the first part of it the night before and then it's ready for you to cook the next night.

Lara Croft has been to India a few times. In the introduction of Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider Anniversary, she is relaxing in the Imperial Hotel in Calcutta/Kolkata when a mercenary acquaintance approaches her with an offer from Jacqueline Natla. In Tomb Raider III, Lara returns to India at the start of the game to locate the Infada Stone. She learns it's made from a meteorite, and is hired by Dr. Mark Willard to locate the other pieces of it around the world. The next original Tomb Raider game, Catalyst, will be set in India.

On any of her travels to India, or when back home in Britain, Lara could very well have treated herself to some chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, or any other delicacies of their amazing cuisine. If she meal preps, it would be very easy to make a lot of this and use it to fuel her late night research sessions. In 2013, it was reported that Angelina Jolie, who portrayed Lara in two live-action Tomb Raider movies, had special ordered a large quantity of curry, including Chicken Tikka Masala, from the Le Raj restaurant in Epsom. The reports indicate the food was intended for Brad Pitt since he couldn't join her on her London visit. If true, Angelina has good taste.

I cut up and marinated the chicken the night before in spices and yogurt. This always ensures the most tender, flavorful chicken, but if you haven't got the time, do it for a minimum of an hour. To make some more colorful rice, I added turmeric to the water when cooking it, and for maximum fluffiness I rinsed it before cooking, then added butter and salt. As a side, I thawed some peas and warmed them up with salt, pepper, butter and lemon juice.

I always have to make an adjustment with certain recipes. In the book, it says to use a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes. Where I live, only 28 oz ones are available, so I measured out 1 3/4 cups of the tomatoes, which is roughly the equivalent. The rest went into the fridge for a later use.

The recipe also says to use ghee (clarified butter) as the fat you cook your Tikka Masala in, and certainly, that is traditional. I don't make a habit of buying ghee, but I still had some melted and re-chilled butter left from when I made Spanakopita, and since I'd poured off the milky liquid that came out of it once it had solidified, that was more or less clarified butter, so it worked the same.

Lastly, the recipe says to use either ginger garlic paste, which is equal parts of both ingredients pureed together, or grate the same amount of each. I did the latter. If I made Indian food more often, I'd invest in those ingredients.

Chicken Tikka Masala is easy to cook and utterly scrumptious. I made the sauce for it first, then moved it to the back of the stove to simmer while I worked on my chicken. The cookbook doesn't say to do this, but I poured some water into the pan after to deglaze it, then poured that flavorful water into the sauce. If you've read this blog so far, you'll likely know that I dislike canned diced tomatoes, but they get pureed for this recipe, so I had no issue using them.

I have a lot of recipes left to work through, but I feel confident in saying that this might be the best dish I've had out of the Tomb Raider Cookbook! Such a flavorful, rich sauce that wasn't hard to do at all, yet felt like you'd simmered it for hours. It absolutely had to be absorbed by that gloriously yellow rice and some warmed up naan. I stirred all the leftovers together as they cooled so they'd meld perfectly for lunches the rest of the week.

If you want to make this recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala yourself, you can find it in Tomb Raider: The Official Cookbook and Travel Guide.