You will need a large bowl, two spatulas (one for deglazing, another for scraping yogurt marinade), tongs, a regular dinner plate or pasta bowl, and a large lidded frying pan.

Make the marinade:

In a large bowl–I use a 4-quart Pyrex–mix the lime juice, yogurt, cumin, ginger, turmeric, cayenne, salt, and tablespoon of oil. Add the chicken breasts and coat them thoroughly. I find my hands are best for this. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or foil. Refrigerate at least one hour and up to four.

While chicken marinates, chop onion and mince the garlic.

I also open the soup and pour it into a 2-cup measure, adding the 1/2 cup of heavy cream, the tomato paste, chili and curry powders. Blend with fork or whisk: it will be a pretty salmon pink (see photo in post). Save the soup can for the next step in recipe. This saves washing up.

If you are making rice with your chicken tikka masala, start it now.

To cook:

Place a 10-12 inch frying pan over medium high heat. Add about 2 tablespoons oil. Remove chicken from yogurt marinade with tongs, allowing excess to drip into bowl. Reserve marinade.

Brown chicken about 6 minutes per side, turning once. You are just getting some color on the chicken, not cooking it through. Do this in batches if necessary, adding a bit more oil if necessary (I’ve never needed to). Remove chicken to the dish and allow to cool.

Returning to your empty soup can: add enough water to fill it about 1/4-1/2 full, but no more. Pour this into the frying pan, crank up the heat, and deglaze, scraping up any baked on bits with a spatula. After about one minute, turn heat down to medium and pour in the remaining yogurt marinade, scraping out whatever is left with a spatula.

Cook marinade down, stirring, about one minute. Do not allow yogurt to boil rapidly; you want no more than a gentle simmer.

Add the onion and garlic. Cook 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Watch the heat, turning down if necessary: you want the aromatics to soften, not brown. Add a little oil if the pan goes dry.

If you haven’t blended the tomato soup, cream, tomato paste, curry and chili powders, do so now. Pour slowly into pan to avoid spattering. Stir to combine, turn heat down a bit, cover pan, and allow to cook for ten minutes. This is a good time to clean up and…

Slice the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. After ten minutes, return chicken to the pot to finish cooking. Cover the pan, or not, allowing everything to heat through. This takes 5-10 minutes.

Chicken Tikka Masala is best eaten in bowls, classically served over white rice.

Serve the rice, then add the Chicken Tikka Masala. If you are virtuous, add something green. We are not. We just dive in. Major Grey’s Chutney is traditional; we’ve yet to try it, but that’s a matter of time.

Notes: Lemon juice works if you have no lime. Half-and-half works in place of heavy cream. Please don’t use low-fat yogurt, which can affect texture. I did not have chili powder, so replaced it with red pepper flakes.

Chicken Tikka Masala keeps very well, refrigerated, for the 12 hours I have managed to keep it in the house. Does it keep beyond then? I couldn’t tell you, because it never lasts that long.