After deciding to make the naan bread, I realized I needed to find a dish to go with it. I found a couple of recipes and chicken tikka meatballs [1] was one of them. Of course, I didn’t have chicken so went with what I had, ground beef. I also wanted to BBQ so I decided to do BBQ meatballs with a variety of spices and ended up with BBQ tikka masala meatballs. Of course I needed something to go with it so I made a sauce and ended up with a winning combination, even if it was a bit messy!
The tikka masala meatballs variation of the recipe worked out well. I didn’t change any of the spices or ingredients in the sauce recipe. While the sauce flavour was very nice and fragrant I would add a bit more spice and heat next time I make it. I also found the sauce recipe a bit more like a spaghetti sauce and would add some vegetables or something else to it to add a bit more texture. Originally the meatballs were something to go with naan bread. The naan bread would be a perfect way to sop up all the sauce! As for the sauce, definitely a slightly thicker sauce. I would probably add more chunks of tomato or even use a can of diced tomatoes. The sauce in the chickpea tikki masala recipe would probably be a better sauce for the meatballs.
Enough about my musings on the sauce. Try the recipe yourself and you decide how you like it, how you would modify it to suit your taste.
Tikka Masala Meatballs
Notes
Sauce Ingredients
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1/2 tbsp arrowroot starch
- 2 tbsp water
Chicken Tikka Meatballs, Jan 2020, Mad About Food, URL: https://madaboutfood.co/chicken-tikka-meatballs/
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chicken or beef
- 1 egg
- 1/2 c flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp chil powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine all meatball ingredients in a bowl.
- Scoop out meatballs onto baking sheet. Should make approximately 15 meatballs.
- Bake meatballs for 15 minutes ten remove from oven.
- While the meatballs are baking, chop onions and garlic and grate ginger.
- Heave oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat.
- Add the chopped onions and saute until soft, about 4 minutes
- Add in the ginger, garlic and spices to the pan and saute for another 1 minute
- Add tomato paste and saute another minute.
- Pour in tomato sauce and coconut milk, mixing thoroughly. Increase heat to medium-high until the sauce bubbles
- Reduce heat to medium-low and let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes.
- Combine arrowroot starch and water mixture in a small bowl until combined.
- Slowly pour the water and arrowroot starch mixture into the sauce while stirring,
- All the sauce to simmer for another minute or so until the sauce thickens.
- Turn off heat and add the meatballs to the pan. Toss the meatballs until they are fully covered in the sauce.
- Serve meatballs immediately with rice, couscous, quinoa, naan.
Picture of the sauce for the BBQ tikki masala meatballs.
Reference
- Chicken Tikka Meatballs, January 2020, mad about food, URL: https://madaboutfood.co/chicken-tikka-meatballs/
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