Over Christmas I received a lot of cookbooks from France. One of the cookbook that I was given was “75 Nouvelles Recettes Proteinees” de Marabout Chef. The recipes are fun, easy and light recipes that only take a few ingredients and a few minutes to prepare. The dream cookbook when you are running out of ideas and are looking for quick recipes to fix on a school night. One of the recipe that got my attention was Tikka Chicken with Raita Sauce. I knew of both seasonings and sauces but would have not thought of putting them together.

When reading the recipe, it called for a Tikka curry paste. I just assumed it was a form of curry paste that you need to add to the recipe… Wrong… It is in fact an already prepared sauce. Since I had not researched the ingredients to fix that Tikka sauce, I took the easy road and bought a jar of the sauce. Well this is a quick and easy dinner;-)

Ingredients for 3-4 people: 2 large breasts of chicken, 1 cup of tikka sauce, salt, and pepper.

Trim the chicken breasts of any fat and nerves. Place the rectangular roulpat on top of a wooden board and place one chicken breast in the middle of the roulpat’. Fold the roulpat     over the chicken and with a rolling-pin, pound the chicken so that it will be about 1/2 inch  thick. Slice the chicken in small strips and place the chicken in a ziploc bag, add the tikka sauce and marinade the chicken for a minimum of an hour. Turn the oven to 375, lay the chicken strips on a silpat and cook for 8 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, prepare the Raita sauce. This sauce is in fact very similar to the Greek tzatziki sauce;

Ingredients: 1 cup of liquid yogurt, 1 cup of sour cream, 1 small cucumber, 4 tbsp of fresh mint chopped, 1 tsp of cumin, salt and pepper to taste.

Peel the cucumber. With a knife, cut the cucumber in half and with a dessert spoon remove all the seeds. Cut each half in half again and chop the cucumber very very thinly. In a bowl, add all the ingredients and mix well.

To serve, place 3 to 4 chicken strips on each plate and top them with the raita sauce. Et voila! Serve with a salad or steamed vegetables.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!