I feel like tikka tonight!

Those of you familiar with the extremely annoying 1990's advert for "Chicken Tonight" will recognize the pun on today's title.  If you were lucky enough to have escaped seeing this "epic" piece of American mass-consumerism apocalyptic advertising then you may wish to look away now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GdiNk3-IPE 

My parents went on holiday on Monday, so they emptied the fridge.  The end result of this was I find myself with a cucumber, some unwashed rocket, 3 chicken breasts and some ham.  The ham, it turns out, has been opened for over 3 days, and despite the packaging's attempt to alert the oblivious owner that eating it after this period is unsafe, my mother insisted they continue to eat ham after it has been opened for more than a week.  How they have not suffered a serious weekly episode of campylobacter I have no idea. 

Back on track.  So Monday afternoon I marinaded the chicken in the usual assortment of goodies.  The recipe for this can be found here

http://swlsk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/by-fair-means-or-fowl.html

I kept the chicken in the fridge marinading for 24 hours, and true to the famous statement "it did exactly what it said on the tin" the flavours were definitely enhanced.  I could actually tell the difference from marinading for 5 hours (previous attempt) and last night with 24 hours.  The flavours were more intense, and certainly you could detect the lemon and garlic flavours more readily.

Marinaded, pre-cooked, chicken tikka

I heated my oven (fan-assisted) to 200 Celcius and cooked the chicken for 20 minutes.  In reality this turned out to be ever so slightly too long.  The situation can be rescued by finely slicing and dicing the chicken.  I would recommend only 15 minutes @200C and checking to make sure is not overcooked (or indeed undercooked).

Slice n Dice

I served the chicken in large pitta breads, with the washed and dried rocket, some mayo and in my case a modicum of different chutneys mixed into condiment oblivion.