Plan my cook day

Tikka Masala for the freezer, sized for your family

It’s 6pm, the kids are hungry, and tonight’s dinner is already made. You cooked the ruby curry sauce in one big batch and froze it in containers, one dinner to each. On the night, you only cook the diced chicken for curry.

Makes
8 portions
On the night
20m, quick cook
A portion
About 577 kcal
Plan my cook day

One afternoon of batch cooking, weeks of dinners.

Chicken tikka masala in a bowl

How to make it

Make the ruby curry sauce ahead for the freezer, and cook the diced chicken for curry fresh on the night.

Ruby curry sauce

Make ahead and freeze

Or tikka Masala Sauce

Ingredients for 8 portions

Method

  1. Heat vegetable oil and unsalted butter in a large, wide pan over a medium heat until the butter foams.
  2. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for 2 minutes, stirring all the time, until it smells toasty.
  3. Stir in mild chilli powder, paprika, ground cumin and garam masala for 30 seconds.
  4. Add chopped tomatoes, water, salt and light brown soft sugar. Bring to a simmer.
  5. Simmer gently for 25 minutes, stirring now and then, until it's thick and the butter starts to pool at the edges.
  6. Blend until smooth with a stick blender.
  7. Stir in double cream, rub kasuri methi between your palms over the pan and simmer for 2 minutes. Taste and add more salt if it needs it.
Add to stash: Ruby curry sauce Always in: Ruby curry sauce

Made some already? Add it to your stash. Mark it always in and Nomstash tells you when you’re running low.

Diced chicken for curry

Cook on the night

Or fried paneer

Ingredients for 8 portions · 20m

Method

  1. Cut chicken breast into 3 cm pieces and season with salt.
  2. Heat vegetable oil in a large frying pan over a high heat.
  3. Fry the chicken in 2 batches so the pan isn't crowded, 8 minutes per batch, turning, until golden on all sides.
  4. Poultry (such as chicken, turkey, duck, and game birds) and pork can have bacteria all the way through the meat. This means that these meats need to be cooked all the way through., says the Food Standards Agency.

Nutrition

Per portion, ruby curry sauce and diced chicken for curry
Energy
577 kcal
Fat
42.6g
Carbohydrate
8.7g
Protein
40.3g
Nutrition details
Energy
577 kcal
Fat
42.6g
of which saturates
20.3g
Carbohydrate
8.7g
of which sugars
7.6g
Fibre
2g
Protein
40.3g
Salt
4.56g

Estimated from ingredient data.

How we’d cook it, not advice. We don’t check recipes for allergens, and ingredients vary by brand, so check the label on everything you use. Prepare and cook food the way the Food Standards Agency says. Allergens and food safety

Tikka Masala with ruby curry sauce and diced chicken for curry Ruby curry sauce, made ahead and frozen; Diced chicken for curry, cooked on the night. Ruby currysauce Diced chickenfor curry
Make ahead and freeze Cook on the night

How it comes together

Ready for the freezer

  1. Make the ruby curry sauce

  2. Let it cool.

    “cool any warm dishes before putting them in your freezer”, says the Food Standards Agency.

  3. Ruby curry sauce. Pour into your containers, one meal to each, and seal.

  4. Label each container with the dish and the date.

No special kit. The ruby curry sauce works best in freezer bags. Any freezer-safe container does the job too.

Ready to eat

  1. The night before, move the ruby curry sauce to the fridge.

    “the safest way to defrost food is in the fridge overnight”, says the Food Standards Agency.

  2. Ruby curry sauce. Tip it into a pan and heat it, stirring, until it’s steaming hot all the way through.

    “it is important that food is cooked to steaming hot throughout, rather than warmed”, says the Food Standards Agency.

  3. Cook the diced chicken for curry 20m

Nomstash plans the rest

  • Everything from one shop

    The food and the freezer bags on one shopping list, with an estimated cost before you go.

  • Sized for your family

    Say who’s eating and every container holds the right amount, growing as the children do.

  • No more UFOs

    Unidentified Frozen Objects, as the Food Standards Agency calls them. Each container says what’s inside and the day you made it.

  • A reminder the night before

    Nomstash tells you which container to move to the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner.

Plan my cook day

  • Already keep a freezer spreadsheet?

    Paste it in from Excel or Google Sheets, or choose a CSV file, and Nomstash reads it into your stash.

    Bring in my freezer list

Make it a cook day

Add two or three more dishes to the same afternoon, and one shop covers the lot.

Batch cooking: cook once, eat all month

Freezing and defrosting safely

The rest of the Food Standards Agency’s advice, in their words, is in our freezing and defrosting guide.

Sources

  1. Food Standards Agency How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely gov.uk
  2. Food Standards Agency Cooking your food gov.uk

Last checked . Each quotation on this page was read against the page it links to.

Make tikka Masala your first batch.

Nomstash plans the shop, sizes every container and reminds you the night before. Nomstash is in beta.

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