• metacritic on March 14, 2021

  This is a fabulous cookbook. Tonight I made the rogan jhosh, for the second time. The flavors are spot on, elegant, and with unusual depth. Only Dishoom approaches the quality of this book for Indian recipes. The chicken tikka masala here is my go-to. So, too, the biryani. The easiest recipes are likely the seafood dishes. The ones I have made are terrific. This is a cookbook with lots of composed plates. What that means is I usually make parts of recipes but not the whole recipe. That allows me to achieve Michelin flavors without aspiring to Michelin elegance. Highly recommend.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Basil chicken tikka with tomatoes (Tulsi ka tikka aur timater)

  • hlange on March 31, 2025

    Lots of flavor but not a repeat. For the tomato paste sauce, you will need a high speed blender to pulverize the seeds.

• Benares tandoori chicken (Tandoor murg)

  • hlange on March 25, 2025

    This was honestly one of the best meals I've ever made. But I had to make a few modifications. I used a slightly larger chicken. Because of that I doubled the marinade, and I'm glad I did. I also removed the skin as is usually standard in tandoori chicken. The recipe didn't mention it but I was too afraid of the possibility of soggy chicken skin under the yogurt marinade. Maybe the effect with the skin would have been different with skin-on and less marinade, but I didn't have access to a smaller bird. 465 degrees for 15 minutes wasn't enough to brown, so I broiled for a few minutes to impart some color before turning it down to 350. Served this with rice, lime, the Makhani gravy and a side of fresh greens. Superb

• Butter chicken (Murg makhani)

  • metacritic on April 24, 2022

    This is an extraordinary murgh makhani, coming closest to what I would eat in Delhi. The touch of honey is part of what differentiates this recipe from others, providing just the appropriate amount of sweetness against another otherwise deeply savory and slightly hot dish. My kids have often declared this to be their favorite dish in a vast repertoire of dinners.

• Punjabi lamb shanks (Nalli gosht Punj-e-aab)

  • metacritic on October 30, 2022

    A terrific, traditional recipe. All the components are wonderful and the dish as composed and plated makes for a perfect, filling autumnal meal. Kids are less enthused but that's their failing, not the fault of the dish!

• Vegetable biryani (Subz biryani)

  • metacritic on December 19, 2021

    This is in some regards my favorite biryani to cook at home. It is meatless and much easier to cook than many versions even as it packs a real punch. Unlike most biryanis, in which the meat and sauce sits at the bottom of the pot, the flavors are evenly distributed, which works in a vegetarian version of the dish.

• Makhani gravy

  • hlange on March 24, 2025

    I made the mistake of using canned tomatoes for this and they never "reduced to a pulp," but I still managed to squeeze enough pulp through the sieve to get a nice consistency. The end result is truly layered and delicious. This was called for with the tandoori chicken from this book and now I'm looking forward to using it in the butter chicken.

• Atul's garam masala

  • metacritic on December 19, 2021

    A fantastically complex garam masala with abundant heat (which I really prefer) and warmth. Equal to Dishooms. I use either, interchangeably, across the two cookbooks (and for all other recipes that call for it).

• Makhani dal

  • metacritic on December 18, 2021

    While Dishoom's recipe is slightly closer to my platonic ideal of what dal makhani ought to be, this is far quicker, easier, and comes very, very close in quality.