Cloudship

I'm being really lazy here. I love Indian food, but the only decent one left in my area is too far to travel for lunch.

I was thinking of ordering a half tray of Chicken Tikka Masala, taking it home, and separating it out into individual portions and freezing those for frozen lunches. I have successfully frozen it before so I know that part works. My question is, how many real servings do you think I could get out of a half pan? I would have rice with it but that would be it. At $70 a half pan, that would need to be a lot of meals to make it any where near cost effective.

stevechin

If it's a 4" deep half pan, probably 30-40 servings if it's a typical buffet with a few other items. But since you're just eating masala and rice, maybe you'll end up eating double servings, so 15-20 lunches, unless you're quite hungry. I'd say the ratio of masala to rice is close to 1:2

Pinned

You could also make your own chicken tikka masala - it's not terribly hard. There are even recipes online to do it in a crockpot or pressure cooker. It does freeze and keep well - you'd also have the option to make fewer servings.

Cloudship

I've tried it about 5 times now. Every time I get something that vaguely resembles what you would find n a cheap fast food Indian buffet in a mall, but with even more watery. What is teh trick? Mine never comes out like the restaurant I go to.

Sweet Willie

I use Japanese curry cubes (extra hot) and wok up some lamb pieces, mushrooms, onions. So easy & delicious.

I wonder if there are Indian curry/tikka masala cubes you could buy?
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emma69

I am a reasonable cook, but I can never quite get Indian food 'right' in the same way restaurants can. Edible and even decent, yes, but spot on, no. I think in part because I don't cook with enough ghee or cream compared to restaurants.

I often order extra take out to turn into lunches. I have no idea what a half tray would be in terms of servings, I would think that depends on the restaurant. I would personally opt for off the bone if you are ordering it, as a) you'll get more meat in the tray and b) no bone meat reheats better from frozen IME.

One way to stretch the meal slightly is to add some vegetables (not to mention it is healthier for you too!) I find some red peppers, peas and/or onions go well with a tikka masala sauce.

Cloudship

Paneer. Fry it up a little (it holds it's shape) then let it sit in the sauce for a while to pick up some flavors. I'll do that with leftovers or frozen meals that are more sauce then meat.

devdas

https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianFood/...ase_gravy_and/

You could also add a thickening agent like cream, finely ground cashews, almonds or melon seeds.

Also onions.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianFood/...ay_too_watery/

emma69

The curry I order tends to be paneer, as I am vegetarian!

Cloudship

I got half tray. Cost me $60. Didn't get as much as I wanted - pan was full of gravy but not a lot of chicken - I think I got 7 good sized servings out of it. could have probably stretched it to 8, but definitely not more. I ended up with quite a bit of gravy/sauce left over, I had a block of paneer so I cut that up and tossed it in and left it in teh oven for about 15 minutes. Haven't eaten that yet to see how it came out, but that gave me another 5 helpings.