Sweet memories of Chicken Tikka Lasagne ♥

When my lovely boyfriend and I moved to England a couple years ago, after 6 months of not working, living the high life just outside of London in my Sisters beautiful home, eating whatever we wanted when we wanted, lots of trips to the quaint little pub down the high street and traveling to Germany, Poland, Ireland and Scotland.... we were pretty much left broke. (Which is to be expected I guess!)

So after that, we moved up North to Liverpool where the wages are cut in half, but the price of living is also amazingly cheap.

So for the first few months we did all our shopping at a giant, tacky supermarket that you will know as 'Iceland'.

Basically most of their food is frozen and processed to the max, and the very few fresh ingredients they have shouldn't even really be called 'fresh'.

However, ONE good thing has come out of our experience with Iceland, and that is the day my boyfriend spotted their 'Chicken Tikka Lasagne' and an absolute steal at £1 for a pretty large portion.
Our curiosity got the better of us, and we decided we HAD to try it.
Once we did try it, chicken tikka lasagne became a weekly meal in our house. It was amazing.

So more than two years after we found it (and four months after we moved back to Australia) my urge to have this dish again was too intense so I decided to make one from scratch and wing it.
And wing it I did, If I don't sound too cocky! The first mouth full brought me right back to some of the happiest moments of my entire life, snuggling up to my boyfriend on our broken wooden couch happily eating our £1 dinners whilst watching some corny show like Deal or No Deal. 

That to me, is bliss :)

Serves 6

Ingredients
- 2 large chicken breasts
- 2tbs of olive oil
- 1 x 375g sachet of Passage to India ‘Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce’
- 1 x 250g box of instant lasagne sheets
- 1 brown onion, diced
- ½ cup water
- 2tbs of natural yogurt
- 1/3 cup tomato paste
- Salt & pepper to season
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
- ½ cup freshly grated parmesan

Cheese sauce
- 4 cups (1L) of milk
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 3 large sprigs of parsley, roughly chopped
- 60g of butter
- 50g (1/3 cup) of flour
- 70g (1 cup) of freshly grated parmesan
- Salt & pepper to season

Method

1. Drizzle 2tbs of olive oil in a heated pan and cook the chicken breasts until tender and mostly cooked through. If you need to, cut the chicken breasts in half so they will cook through without browning the outside of the chicken too much. Once cooked, take off the heat and shred the chicken with a knife & fork finely.

2. Place the onions in the same pan that the chicken was in and sweat the onions until translucent. Put the shredded chicken back in the pan, along with the tikka masala simmer sauce, ½ cup of water, 1/3 cup of tomato paste, two 2tbs of natural yogurt and salt and pepper. Simmer for a few minutes until the sauce thickens slightly then take off the heat.

3. To make the cheese sauce, combine the milk, onion, parsley, salt and pepper in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over a medium heat. Remove from the heat and set aside for 15 minutes to infuse. Next Strain the milk mixture in a fine sieve into a large bowl or jug and discard any solids.

4. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium- high heat until foaming. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until mixture bubbles and begins to come away from the side of the saucepan then remove from heat.
Gradually pour in half the milk, whisking constantly, until the mixture is smooth. Slowly add the remaining milk, making sure it has no lumps by whisking.

5. Place the saucepan over a medium- high heat and bring to the boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat and then add the parmesan cheese and stir until melted through. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Then lightly grease a large rectangular ovenproof dish with olive oil so the lasagne will not stick.

Spread some of the béchamel sauce over the base of the dish. Arrange the lasagne sheets to cover the sauce, then top with some chicken tikka masala mixture, followed by more béchamel sauce and a sprinkle of cheddar and parmesan cheese. Continue layering with the remaining lasagne sheets (or until you get too close to the top of the dish) and finish with a layer of lasagne and béchamel sauce on top. Sprinkle the remaining cheddar and parmesan on top, then put the dish on a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes or until the cheese melts, is golden brown and the edges are bubbling.

7. Set aside for 5- 10 minutes to cool and cut into 6 portions. 

The chicken breast cooked. 

 Then shredded.

This is what your sauce will look like. Its available at Coles & Safeway in Australia. I'm not too sure if it's available in the rest of the world though.

 The onions, sauce & shredded chicken ready to simmer. I also stirred in a little french parsley.

 My first ever béchamel sauce, once I added the parmesan.

 Layers of lasagne, béchamel sauce, cheese and chicken tikka mixture.

The last layer of lasagne, béchamel sauce and topped with lots of cheese.

Once it came out of the oven. I served it with some extra parmesan to sprinkle on top (not like I needed it with the amount of cheese already in it!) and also some natural yogurt with a sprinkle of paprika.

 All dished up ready to eat, with a small side salad.

 The lasagne inside.

And lastly with some yogurt on top.