Ingredients
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4 tablespoons ginger (you can easily make this if you want, far better than the jar variety) or 4 tablespoons garlic paste (you can easily make this if you want, far better than the jar variety)
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3 tablespoons coriander powder (toasted seeds and ground in the blender is best but fresh powder will work fine)
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2 teaspoons cumin powder (toasted seeds and ground in the blender is best but fresh powder will work fine here too)
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1 teaspoon turmeric
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8 whole cloves
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8 whole cardamom pods
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1 cinnamon stick
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4 tablespoons vegetable oil (your favorite)
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1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste) or 1 hot chili pepper
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1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken
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1 large onion (diced)
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1 tomatoes (diced)
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2 tablespoons butter
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hot water
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salt & fresh ground pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Ginger/Garlic Paste: In a blender add peeled ginger and peeled garlic in equal parts and a little water and blend into a paste. You can also buy this in the Indian market, but it is much better when made fresh.
- Meat Prep: Cut chicken into bite sized pieces.
- In a bowl, mix chicken, salt, pepper, turmeric, cayenne (if using cayenne), cumin powder and coriander powder.
- Set Aside.
- Cooking: Use medium heat! Lower heat and longer cooking time gives the best results.
- In a deep wide pan (using medium heat) heat oil till it's hot and add Cloves, Cardamom (give a small smack on each Cardamom pod to open up the pod just a little bit) and Cinnamon stick.
- Move it it around for several minutes.
- At this point, I remove the clove and cardamom because I hate biting into them later.
- Add onions and saute until they are soft and golden.
- Take your time on this as this is what makes the gravy creamy, (you don't want burned onions).
- Add Ginger/Garlic paste and lower the heat to medium low and cook for several minutes scraping the bottom often.
- If you have enough oil in the pan you will not have that much of a problem. Hey! it's Indian food, so oil is necessary evil :)
- Add chicken mix from the bowl and cook till the chicken turns color.
- Add butter if desired.
- Keep stirring so that bottom is not sticking. This will take about 8-10 minutes or so.
- Add tomato and cook for another 2 minutes
- Then add hot water to the pan till it barely covers the chicken.
- Cook on medium high till you see a lot of bubbling.
- Lower the heat to medium/low and cover the pan and let it cook for about 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- When done, you should have smooth dark brownish gravy that is not runny and the chicken should be tender. Eat it with hot rice.