Ingredients

• 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)
• 3 tablespoons coriander powder (toasted seeds and ground in the blender is best but fresh powder will work fine)
• 2 teaspoons cumin powder (toasted seeds and ground in the blender is best but fresh powder will work fine here too)
• salt & fresh ground pepper (to taste)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 8 whole cloves
• 8 whole cardamom pods
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (your favorite)
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste) or 1 hot chili pepper
• 1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken
• 1 large onion (diced)
• 1 tomatoes (diced)
• 2 tablespoons butter (optional)
• hot water

Instructions

1. 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.

2. Meat Prep: Cut chicken into bite sized pieces.

3. In a bowl, mix chicken, salt, pepper, turmeric, cayenne (if using cayenne), cumin powder and coriander powder.

4. Set Aside.

5. Cooking: Use medium heat! Lower heat and longer cooking time gives the best results.

6. 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.

7. Move it it around for several minutes.

8. At this point, I remove the clove and cardamom because I hate biting into them later.

9. Add onions and saute until they are soft and golden.

10. Take your time on this as this is what makes the gravy creamy, (you don't want burned onions).

11. Add Ginger/Garlic paste and lower the heat to medium low and cook for several minutes scraping the bottom often.

12. 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 🙂

13. Add chicken mix from the bowl and cook till the chicken turns color.

14. Add butter if desired.

15. Keep stirring so that bottom is not sticking. This will take about 8-10 minutes or so.

16. Add tomato and cook for another 2 minutes

17. Then add hot water to the pan till it barely covers the chicken.

18. Cook on medium high till you see a lot of bubbling.

19. Lower the heat to medium/low and cover the pan and let it cook for about 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

20. When done, you should have smooth dark brownish gravy that is not runny and the chicken should be tender. Eat it with hot rice.