Ingredients:

• One medium sized onion- chopped up
• One tablespoon of garlic paste
• One tablespoon of ginger paste
• 1-2 pounds of boned chicken, no skin
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of red chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1-2 teaspoon of freshly grounded black pepper*
• 1-2 teaspoon Vegata vegetable seasoning*
• 1/2 cup of whipped plain yogurt
• 2-3 tomatoes along with 4-5 green Thai chillies, both blended into a puree.
• Handful of slices of ginger
• Handful of sliced green chilies (don’t need these if you are going to use the Thai chillies in the tomato puree)
• Handful of chopped cilantro
• Two tablespoons of lemon juice.
• 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala powder

 

Directions:

• In big sized cooking pot, start with oil or unsalted butter ( butter is better)
• Add chopped one medium sized onion to the oil.
• Cook the chopped onion in the oil until it turns golden brown. Be patient, leave this on medium heat and let it do its thing. Might take up to 10 minutes. Get it to a nice even brown to dark brown. (Not black)
• Add garlic and ginger paste. About one tablespoon each. Careful the mixture will start to sizzle loud and fly about. (Keep lid close by to cover the sizzling and to protect yourself)
• Now add the chicken. (boned chicken). Mix so that the onion and garlic/ginger paste has coated the chicken. Let this fry well for a good 10 minutes or until chicken is white to golden. Can turn the heat up slightly but not so much that it starts to stick to the bottom of the pot or burn.
• Add the masala:
  • 1.5 teaspoon of Red chili powder
  • 1.5 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric
  • 1-2 teaspoon grounded black pepper
  • 1-2 teaspoon Vegata seasoning
• Now add a little water and continue to cook. ( water is optional, you actually don’t really need to add it unless it all looks dry and is sticking to the bottom of the pot. But bc you are going to add yogurt and tomato puree soon, you don’t really need to add the water)
• Add 1/2 cup of whipped yogurt. Keep mixing and stirring the chicken as pour in the whipped yogurt to avoid clump formation.
• Add tomato/Thai chili puree (can use Ragu or spaghetti sauce too if thats all you have)
• Let this all continue to cook on low to medium heat. Can even cover with lid now, if you are sure the heat will cause things to stick to the bottom or burn.
• At the very end: at ginger slices, sliced green chilies, chopped cilantro, 2 tablespoons of Lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala powder.
• Continue to let it all simmer over low heat. Stirring until it all mixes well.
• Serve and eat with roti, naan or rice.

 

*I have made this without ground pepper and Vegata seasoning, turns out wonderful as well, but you might have to adjust some salt and red chili powder amounts according to your taste.