Indian Butter Chicken Curry

This recipe came about as a way to satisfy my craving for Indian Curry. The local market where I usually get my curry paste from went out of business and so without any curry paste I decided why not try making curry from scratch. My sister Tabitha had mentioned that she and her family were really enjoying butter chicken curry lately and after having some at the LA Times book festival, I decided to give it a try.
The recipe is actually my combination of two recipes.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/chicken-in-creamy-tomato-curry-chicken-tikka-masala-recipe2/index.html
and
http://www.ecurry.com/blog/indian/curries/gravies/murgh-makhani-butter-chicken/

I really liked the idea of using fresh tomatoes in the sauce like Aarti Sequeira's recipe, but loved all the spices and the chicken marinade of the second recipe. I think both recipes are probably very good on their own.

The recipe itself is not that hard, it just takes a little bit of preplanning.

A quick word on spices. The recipe calls for a lot of spices that are hard to find in the grocery store. I found my spices at Penzey's Spice Store. They have a location in Santa Monica off the promenade, and one in Torrance, you can also order all their products online. I think it would probably be ok to substitute ground spices; which are easier to find in the store for some of the whole spices. I'll add the conversions to the recipe.
Here is the cast of spices

So without further ado here is the recipe for Butter Chicken

Garlic-Ginger Paste (from Aarti Sequeira of the Food Network)
About 1/2 cup whole garlic cloves peeled
About 1/2 cup fresh ginger peeled and cut into smaller bits
1/4 cup Canola oil
 Blend all ingredients in a small food processor or blender until it resembles a paste, there will still be tiny pieces but overall should resemble a paste. Store in a small glass container.

Chicken Marinade
2 lbs chicken, cut into about 1 inch cubes. (approximately 3 breast or 4 thighs or a combination of breast and thighs )
1 teaspoon Red Chili powder
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plain Greek Yogurt
1 teaspoon Ground Fenugreek
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
2 Tablespoons Olive oil
2 Tablespoon Ginger Garlic Paste

Mix all the ingredients together and add to the chopped chicken in a Ziploc bag and seal. Massage the ingredients around until the chicken looks coated. Place in the refrigerator and let marinate for 4-6 hours, or overnight.

The Sauce
4 Tablespoons Butter
3 Tablespoons Ginger-Garlic paste
1-2 green serrano peppers (seeds removed and minced; I used just one pepper and thought it had plenty of kick, however if you like it spicy use 2)
4 green cardamom pods (or use 1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom, it's just the seeds from the pod ground fine)
2 inch stick of cinnamon
 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons ground Fenugreek
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
2 teaspoons Paprika
8 Roma Tomatoes diced
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
1 cup Water or Chicken Stock
2 teaspoons Sugar
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream (seriously use the heavy whipping cream)
Minced Fresh Cilantro for garnish

Heat butter in a heavy bottom pan (4-5 qt.) Gently saute the minced peppers, ginger-garlic paste, cardamom pods(if using ground add later) and cinnamon stick until fragrant.
Add the Tomato paste to the pot and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add the ground spices (this is where you would add the ground cardamom) and saute for a minute to pull out the flavors.
Add the diced tomatoes, salt and 1 cup of water or stock to the pan and bring to a boil, Once at a boil reduce to a simmer and let simmer for 20-30 minutes and the sauce has thickened a bit.

While the tomato mixture is simmering. Heat up your oven to 400 degrees or the broiler. I used my broiler. Place the chicken pieces on a broiler pan covered in foil if doing in the broiler or place on a baking sheet if making in the oven. Cook chicken about 10 minutes turning over half way. The broiler gave them a nice slightly charred look similar to a grill. Don't worry if the chicken isn't completely cooked all the way through as it will cook more in the sauce. Set aside.

Once the sauce has finished simmering, fish out the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods and put the sauce in a blender, food processor; or use a hand immersion blender to blend right in the pot. Blend until smooth. Bring the sauce back up to a boil and add the chicken to the sauce, reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add the cream and stir until combined, simmer for 5 more minutes, then garnish with fresh cilantro.

Serve over rice with Naan bread (I cheat and get my Naan bread at Trader Joes from the frozen section, their Garlic Naan bread is really good) and there you have it!
Tim is not a big Indian curry fan and he said this is the best Indian curry I have made so far. Hope you enjoy it.