Chicken Makhani--aka Delcious Food

Thus far, my pursuit of Indian cookery has been somewhat limited. I make a chicken curry that is one of our all-time favorites, naan, and even some chickpea curries. Tonight, I branched out a little more! Still in the chicken realm, since lamb is expensive and virtually non-existent in this area, but still. Progress is progress. And in this case, progress is absolutely delicious!

• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 1/4 white onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon ginger paste
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• 1 teaspoon curry madras
  
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup half-and-half (or heavy cream if you want to go nuts)
  
• 1 cup tomato puree
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch black pepper
• 
  
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 teaspoon curry madras
  
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup cashews
  
• 1/4 cup water

Directions

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Saute shallot and onion until soft and translucent. Stir in butter, lemon juice, ginger-garlic paste, 1 teaspoon garam masala, chili powder, cumin and bay leaf. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add tomato sauce, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in half-and-half and yogurt. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with salt pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat, and season with 1 teaspoon garam masala and cayenne. Stir in a few spoonfuls of sauce, and simmer until liquid has reduced, and chicken is no longer pink. Stir cooked chicken into sauce.
3. Blend the sauce with the cashews. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, or until thickened.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't follow the recipe too faithfully. I realized when I was posting this that I forgot the lemon juice (that would have been good!) and never added water to the chicken...Hmmm. I think we had too many dishes going at once! Without Allen being the naan man, it could have been a disaster of an evening. We had this chicken with basmati, naan, and saag paneer. The saag was good, but I'm going to try a few more recipes to see if I can find one I like better.

PS--I stole this picture. We just BARELY had time to get our food scooped into bowls before House started at 7! No time for photography!! But it looked like that, I promise! Such a gorgeous color!