4 cups tomato puree from fresh tomatoes or you can use canned too
½-1 tbsp red chili powder or to taste
10 almonds, soaked and made into a paste
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves or kasuri methi
1-1.5 tbsp sugar or to taste
½-3/4 cup heavy cream
Salt to taste
1 tbsp oil
½ large onion, cut into thin half moon shape
½ tsp cumin seeds
Instructions
Mix all the ingredients of marinade in a bowl and taste. To it add chicken pieces and using hands or spoon mix the chicken around so it is evenly covered by the yogurt-spice mix. Cover and let it sit in fridge for 1-3 hours or even overnight.
Make the sauce:
In a deep heavy bottom pot, add ghee and olive oil. Once melted and hot, add cloves, both green and black cardamoms and cinnamon stick. Once they start to sizzle and become fragrant, add ginger paste, garlic paste and green chilies. Let it cook so it's no longer raw. To it add the tomato puree, salt, red chili powder. Cook it for 15-25 minutes until it starts to thicken. At this point you can blend the sauce in a high speed blender but BE CAREFUL as it's extremely hot so you want to be careful. Remove cinnamon stick and cardamoms. You can add them back to the sauce after blending.
Transfer the smooth blended sauce to the same pot and turn on the gas. To it add 1-2 cups of water depending on how thick or thin you want the gravy to be. Add almond paste and cook it for 10-15 minutes. To it add sugar and fenugreek leaves. Cook for few more minutes. Keep it aside.
Now in another pan, add 1 tbsp oil. Once hot, add cumin seeds and onions. Saute until onions are soft and add the sauce we just made to it. Cook for few minutes. Meanwhile on a grill pan, cook your chicken. I like to cook the chicken only until it is half done and I finish cooking the chicken fully in the sauce in slow cooker or pot.
Add the half cooked chicken pieces into sauce either in your slow cooker or pot and cook until chicken is fully cooked. Taste and adjust spices if need to.