Butter Chicken Clean Eating Version
This is an EXTREMELY non-measurement-based recipe, so please feel free to add as much, or as little, of any spice you may wish. Hell, add more chicken, more tomatoes, more onions, whatever the hell you like, really.
MY VERSION
4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, cut into cubes of your own size choice. (I go with around 1 inch cubes).
Either 6 LARGE Tomatoes OR one can of Tomatoes (Fresh is better. ALWAYS.) Fresh Matoes, Chopped into inch cubes
About a Half cup of almonds, GROUND (you can do this yourself or just buy ground almonds)
Two Medium Sized Onions, chopped into inch by half-inch long strips. (I halve the onions, make four parallel cuts in each half, then slice across to make 16 segments, really)
Soymilk (In place of Yogurt, it does the trick. I've also subbed in Coconut milk/cream a few times)
Olive Oil (Or, if you Prefer, Unsalted Butter)
2 Cloves of Garlic, smashed and chopped fine
About a tablespoon of Crushed Ginger (fresh peeled is best, smash it, chop it)
Cinnamon
Turmeric
Chili Powder
Cilantro (Fresh is Better, but dried is fine)
Salt, Pepper
Rice of your choice. (Person Pref is BROWN JASMINE RICE, but ANY rice will do. Basmati would make a lot of sense. RINSE YOUR DAMNED RICE BTW PRE COOKING.)
Step by Step
STEP 1 - Cook the damned rice. I don't care how YOU do it, just do it. We use a Microwave Rice cooker, and tend to add in either a little cilantro OR ground coriander seed to the water for flavour, if there's no Jasmine rice left.
STEP 2- Pan at about 7 (old-skoooool stoves), toss in about a TBSP of olive oil (or Uns Butter(OR, the SMART WAY: half of each) ). Then toss in the chicken, and cook until it isn't in the dangerous "OH NOES, SALMONELLA!" stage. Remove chicken from pan, and pop into the heat-safe bowl, for now. (RYAN'S NOTE: IF you WANT to, you can season the chicken a little while it's cooking in this stage, though purists will kick your ass if you throw anything in there, I tend to toss in some pepper, and a TEENY dash of curry powder. Yes, I know, butter chicken doesn't HAVE Curry powder in it. Shut up.)
STEP 3 - In the same pan you cooked the chicken in (totally cool if there's a teeny bit of juice still in there.). toss another tbsp of oil in, same temp. Drop the onions in along with the garlic, and coat generously with CINNAMON. (For the whiteys out there, yes, this seems unnatural. Just do it.) Continue frying the onions until they've begun turning translucent.
STEP 4 - Add in everything left, MINUS the CILANTRO. If you're a Stickler about measurements, suck it. Freeball your spices, it's more fun. Lots of Turmeric. Soymilk Wise, I'd say add anywhere from half a cup to a full cup, depending on how liquidy you want your sauce to be at the end. Stir to make sure everything is blended well, then reduce heat to around the half mark (5 on mine), and continue cooking until everything has softened significantly.
STEP 5(This step is optional, some people prefer to have the different elements of the sauce visible, I prefer to blend it into a rather unappealing LOOKING creation, but it tastes SO DAMNED GOOD.) - Blend it, Suckah. Using whatever blending utensil you have, blend the crap out of everything, until you have a not-so-gorgeous but SMOOOOOOOTH Sauce.
STEP 6 - Place the sauce, blended or not, back in the pan (If you didn't blend, chances are, you never removed it in the first place, congrats! Same goes for Immersion Blending Peeps.). Add the Chicken back into the pan, and stir to coat, simmer for about 10 minutes at a low-ish heat. You can either add the Cilantro PRE simmering, or post, it's a matter of preference. I prefer to add it PRE, since I love the flavour.
STEP 7 - Pour Sauce n' Chicken over Rice, Chow Down! (Garnish with Cilantro, if you want badass presentation!)