Chicken Makhani

Ingredients

 * 2 pounds of (bony) chicken
 * 1 cup yogurt (dahi)
 * 1" piece of ginger
 * 8 cloves garlic
 * 2 tbsp lime juice
 * 4" stick of cinnamon
 * 8 cloves
 * 8 cardamoms
 * 10 black peppercorns
 * 1 tbsp oil
 * 2¼ pounds tomatoes
 * 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (optional)
 * 1 tbsp white pepper powder (essential)
 * 1 ounce cream (optional but recommended for a touch of class)
 * 1 !!pound!! butter (you can get away with 0.6 lb if 1 lb is too much)
 * salt to taste if you use yellow butter, then scale down the salt accordingly. If you use white butter, then you will need more salt.
 * coriander (cilantro): optional topping.

Directions

 * 1) Clean chicken and remove the skin.
 * 2) Make a smooth paste of yogurt, garlic, ginger, lime juice, cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, peppercorns and the oil.
 * 3) Marinate the chicken in this for 6 hours.
 * 4) Bake the chicken in a preheated oven for 10 minutes at 250°F (130°C). Put it aside.
 * 5) We need to get a tomato sauce.
 * 6) Cut tomatoes, put 'em in a pan (no water) and boil.
 * 7) When the quantity has dropped by half, strain through a fine sieve.
 * 8) What comes out of the sieve is the tomato sauce (this is hard work with a clumsy sieve).
 * 9) Take a pan, start heating the sauce, add the butter.
 * 10) When the butter is melted, add the white pepper powder, salt, fenugreek leaves and cream.
 * 11) Mix the chicken pieces into this sauce.
 * 12) You may like chopped coriander (cilantro) as topping.
 * 13) Serve hot.
 * 14) This works best with good rice (i.e. basmati).