"OMG" Chicken Tikka Masala

Sorry in advance for there being no pictures.  I honestly just tried these recipes out and did not really know what I was going to get.  Right now this post is mainly for my own purposes, so I know what to do for when I make it again, and take photos :-)
Anyway, I loooove indian food.  It's one of my favorite cuisines, but its also one of the cuisines that we spend the most per meal on when we go out.  That's because when we do break down and head out for indian, we MUST get 3 entrees and an appetizer because everything is sooo good it's just too hard to choose.  Lately though, we are buckling down and saving money.  This means our dine out budget is MAYBE $40 a month, which is dismal haha.  Anyway, I like knowing what exactly went into my meal anyway, and I always have a nagging wonder of what possibly is in my order that I know I wouldn't like.  That goes away once I am eating of course, but I have seen too many episodes of kitchen nightmares to really put it out of my mind.  Anyway, we have been dabbling in indian cuisine for a few years now, but always using the boxed spices that you can just add your wet liquids to.  The process is usually, cook onions, add spice mixture, add meat and simmer for "x" amount of time.  Obviously with the complexity of indian food and the convenience offered buy the box it was never as good as eating out.  How do you get the restaurant quality at home anyway?  Well that's where youtube and google come into play.  I found a couple of recipes that we have tried and tested which resulted in giving us "OH MY GOD" Chicken Tikka Masala.  Yes it requires all the ingredients, but this way rivals and beats the chicken tikka masala dishes we've had.

So our recipe combines 2 recipes.  The first, and most essential, step is to first make tandoori chicken.
We loosely followed this recipe:  Vahchef- Tandoori Chicken
**I followed the method in the video, but left out some things like the food coloring**

My altered recipe for tandoori chicken
Ingredients needed:

4 Bone in Skinless Chicken Legs
1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
pinch of salt
Lemon juice to wet the mixture

Like the video, you slash the chicken a few times on each side and rub the chili powder, salt and lemon juice mixture all over the chicken and set it aside for 15 minutes.

Then make the yogurt marinade.

4-6 table spoons of plain yogurt
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 inch of grated ginger
1 tablespoon of chilli powder
Half teaspoon of salt
quarter teaspoon of pepper
half a teaspoon of mustard seed powder
half a teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1 tablespoon of cumin powder
1 teaspoon of coriander powder
1 table spoon of lemon juice

First mix the garlic and ginger, to make ginger garlic paste.  I mince together and squish it with the side of my knife to really mix the flavors.  Then I add everything to a bowl and mix all ingredients.  Take the previously marinated chicken and add the yogurt marinate all over it.  You can marinate it for another 10 minutes or so while you preheat your oven to about 425 degrees.  Cut some carrot and Celery to make a bed for the chicken to rest on.  Place the chicken on the bed of veg and place in the oven uncovered until finished, about 25-35 minutes.
When the chicken is completed, removed from the oven and let cool.  When the chicken is cooled, debone the chicken as this now will be used in the chicken tikka masala.  While preparing the Tikka masala gravy, try not to eat all the cooked chicken because it IS delicious!

While the chicken is baking I worked on getting the gravy prepared based on this recipe: Epicurious Chicken Tikka Masala  We made this recipe as it's written, but it was just missing something in our opinion but its definitely a great jumping off point.  It just wasn't that restaurant taste we were craving.

To make the gravy:

4 tablespoons of butter
1 medium white onion diced
2 onions pureed in a blender with a half teaspoon of sugar
6 cardamom pods, crushed
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger (from 1-inch piece)

1 table spoon of garam masala
1/2 cup heavy cream or half-and-half
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt

Quarter teaspoon of vinegar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro plus additional sprigs for garnish

Preparation taken from website:

"In a small bowl, whisk together the coriander, cumin, cardamom, nutmeg, paprika, cayenne, and grated ginger (and garam masala). In a heavy, wide 4-quart pot or sauté pan over moderately high heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until light brown and caramelized, about 5 minutes. (Note that because they are sautéed so quickly over moderately high heat, the onions will not caramelize evenly.) Reduce the heat to moderate then stir in the spice and ginger mixture. Add the tomato purée, water, heavy cream, and salt, and bring the sauce to a boil. Reduce the heat to gently simmer the sauce, uncovered, until thickened slightly, about 10 minutes." I add the vinegar at the same time as the tomato puree.

Once it has simmer for 10 minutes and visibly reduced, I add in the tandoori chicken and simmer for another 5 minutes.   After the 5 minutes I removed from the heat and season with salt and pepper to taste as well as add the cilantro.  Transfer to serving bowl and serve with Naan and Bastmati rice.  

Definitely, worth the effort and time once you are eating this delicious dish.  I will update this with the total time it takes to make this dish from start to finish when we make it again :-)