For The Chicken Marinade

1. Chicken: Dry the chicken and cut into fairly larger pieces. One chicken breast should give you about 3 pieces
2. Add all the ingredients in the chicken marinade group (except the 2 tablespoons of oil) into a bowl and combine making sure that the chicken is well coated. Finish off with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. 2 Ingredient Chili Paste Set aside and leave to marinade from 20 minutes up to overnight. Cover while in the fridge.

Brown the Marinated Chicken

1. Remove the chicken from the fridge and in a large non stick pan, melt the ghee or butter or oil till hot and start browning the marinated chicken pieces.
2. Brown the chicken on both sides till charred, repeat the next batch until all the chicken is done.Remove from the pan and set aside, covered. (Don't wash the chicken marinade container just yet!)Try not to overcrowd the pan because when the chicken overlaps, it steams rather than brown. Don't wash the pan we use it in the next step for the sauce.

Make The Sauce

1. Same Pan: Lower the heat and remove all the brown bits in the pan and discard that leaving the remaining oil. To this oil, add the onion (add a little more if needed) with a pinch of salt and fry until the onion is soft and golden brown. This will take about 10 minutes with the stove on low to medium heat.
2. Add the garlic and ginger paste (if using, remember that you can omit it in this step for less heat or use half) - mix it in and cook for a minute or so then add the canned tomatoes.
3. Pour about half a cup of water into the empty canned tomatoes, pour that into the bowl that had the marinated chicken in and then toss it all into the sauce.This purely to leave nothing out and add all the flavor bits in. Now you can wash the container!
4. Cook the tomato sauce for 15 minutes on a low simmer. While the tomatoes simmer, add a teaspoon of curry paste (for less heat, please feel free to omit this step or use half the amount). Add a pinch of salt to taste, and an additional quarter cup of water. Leave the sauce to simmer for 15 minutes. If you have omitted the curry paste in this step there's no need for the extra quarter cup of water.
5. Pour the sauce into a blender, (don't wash the pan, still the same pan) add the fresh coriander and blend till smooth. Taste for salt.

Heat The Sauce And Season

1. Same Pan: Heat the pan on low to medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of ghee or butter to melt.
2. Pour the blended sauce in. Heat the sauce for a couple of seconds, stirring gently while the butter melts and fully incorporated into the sauce.
3. Add fenugreek, garam masala, salt and butter. While the sauce simmers on very low, add the cream (you can do half now and half later after the chicken).
4. Pour part of the cream into the blender and mix it with what's left in the blender then pour that into the sauce and mix. (This step is optional, purely for extra flavor and leaving nothing to waste).
5. Return the browned chicken pieces, add the remaining fresh coriander and increase the heat from very low to medium-high to bring the sauce back up to a simmer and simmer for a minute or two until you have a slightly thicker consistency.
6. You can top the butter chicken with the remaining cream and serve with rice, naan or a salad.