9 chicken thighs (boneless) cut into small to medium sized strips (ie large bay leaves in terms of size...which is usually a 1/4 to 1/3 size of boneless thigh)
2 glass jars of Tomato Passata (strained tomatoes).  Each jar is 680mls.
250 mls 35% whipping cream
Oil: we use grapespeed, but you can use vegetable or other....
1/2 large onion diced finely
10 cashews (rinsed if salted and allowed to dry)...then crushed in a mortar so cashews are finely ground-ish
1 heaping tsp of garlic puree and 1 heaping tsp ginger puree
2 tsp Deggi Mirch (or 1 tsp paprika & 1 tsp kashmiri pdr)
1 tsp Tandoori Masala
2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp fenugreek leaves ground into a mortar with any long stems not ground removed
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cinnamon pdr (powder)
1/8 tsp cloves ground/pdr
1-1/4 tsp table salt
1 tsp cumin pdr
4-6 tsp table sugar (honey can be used as well)

Steps: (please note you'll need 2 pans)
A. In a separate pan, add oil and once at med heat, add diced chicken thighs.  Once the meat is 90% cooked through, remove and place into bowl and allow to rest.  This process usually takes approx 10-20 mins depending on thickness of meat, size of pan, heat, etc.  You can marinade meat but we've found marinating does little to affect final results of butter chicken/murgh makhani...(and given the use of full cream later in the recipe, we skip adding actual butter at any point in the recipe)

1. saute onions in oil until translucent (med to low heat)
2. add ginger/garlic paste/puree and allow to cook for 2-5 mins (don't burn...keep on med heat)
3. Add all dry spices /cashews and mix into onion/oil.  If mixture too dry, add slight amount of water to mix well and keep from burning).  Cook x 3-5 mins
4. Remove onion/spice mixture from heat....blend until pureed finely then return to pan.  If mixture too thick from spice, add 1/4-1/2 jar of tomato passata into blender to allow blender to finely puree ingredients
5. Return blended mixture to low-med heat pan.  Add remainder of Tomato Passata and mostly cooked chicken thighs
6. Cook for another 5 mins then add 35% or full cream to pan
7. Cook for another 5 mins and taste gravy/sauce.  At this point adjust need for: salt, sugar, cinnamon or acid (by adding small amount of lemon juice (acid) if need be).

Serve with naan bread and/or rice and enjoy....
Ryan

In conjunction with my Vindaloo post of |auditing) a 5 star Indian chef, i'll post generalizations of their butter chicken recipe (murgh makhani) for you all.

In this process there are these ingredients:

oil, cinnamon stick(s) and bay leaves
ginger/garlic pst, cream and tomato pst

For spices: Deggi Mirch, Garam Masala, Fenugreek lvs, meat masala, salt and food coloring (if necessary)

The correct combination of cooking techniques, with spices and cooking times leads to a beautiful and tasty experience.  If i ipost more than this, i fear that i may lose life/limb to the chef i met with while travelling.  When an opportunity presents, i'll take a pic of the restaurant version of this recipe.   I have yet to try on my own....

My wife, son and i have frequented a local Curry restaurant and found their Vindaloo to be very different from what we've come across before.  I spoke with the hostess and she said they make their Vindaloo from very few ingredients: tomato, ginger, garlic, chilli and coconut.  I was shocked to hear there was no cardamom, vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, etc.

In going back on a recent visit i noted the base to be very oily, slightly orange/brown in color.  Notable tomato flavor with onions in the base and a seed of some sort (think cumin seed).  The flavor was tomato-ey, sweet, vinegar-ey and really enjoyable.. The hostess clarified on this recent visit, they don't use tomatoes...they use tomato paste.  This brought me to my first experiment doing a simpler Vindaloo and i want to get your thoughts:

In the first pic, you'll see the diced chicken thigh meat in paprika, garlic/ginger, oil marinade
In the second pic you'll see the base gravy with all spices added except for fenugreek...cooking down
In the third pic, the chicken has been added in addition to the fenugreek.... we served following with garlic naan bread


For a small batch sauce:
1 med onion chopped    5 garlic cloves and chopped ginger (in equal amount to garlic)    1 can tomato paste (small can mixed with twice the amount of water...diluted), and 1 serrano chilli pepper diced

Dry ingredients prepared:
sugar: 1 tsp
salt: 2/3 tsp
sweetened coconut flakes: 2.5 tsp
kashmiri powder: 1.5 tsp - 2.0 tsp
water: 250-400 mls depending on consistency
vegetable oil as needed
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3 cloves ground
1/8 tsp cinnamon powder
1/8 ts cardamom powder
1/4 tsp garam masala powder
1/4 tbsp fenugreek leaves ground (dried)

1. cooked down onion in oil until translucent
2. added ginger/garlic and serrano pepper (continued cooking on low-med heat for 5 minutes
3. added a 2-3 ladles (chef spoons) tomato paste (diluted) and heated
4. added contents to a blender and made into a sauce
5. returned to pan and contined on low heat
6. added all spice (except fenugreek) and water (and bit of oil) as needed while cooking
7. added pre-cooked chicken to gravy and continued cooking for 10-15 minutes   (at this stage, add sweetened coconut, sugar, water, oil, salt, kashmiri as needed to get flavor profile correct for individual taste)
8. added fenugreek powder and cooked for 3-5 minutes prior to serving

**After making this, i can say this is a darn tasty curry.  Is it vindaloo?  Not sure.  What i will do differently next time is double the amount of onion earlier in the saute and add some black pepper (ground) and see how this turns out.  Otherwise, this was a really nice curry and will keep tinkering with this self-taught recipe.  It's 80% close to the restaurant version (without them giving away specific instructions)..  I offered to pay them to learn how to cook their curries and the hostess seemed interested.  We'll go a few more times to this restaurant and hope that familiarity and an "honorarium" down the road will allow me to audit their kitchen and cooking techniques.**

Sorry for bumping thread.  Looking for feedback on this recipe..   My wife and i live in a region where the curry restaurants produce a mediocre curry and i've been playing for almost 2 years off and on when i can with modifying recipes.  If anyone has the chance to review my recipe above or try and offer feedback, i'd be grateful.  The best Vindaloo i had was from an owner of a curry restaurant now closed as he retired at the age of 80.  His vindaloo had a sl tomato base with sl sweet heat and a depth of flavor that absolutely boggles my mind.

My latest Vindaloo attempt comes within 7/10th of his and is getting better and i'll keep modifying as i learn more about curries.  I'll post what i've modified since:

1. Marinade: 5 chicken breasts cubed; 1 tsp lime juice, 2 tsp garlic & ginger pst, 60 mls Red Wine Vinegar; marinade overnight
2. 1 medium onion chopped;;         2 cans Campbell Tomato Soup
   250 ml whipping/heavy cream; 3 tsp garlic & 2 tsp ginger pst
   2 tbsp kashmiri pdr;                      2 cinnamon sticks
   6 cloves (ground);                         1/2 tsp yellow & 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
   1 tsp curry pdr/blend                  1/8 tsp nutmeg pdr
   1 tsp black pepper                       2 tsp garam masala
   1 tbsp fenugreek leaves ground into pdr;
   1/2 tsp cardamom pdr;                1/2 tsp salt
   2 tsp brown sugar;                         1/2 - 1 cup water
   vegetable oil/ghee

1. cook chopped onions in oil till translucent
2. add ginger/garlic pst, 1 tomato soup can, and all spices EXCEPT Garam Masala/Fenugreek Pdr/sugar/salt
3. blenderize in pan or once cool
4. add approx 600 mls of base gravy (your preference) and heat
5. on a separate burner/over, precook marinated chicken till almost fully cooked, then set aside
6. add to pan sugar/salt/cream/chicken/garam/fenugreek and cook for 5-10 mins on med heat
7. remove cinnamon sticks and add water until consistency achieved, then serve  (will make enough to feed 6-8 adults)

1. Marinade
5 chicken breasts cubed (1cm x 1cm), 1 tsp garam masala pdr, 1 tsp kashmiri chili pdr,
1 tsp ginger paste, 1 tsp garlic paste, 1 tsp lime juice, 60 mls red wine vinegar
*blenderize all ingredients and marinade cubed chicken for 4-24 hours
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2. Base Gravy:
4 med onions diced, 2 tbps garlic and ginger paste, 500 mls water, 2 large carrots diced, 1 celery stick chopped, 3 radishes chopped, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 red pepper diced, 1/2 green pepper diced, 3/4 tsp Ajowan Seed, 2 tsp salt, 1 lg tomato diced, 1 tsp cilantro (or pdr), ghee/oil (vegetable)
*fry onion in ghee x 10 mins, then add ginger/garlic, continue cooking x 3-5 mins
**add all other ingredients, boil and cover pan (x 45 mins-60 mins)
***remove from pan, blenderize and return to pan
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3. add 400mls diced tomatoes (can), 1 heaping tsp tomato paste, 1-1/2 tbsp spice mixture and then blenderize
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4. 1 green pepper diced, 1 tsp tomato puree, 1 tsp spice mixture, 3 tsp kashmiri pdr, 1 tsp fenugreek pdr, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp oil, 2 "3" inch cinnamon sticks, 6 bay leaves, 1/2 tsp cardamon pdr, 1 Jalapeno pepper diced, 100-200 mls whipping/heavy cream (35%mf), 1-2 tsp brown/white sugar, 1 tsp black mustard seeds, 4 cloves
*blenderize dry ingredients with wet
*cook chicken adding all ingredients including gravy
*once chicken cooked, remove cinnamon sticks/bay leaves
*add cream and salt/sugar as needed
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serve Vindaloo chicken and gravy in bowl, have prepared garlic/salt Naan bread Iwarmed) and enjou