Tandoori Butter Chicken

This is one of those recipes that I've done quite a few times down the years, but never really adapted - partly because I don't know enough about Indian cookery to experiment too much, and partly because it's perfect as it is.  It's a direct lift from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery, published to accompany her 1982 BBC TV series and so almost as old as I am.

The first step is to make tandoori chicken.  Madhur Jaffrey does give a recipe for this, but I've had perfectly good results from shop-bought tandoori masala so I tend to use that.  I don't recall ever seeing it in supermarkets, but it's widely available in specialist Indian food shops, and if your little local shop is run by an Indian family they probably sell it too.  This came from Taj in Brighton.

Just mix a healthy amount - say three tablespoons - and a smaller amount of garam masala up with a pot of plain natural yoghurt to make a marinade.

Chop up some chicken (I favour thighs, but breasts are fine) and mix it all up in the marinade.  Cover and leave in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight, if you want).

The essence of tandoori - that is, cooked in a tandoor - is the fabulously high temperature of that traditional Indian clay oven.  You can't achieve that at home, but you can go some way towards emulating it.

Your know your oven better than I do.  Some take longer to heat up than others.  You want it as hot as it can be though, so some time before you want to eat turn it on and turn it up as high as it will go.  Mine is pretty good and takes about half an hour to get to an indicated 250C.

While that's doing, make the butter sauce.  It has to be the easiest Indian sauce ever:  simply put the following ingredients in a measuring jug or bowl and stir until mixed together.  Four tablespoonfuls of tomato puree, 250ml water, some ginger (I'm experimenting with the new Sainsbury's line of frozen herbs in ice-cube-like arrangement - the ginger works well, the garlic is overpoweringly strong), a small tub of cream, a teaspoonful of garam masala, a pinch each of salt and sugar, a chopped chilli pepper (or whatever heat is convenient for you to add), a smattering of fresh or dried coriander leaves, a wee bit of ground cumin and either the juice of half a lemon or four teaspoonfuls of Jif lemon juice.  Once they're all in, add - wait for it - one hundred grammes of butter.  I did tick the "indulgent" tag.

Is your oven really hot now?  Excellent.  Take a cast-iron pan or a sturdy baking tray and put it over a high heat on the hob until it's giving off a shimmer.

Turn off the heat, put the chicken pieces on it, and chuck it in the oven.  It'll be cooked through with that nice slightly burnt edge that you get on restaurant tandoori chicken in the 12 minutes that it takes you to cook some rice.

Keep a really close eye on it.  By the time you smell burning, it's too late - there's about 30 seconds between "perfect" and "buggered."  Remember what Gordon Ramsay says - if it's brown it's cooked, if it's black it's fooked.

Once the chicken's in, pour the sauce into a deep frying pan and set it over a low heat.  Stir it every few minutes and it'll melange together.

When the chicken's cooked, add it to the sauce and give the whole lot a few minutes to get to know each other.

In an ideal world I'd serve this with a vegetable curry or a saag aloo but it's a weekday and I can't be bothered so here it is, served simply over pilau rice.