Mughlai Chicken

I got this recipe off of Food Network off from the show Nigella Feasts.
It's a pretty good recipe, I did tweak it, it wasn't spicy enough for me, nor does it have that beautiful color that I like.
It is made with chicken thighs which I prefer over white meat. They gave the dish a depth of flavor that was nice. The cardamom, cinnamon and cloves gave it a beautiful fragrance. The crunch of the almonds gave it a wonderful texture. It's an easy dish to make. Below I will post the recipe with the minor changes I made to it.

1 (1-inch) piece ginger, peeled (I used more)
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander (for the life of my I could not find my coriander seeds- because of this I put a tiny bit of Indian curry powder in the dish)
1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes (I have Thai dried ground chili that I used, even then I put 2 teaspoons)
4 tablespoons ground almonds
1/2 cup water
5 cardamom pods, bruised
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half (I used two sticks)
2 bay leaves
4 cloves
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 pounds boned chicken thighs, each cut into 2
2 onions, finely chopped
1 cup Greek yogurt (I only had regular yogurt)
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sultanas (golden raisins) (I don't put raisins in anything if i can help it)
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup flaked almonds, toasted, to garnish
(I garnished with parsley, because I was too lazy to get the cilantro out and because the dish looked so bland.)
OK so these onions were very roughly chopped, my eyes were watering since i had already cut two other onions for DH's Massaman curry.






Put the ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, and chili into a food processor. Process into a paste, add ground almonds and water process again. Set aside.






Heat oil in a large pan and sear chicken on each side. Just to seal. Remove and set aside.







In the same pan toss in the whole spices, do not let them burn.









Add onions and cook until soft.








Add reserved almond paste mixture. Stir fry until fragrant. On a gentle heat.








The recipe says until it turns a color, it does get a LITTLE deeper in color but not much.
Add yogurt half a cup at a time and stir to make a sauce, add broth cream and raisins if using.





Return chicken to the pan along with any juices in the bowl. Add the gram masala, sugar and salt.
Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, check to make sure chicken is cooked through.
Serve garnished with almonds.
I didn't have basmati rice so I had Jasmine with the girls.