Ingredients:
2 lb boneless, skinless chicken thigh*, 1 inch dice
2 cups onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapenos, minced
1 stick cinnamon
1 cup canned diced tomatoes, with juice
½ cup yogurt, whisked
3 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoon madras curry powder
¼ teaspoon asafoetida powder
¼ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:
In a large saucepan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds, and asafoetida powder. Cook until fragrant**, about 8 minutes. Add onions and garlic, sauté until golden, about 20 minutes. Then add turmeric, garam masala, madras curry powder and cook 1 minute. Add yogurt, 2 tablespoons at a time, mixing well after each addition. Continue to mix until most of the liquid evaporates. Add chicken and brown on each side. Add tomatoes, cayenne, cinnamon, and jalapenos. Cook until tender, about 45 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and serve hot, with white rice.

*We like using boneless, skinless thighs instead of breast meat because it tends to be more flavorful, but you could use boneless, skinless, chicken breasts if you’d prefer.

**The mustard seeds will most likely be popping at this point, don’t be alarmed!

We have a hard time finding consistently good Indian food here in Baltimore so more often than not, we make our own. My clever husband came up with this slight twist on chicken masala which uses a fair amount of black mustard seeds. Many chicken masala recipes call for yellow mustard seeds or none at all but we are especially fond of the black variety so we used them.