day 27, recipe 27: Slow Cooker Butter Chicken

If I've ever needed a reason to love my slow cooker- it's today. Not only do I have a brand spankin' new one (thanks ma!!) but I decided to do NINE loads of laundry today. One of the little luxuries of living in an apartment is having use of more then one washer at a time. Sadly, we're only privy to three washers so it still took me about 6 hours, sigh.

ANYWAYS, I'm fairly certain that if I didn't have a slow cooker, we would have eaten kraft dinner & hot dogs for dinner...seriously. If you take anything away from my blog at all urbanites, it should be this; slow cookers are a god send.

1lb                 chicken thighs, skin on
1 can              diced tomatoes
1 can              tomato paste
2 T                 ginger
1 T                 curry powder
1 T                 chili powder
1/4 C              butter
1                    medium onion, halved & thinly sliced
1 t                  cinnamon

2 t                  garam masala
4                    cloves garlic, smashed
1/4 C              water
1 C                 plain yogurt
1/2 C              half & half cream
                      salt & pepper to taste
                      green onion, sliced (for garnish)

Turn your slow cooker on to high heat. Add the butter and cover for 15-20 minutes until it has melted. Add onions, garlic and spices.
Lay chicken on top of butter mixture. Pour tomato paste over chicken, then diced tomatoes & then water. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours (high 4-6). About 30 minutes before serving, add yogurt and half&half, stir well. Cover and cook on low for remaining 30 minutes. Serve over rice, spooning lots of sauce overtop! I also bought naan bread to make it a little more authentic!
As an after note, I probably would have not added the 1/4 C of water. The liquid in the diced tomatoes proved to be enough and I found that the "gravy" was a little on the runny side. You can always thicken up with flour or corn starch if you find this, but I'd air on the side of caution and just omit it, rather then ruin the buttery flavour!