Primal Indian Butter Chicken (Chicken Makhani)



I was reading an entry on MDA the other day about a young mom who was saying that no matter what she did, she couldn't lose the last ten pounds from her pregnancy.  She was eating well, she was working out, she was the complete opposite of sedentary.  And yet, the last little bit remained.
It sounded a bit too familiar.
I lost most of my baby weight in no time after my second was born, but I'm still holding onto the last 8 or 9 lbs.  They are stubborn.  They do not go away.
But Mark had a great point.  He said you cannot out-train, out-eat or out-think a lack of sleep.  I can work out, I can eat well and I can do everything right... but as long as my sleep is still interrupted and lacking in overall quantity, I won't reach optimum results.  We're not in a position to pay for house cleaners or healthy convenience foods, so I'm often up late into the night chopping food for the next day or cleaning the bathroom.  And I'm still breastfeeding, so I'm not willing to cut calories too drastically or train so hard that my body can't recover during my limited amounts of sleep.
So here's what I'm doing.
Nothing.
Yes, that's right.  Nothing.  Because my baby will only be a baby once, and because I'm still in good shape overall (about a size 6 or 8) and my size 2 pants will sit in the closet until I get there naturally.  And I know that once I wean my baby when he's not a baby anymore and once I start sleeping through the night again for 8 hours, the rest of the weight will melt off.  And yes, I'm a bit pudgy right now.  But that's okay.  And if you're a mom like me, or even if you're NOT a parent, but you're a medical student or resident pulling crazy hours and odd shifts, or working a really hard construction project right now, getting up early, or if you're in the middle of midterms and studying long hours.... all I have to say to you is this:
Give yourself a break.
Eat good food, exercise when you can, and don't stress out over those last few pounds.  Sleep when you can.  And enjoy your life.  And don't listen to those primal/paleo people out there who tell you that *if you only worked harder* or *if you only trained better* or *the best way to get in shape after pregnancy is to never get out of shape in the first place.*  (We all know they exist; we all know who they are.  Ignore them.)
End rant.
On to this dish!  I was so thrilled to stumble upon this recipe for Chicken Makhani, or Indian Butter Chicken.  It tastes, seriously, just as good as any Indian food I've ever had at a restaurant.   And it was super easy to tweak to make it primal.  (Can't be totally full paleo and remove the butter.  It is BUTTER chicken, after all.)
This is way company friendly.  And my two year old even ate it happily, though it packs a decent spice punch to it.
Serves 4-6.
The Tools:
2-3 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (mine were frozen solid)
1 onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, minced
4-6 T butter (depending on how much chicken you used)
15 cardamom pods (sewn together, in a cheesecloth, or in a tea bag...)
2 tsp curry
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (up to 1/2 tsp, depending on how spicy you like your food!)
2 tsp garam masala
little pinch  ground ginger
1 14.5 oz  can coconut milk
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
2 T lemon juice
The Process:
Plop your chicken in your crockpot.  Depending on the ratio of sauce to chicken you're looking for, use somewhere between two and three pounds.  I use closer to three pounds.
I'm prone to heartburn, so I saute my onions in butter before I put them in the crockpot.  If you're not prone to heartburn, feel free to skip this step.
While you're working on your onions, tackle those cardamom pods.  You want the flavor, but you want to keep them together so you can easily find them and then discard them after you're done slow cooking.  There are three ways that I could think of to do this:
1) sew them together with a needle and thread
2) put them in a bit of cheesecloth and tie off the top
3) I had these disposable tea bags in the house - just fill them up and they work great!
Set your prepared cardamom pods aside.
Add all other ingredients to the crockpot and using a rubber spatula, kind of push them around until they are sort of mixed together.  Doesn't have to be perfect.  Just sort of mixed up.
Carefully add your cardmom pods at the end and submerge them in some of the liquid, in between some chicken thighs.
Cook on LOW for 8 hours or HIGH for 4-5 hours, until chicken is thoroughly cooked.  Discard cardamom pods.  Using two forks, shred your chicken thighs and let the meat soak up a bit more of the liquid.
There's quite a bit of liquid with this (even more the less chicken you use) so serve in bowls, or serve over cauliflower rice.  (Or if you eat regular rice, go ahead and use that with this dish.  Don't worry.  I won't tell the Paleo Police.)
Enjoy!  We love this dish; it's one of our favorite paleo crockpot recipes!

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