Hey everyone,

I has been over a year since DeShawn passed. I've wanted to get back into cooking with my ovens. A couple of weeks ago, I took my team to Olympic Park in Lehi, where DeShawn used to like to do team activities. It was a wonderful time. I had wondered if it was going to be hard to do it - that I'd just be missing him too much. Turns out it was a wonderful tribute, a time for me to do what the two of us used to do, to remember the good times, and to celebrate what we had.

So I did something that I have wanted to do since working with some friends from India - Butter Chicken. I started looking for recipes, and the ones I found took a lot of prep and not a lot of cooking. That is to say you marinated the chicken for 3+ hours, and then cooking was 20-30 minutes. This gets the complexity of flavor and meat tenderness from the long soak in the marinade, and then the hot and fast cook.

However this didn't seem that it was going to work for the dutch oven cooking style. So I actually looked up a recipe for crock-pot butter chicken, and then did an adaptation. The results were quite amazing! I have an employee from Nepal, and she really seemed to think it was good, and frankly I'd trust her over me.

I'm going to post the recipe here. I didn't think ahead to take any pictures, so basically you'll just have to take my word for it. But here we go...

Ingredients
Chicken

• 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 8 tbsp butter, cut in slices

Sauce

• 2 tbsp oil (coconut in the recipe, I used what I had on hand - Vegetable oil)
• 1 can Coconut milk
• 1 6 oz can tomato paste
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp sugar (I used swerve brown sugar, it worked)
• 1 1/2 tsp ginger, minced (I used the squeeze version)

Spices

• 2 tbsp Garam Masala
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp paprika (not smoked...)
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (more if you like it spicy)

To Finish

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Preparation

For ease of cooking out of doors, the night before I chopped everything including the chicken, and mixed all of the spices together into a ziploc bag. Then the next day, I set everything out and got down to cooking.

With a full spread of coals under a 12 inch dutch oven, heat the oil until hot. Add the chopped chicken and brown. Don't worry if it is cooked through - this is going to simmer for a few hours, so it will be cooked through.

As the chicken is browning, combine the coconut milk, tomato paste, lime juice, garlic, sugar, and ginger. Whisk until combined. Dump the spice mixture into the sauce, and mix thoroughly. (Don't forget to be checking your chicken. We want it browned evenly on all sides.)

When the sauce is done and the chicken is browned, reduce the coals to 10 on the bottom. Place the butter strategically all over the chicken, spacing it evenly. Pour the sauce over the chicken and put the lid on, putting on 14 coals.

After about 20 minutes, stir everything together. Simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring every so often. Don't let it boil hard - this should be at a slow simmer.

Just before serving, pour the heavy cream into the pot and mix thoroughly.

Serve over rice.

*****

I'm telling you - this was incredible. There were only 7 of us at the park for the meal, and there was a 14" dutch oven lasagna as well that day, and this was nearly gone. I did eat the leftovers, and they were (if it is even possible) better the next day.