Oven Chicken (My new favourite)

Oven Chicken

Ingredients

For the sauce:
1. One on two tomatoes
2. 1 tablespoon fine Dijon Mustard. "Pardon me, Do you have any gray poupon?"
3. 1 tablespoon lemon juice
4. 1 teaspoon ground cumin
5. 1 teaspoon store brought garam masala
6. 0.5 teaspoons salt
7. 0.125 to 0.25 teaspoons chili powder
8. 250 ml (8 fluid ounces), 1 cup: yoghurt and single cream. Yeah, single cream is fattenning so mix with yoghurt. You might get hurt if you don't use enough yog.
More stuff for the non sauce portion:
1. Four (4) boned, skinned chicken breast halves. In case you don't know, this means NO bones and NO skin.
2. Salt
3. Freshly ground black pepper
4. Four tablespoons vegetable oil (we've also used olive oil - the extra virgin kind not the slutty stuff)
5. 5 cm (2in) cinnamon stick
6. 6 cardamon pods
7. 6 cloves
8. 5 oz (140 g), half an onion. Peeled and cut into fine half rings
9. 2.5 cm (1in) fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thin slices and then stripped. (Thin strips). No one wants fat strips.
10. 1 - 3 fresh hot green chillies, cut diagonally into fine strips
11. 0.5 teaspoon black mustard seeds
12. 1 clove of garlic. Peeled and finely chopped.

Preparation

Start the oven on its way to 350 fahrenheit or 180 celsius. Think of this as a timer, when the oven reaches its set temperature you had better be ready to put the saucy chicken in or suffer the consequences of wasted time and energy.

Put the tomato, 1 tablespoon water, and all the sauce ingredients in a blender and blend into a nice frothy liquid. Set aside and have a drink while you watch your wife, husband, partner, do the rest. Seriously, this was the hard part.

Spread out the chicken pieces. Salt and pepper them generously on both sides. Don't be stingy. Salt and pepper are cheep, cheep, cheap.

Put 3 tablespoons of olive oil in your non-stick frying pan (NASA accidentally invented teflon) and heat it on high. Because the end is nigh. Never mind the last part. I've just always wanted to say "the end is nigh." When the oil gets hot, put in the cinnamon, cardamon pods and cloves. Countdown from ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. "Houston, we can now place the chicken in a single layer in the pan." Brown them lightly - on both sides. Now remove them from the pan. I would suggest using barbecue tongs. Put them in aside on the counter. No, no, I was joking. Put them in the dish you are going to put into the oven. This is oven chicken after all.

Now, put the onions, green chillies, and ginger in the oil that still remains in the frying pan. See...., we recycle. Stir fry the onions till they are a light brown. Again remove them, perhaps with a slotted spatula and place them strategically over the chicken breasts so that not much shows.

Add the last tablespoon of oil (Remember, we had four and we have only used three so far) and let it get hot. Put in the mustard seeds. When they pop, in two or three seconds, put in the garlic. Stir. Well. When the garlic browns, stop drinking for a minute and pour in the sauce. When the sauce is hot and start bubbling, pour it around and over the chicken. Try not to displace the onions - they came first.

At this point, you should hear a ping. That's the oven telling you that it has reached 350F (180C). If you don't hear the ping, repent.

Place the chicken in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Uncovered. Serve hot.

Tastes really good with mushroomed rice.