I have two favourites for meat - Butter Chicken and Tandoori Chops, .
Butter chicken - for 4 adults
I use three packets
of Asian Home Gourmet Butter Chicken Paste (the closest I have found to real Indian butter chicken)
1 tablespoon of Chopped Chillii paste (usually from a jar!) - add more if you want, or not even at all if a newbie!
1 tablespoon butter
700 gms chicken thighs
1 can chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup low fat cream (I use that cooking cream you can get now with the green lid)
I use a creuset style - heavy iron pan - I love this! - worth the dollars.
On a stove top heat the butter with a dash of olive oil and add the paste sachets and chilli paste and stir until fragrant. Cut the thighs into three pieces, add to the pan. When pieces are coated with the spices, add the can of tomatoes. When this is basically boiling, put on the lid and pop into an 180C oven and cook for around 60 minutes. When slightly cool, add the cream. Easy peasy!
I usually make this in the morning or even the day before because the flavour just gets better with age!
The tandoori chops - I mix up tandoori paste with yoghurt and coat the required number of loin chops and leave to marinate for a couple of hours. Then I put them on a rack into a baking dish and cook on 200c for around an hour. If having a decadent
meal, I then make a sauce with the pan drippings with cream and pour this over the chops.
The family grumble about vegies, so I usually cook them in some kind of spicy paste which seems to work - so this means using a Lamb korma curry style base into which the vegies (carrots, beans, even zucchini, broccoli or whatever) are simmered and coconut milk added.
I never use simmer sauces, you have to use the pastes to get the real flavour!
Once you get into the pastes, Indian meals are really easy to cook!