Lovely warming dish.

Heat the oil and when hot, add the whole spices and sugar. When the sugar caramelizes, add the onions and fry until translucent. Puree or chop finely the ginger and garlic. Add these to the translucent onions and fry until the mixture starts going brown.

Add the turmeric and chili powder. Fry for five minutes until the pungent smell goes. Then add the thick yoghurt and fry for another five minutes.
It’s very important to use very thick set yoghurt because thin slippery yoghurt will split and give you a horrible curd like gravy. Thick yoghurt will split too but reconstitute while cooking and make no difference to the final taste and texture of the dish.

Now add the chicken and stir it well into the masala mixture. Brown the chicken and then lower the flame, add half a cup of water and simmer until the chicken is almost done. To finish, stir in the garam masala for the last five minutes of cooking and add salt to taste.