In a bowl, make the chicken rub by combining the first 7 ingredients. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces and combine.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. When sizzling, add chicken pieces in batches of two or three, making sure not to crowd the pan. Fry until browned for only 3 minutes on each side. Set aside and keep warm. (You will finish cooking the chicken in the sauce.)

Get out another pot for the vegetarians. Add some oil to each pot. Split the ingredients about 1/3 veg 2/3 meat from here on out. Fry the onions until soft (about 3 minutes) while scraping up any browned bits stuck on the bottom of the pan.

Add garlic and ginger and sauté for 1 minute until fragrant, then add garam masala, cumin, turmeric and coriander. (You may want to add more spices to the veg version since the meat version also had the spice rub.) Fry for about 20 seconds until fragrant, while stirring occasionally.

Pour in the tomato puree, chili powders and salt. For the vegetarian dish, add the chickpeas in now. Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until sauce thickens and becomes a deep brown red colour.

Stir the cream, yogurt, and sugar through the sauce (we have no lactose free dhers this semester, ignore this. remembering to separate out some meat and veg for lactose free DHers! For the lactose free version, add oat milk. It will be a little thin, so you may want to add some cornstarch as a thickener as well.) Add the chicken and its juices back into the meat pot and cook for an additional 8-10 minutes until chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thick and bubbling. Pour in the water to thin out the sauce, if needed.