I took an Indian Food cooking class with Chaya Rao a couple of years back and have had so much more confidence in this realm since then. Chana Masala has become a staple around here. I’m not sure how authentic my version is, but I think it’s getting closer and closer every time I make it. Finally adding the amchoor powder made a huge difference and if I can learn to balance the heat as well as I can in my Mexican food…. it will be spectacular.
I use the ingredient list from smitten kitchen’s recipe as a template along with some tweaks that account for what I learned from Chaya about heat and the timing of spices. The most important thing I took away from that class was to not add garam masala along with your other spices that need to be toasted. Garam masala is already toasted and should be added after tomatoes or other stew-like elements have been added.
Once you get the hang of the ratio of spices, this gets to be pretty easy to knock out. I made dinner tonight (including rice on the stove) in under 45 minutes.
aneelee 
Interesting about the garam masala. I use Madhur Jaffrey’s recipies, and she always adds it at the end. Now I know why!