although not my original intention, concentrating on ingredients and leaving quantities open to individual interpretation I've avoided the whole "how much/how big/how heavy" argument that usually esues 

as I mentioned before these were personal aide-memoires for me, I didn't set specifically out to document for others otherwise I would have been a bit more thorough with regard to specific measurements, sorry - I realise that I have a distinct advantage here by visually comparing what I make to what I have seen, but I hope my photos at least gave an idea of the quantities involved but more importantly, the ratio of ingredients when scaling-down

Don't worry I'm not going to start singing!

In the last 8 years I feel I've tried every combination of base recipe, youtube video and ebook in the quest for that elusive taste, I've done traditional indian cookery classes, wasted not-inconsiderable sums of money on books and ingredients and still I'm coming up short with the humble madras.  To this end, I'm back to studying things in a more scientific way through compare and contrast.  I know some members have taken this approach before of reverse-engineering, but I really think with a combined effort we could get a bit closer.

Bear with me on this one, but I'm rather partial to the Asda supermarket ready meal curries such as http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml?cmpid=soc-_-ghs-_-yourasda-_-chosenbyme-_-socialhub&utm_source=yourasda&utm_medium=sco&utm_term=socialhub&utm_content=chosenbyme&utm_campaign=ghs&#/product/910001051790this one.  I've tried them all, both the main players like Sharwoods and Pataks, curry pastes, cook-in sauces, ready meals and the Asda range seems to be the closest out of the lot to BIR (to my tastes anyway).  The ingredients list states:

Water , Cooked Marinated Beef (25%) [Beef (88%), Onions, Spices, Rapeseed Oil, Salt] , Onions , Onion Pur

i've already got supper planned for tonight but time permitting i'll do it tomorrow evening, that'll give me time to get rice flour or find something to substitute it for, fingers crossed cornflour would do the job cos i've got heaps of that!

double-frying like folk do with chips?  that could make the coating nice and crispy too, worth a try.  i haven't done this chicken recipe yet, my chicken portions are defrosting in the fridge as i type, but when i did the guardian recipe a while back i did as the video shows - unless dipping in milk has some special quality that makes the coating stick to the chicken better than water does? 

can you take a photo of the mystery sauce so we can see if it rings any bells?