| Butter Chicken Recipe

Butter Chicken Recipe

Butter Chicken is probably the most popular East Indian dish in the entire world. It is also a wonderful introduction to the flavours and spices of Punjabi cuisine. It has become so popular that it ends up even on the menus of some diners as a lunch favourite. 

 

Most people, who try Butter Chicken and are taken positively with the dish, have sampled it in a restaurant first. Others may have eaten a form of it in frozen dinner fashion. Once people realize it is an easy dish to make at home, they can search out a Butter Chicken Recipe that matches the tastes and flavours they enjoyed. It is highly recommended that you use boneless skinless Chicken breast as your meat. Buying Chicken in this form will make the dish easier to prepare but also guarantees the best cuts from the Chicken are used.

 

Many Recipes you may come across will call for you to use a Butter Chicken sauce that you can buy at the supermarket. There is nothing wrong with buying this sauce as it can save you a few steps that you will see in the Recipe. Butter Chicken has become so popular that a few manufacturers of sauces pounced on the idea of making a sauce widely available.

 

If you elect to use a Butter Chicken Recipe from scratch, your sauce base will likely be a rich dairy product in combination with fresh Butter. You can use fresh cream, but consider a plain yogurt since it is thicker to work with and highly absorbent of the spices which will follow. The right combination of spices will act as the booster for the already rich intensity that a Butter Chicken sauce should have.  

 

Basic Butter Chicken

·         Boneless chicken – 1 kg,  skin removed

·         Lime juice – of 1 lemon

·         Salt to taste

·         Red chili powder – 1 teaspoon or more adjusted to suit your taste

·         Cloves – 6

·         Peppercorns – 8 to 10

·         Cinnamon – 1 inch stick

·         Bay leaves – 2

·         Almonds – 8 to 10

·         Seeds from 3-4 pods of cardamom

·         Fresh yoghurt – 1 cup ,must not be sour

·         Vegetable/canola/sunflower cooking oil – 3 tablespoons

·         Onions – 2, chopped

·         Garlic paste – 2 teaspoons

·         Ginger paste – 1 teaspoon

·         Coriander powder – 2 teaspoons

·         Cuminutes powder – 1 teaspoon

·         Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon

·         Tomato sauce – 1 can , about 400g or 14 oz

·         Chicken stock – ½ liters

·         Kasuri methi – 2 tablespoons  that is, dried fenugreek leaves

·         Soft butter – 3 tablespoons, un melted

·         Salt to taste

·         Coriander leaves to garnish

The beginning of the preparation of this famous Indian dish is to first select a large , non- metallic bowl and add to it the lime juice, salt , chicken and red chili powder together  and mix them. The bowl should then be covered and allowed to marinate for 1 hour.

Next, take a griddle or a flat pan and heat it on medium heat and roast on it  the cloves , peppercorns , cinnamon, bay leaves and almonds , stirring frequently and gently till they become darkened slightly. Let them cool for some time. Next, add some cardamom seeds to the spices and grind them all in a clean, dry coffee grinder.

Next, select another small bowl, and mix yoghurt in it along with the whole spice powder prepared in the step above. Also add coriander, cuminutes and turmeric powder together and combine them all together with the chicken. Allow to marinate for another hour.

Now, select a deep pan and heat oil in it over a medium heat. When it becomes hot, add onions to it. Fry the onions in the oil until they becomes pale, golden brown in color and then add the ginger and garlic pastes to it. Fry them for at least 1 minutes.

then, add only the chicken from the chicken- spice mix and fry till it becomes sealed , that means – the chicken will turn opaque and it’s flesh will go from pink to white color.

Next, add the tomato paste, chicken stock, kasuri methi and the remaining part of the yoghurt – spice mix to the chicken.

Make sure to cook the chicken until it becomes tender and the gravy is reduced to about its  half of the original amount.

Then, select a small pan and melt butter in it, which should then be poured over the chicken.

Add some coriander leaves for garnishing and serve the butter chicken with naan and kaali dal. Enjoy the scrumptious meal.