How to Cook Butter Chicken
Serves: 5-6
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Ingredients needed to make Butter Chicken:
- 1 kg boneless chicken breasts, skinned
- 14 oz chopped tomatoes, pureed
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 cup fresh yogurt
- Juice of a lime
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 2 tsp garlic paste
- 2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 8-10 almonds
- 1’’ cinnamon stick
- 8-10 peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 cloves
- 3-4 cardamom pods
- ½ l chicken stock
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp butter, melted
- Salt to taste
- Chopped cilantro leaves, chopped
Cooking instructions for Butter Chicken:
- Place the chicken in large, non-reactive bowl.
- Add a splash of lime juice to the chicken and sprinkle red chili powder as well as a dash of salt ot it.
- Toss them all together to coat well with the marinade and set aside for an hour, covered, to marinate.
- Place a griddle on moderate heat and wait until it turns hot.
- Throw in the peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves as well as the almonds to the hot griddle and fry them until they brown slightly, while stirring at times.
- Turn off the heat and set aside to cool.
- Tip them into the blender, along with the seeds of the cardamom and pulse them into coarse powder.
- Place the yogurt into the bowl and sprinkle the spice powder into it, followed by the cumin, coriander as well as the turmeric powder.
- Whisk them all together until well mixed and pour it over the marinated chicken.
- Stir them all together and marinate further for one more hour.
- Heat a lashing of oil in a deep pan over moderate flame and throw in the onions.
- Saute them for about 3-4 minutes, stirring often, until they caramelize slightly and stir in the ginger plus garlic paste.
- Continue to stir fry for a minute and drain the marinated chicken into it.
- Brown the chicken, stirring regularly, until their flesh loses its pinkish tinge to become poaque and white in colour.
- Stir in the tomato paste as well as dried fenugreek leaves and add a splash of chicken stock into it.
- Stir them all together, along with the marinade and cook the mixture until the chicken is cooked through and the gravy thickens to half its previous volume.
- drizzle melted butter over the chicken and turn off the heat.
- Pour it into a serving bowl and top it up with chopped cilantro.
- Serve alongside naan.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
