How to Cook Chicken Makhani
Serves: 5
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Ingredients needed to make Chicken Makhani:
- 1 kg boneless chicken, skinned
- 8-10 almonds
- 2 onions, chopped
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 2 tsp garlic paste
- 14 oz chopped tomatoes, pureed
- 2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
- 1 cup fresh plain yogurt
- Juice of a lime
- ½ litre chicken stock
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp butter, softened
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1’’ cinnamon stick
- 6 cloves
- 3-4 green cardamom pods, seeds scraped out
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 8-10 peppercorns
- Salt to taste
- Chopped fresh cilantro leaves, for garnishing
Cooking instructions for Chicken Makhani:
- Add a splash of lemon juice to the chicken pieces, along with a dash of salt and red chilli powder.
- Toss them well together to coat the chicken well with the marinade, cover and set aside for an hour to marinate.
- Heat a griddle over moderate flame and throw in the cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves as well as the almonds.
- Toast them for a several minutes, while stirring frequently, until they brown slightly and remove from heat.
- Stir in the scraped out cardamom seeds and transfer the mixture to a spice grinder.
- Pulse them into a coarse powder and sprinkle them into a bowl of yogurt.
- Add rest of the powdered spices and whisk them together to mix well.
- Dip the marinated chicken into the spiced yogurt, give it a nice stir and set aside for another hour to marinate further.
- Drizzle oil in a deep bottomed saucepan to heat over moderate flame and throw in the onions.
- Stir fry them until they caramelize and stir in the garlic as well as ginger pastes; continue to sauté for a minute.
- Drain the chicken from the marinade and add them to the sautéed mixture.
- Fry them until the flesh of the chicken is no longer pink and pour in the pureed tomatoes.
- Add the chicken stock into it and stir them all together along with dried fenugreek leaves.
- Pour in the spiced yogurt marinade into the above mixture, give it a good stir and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the curry reduces to half of its previous volume.
- Transfer the chicken curry into a large serving bowl.
- Add a knob of butter in a separate, small saucepan and heat until it melts.
- Drizzle the melted butter all over the chicken and top it up with chopped cilantro leaves.
- Serve hot with parathas (fried Indian flatbreads)
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
