Butter Chicken

A long time ago, I used to work in a bistro that catered for big functions and one of the most requested chicken dish was butter chicken. I wasn’t really a big fan of butter chicken until I tried Chef Colin’s rich and creamy version, the secret of which was adding puréed carrots to the sauce. Since then, I have made Butter Chicken a lot of times and this has became a favourite at ours. And even when I make Butter Chicken with store bought marinade , I always, always add carrots to the sauce. Not only does it add richness vibrant colour and sweetness, it also sneaks in a little bit of veggies.

I specially wanted the chef who invented butter chicken. Butter chicken started as a way to use up leftover tandoori chicken. So essentially, tandoori chicken simmered in a rich flavourful and creamy sauce. Hats off to you!

What you need to make Butter Chicken

• Boneless Chicken Thighs – cut up into serving pieces
• Marinade – Greek yogurt, lemon juice ,grated ginger, minced garlic and cooking oil
• Spices – Chilli Powder or if you want a milder flavour use sweet paprika. I use the Korean Chilli powder called gochugaru, but any chilli powder you have is okay. You also need garamasala,cumin,turmeric and salt and pepper to taste.
• Butter Chicken Sauce – Butter or ghee,onion,stock cube,carrots, tomato purée, some toasted cashews and thickened cream or yogurt. Optional is this earthy dried herb called fenugreek. But don’t stress if you don’t have it, it will still be delicious.

How to Butter Chicken

• Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl, then mix in the chicken pieces to coat and set aside in the fridge for a few hours, preferably overnight.
• Shake off the excess marinade (reserve the marinade) from the chicken, and cook chicken in a hot pan in a single layer with a little bit of oil. You might have to do this in batches, depending on the size of the pan. Cook the chicken pieces until it changes colour with charred edges and flip to the other side and cook the same way. Alternatively, the chicken pieces can also be cooked in a very hot plate until golden. Set aside to a plate. At this stage you’re only searing the chicken-it does not have to be cooked through.
• To make the sauce, add butter to the pan on medium heat, in which the chicken was cooked in. Add the sliced onions and cook until transparent. Add the sliced carrots,tomato purée ,crumbled stock cube, the reserved marinade and half a cup of water to the pan. Simmer on low until the carrots are very tender and most of the liquid has cooked off. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for a bit. Add cashews and use a blender to purée the sauce until smooth.
  
• Return the sauce and chicken pieces to the pan, add cream fenugreek and simmer on low until the chicken is cooked through about 15 minutes. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if desired.

What to serve with Butter Chicken

• This goes really well with warm- butter slathered naan bread to sop out the rich sauce.
• A side of Cucumber Yoghurt
• Steamed Basmati Rice or Persian Herb Rice

Butter Chicken

Recipe by acmowlai

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: MainCuisine: GlobalDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

25

minutes

Ingredients

• Chicken Marinade

• 2 teaspoon chilli powder or gochugaru Korean red pepper or paprika (if you want it milder)

• 2 teaspoon garamasala

• 1 teaspoon cumin

• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder

• 1 small thumb sized ginger, peeled and finely grated

• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

• 1/4 cup Greek Yoghurt

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 2 tablespoons cooking oil

• 750 boneless chicken thighs, cut up into serving pieces

• Butter Chicken Sauce

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 1 onion, peeled and sliced

• 1 crumbled Stock cube

• 2 small carrots, sliced

• 1 cup tomato purée

• 1/4 cup toasted Cashews,optional

• 1 tablespoon dried fenugreek,optional

• 1 cup thick cream or 1/2 cup of yogurt

Directions

• Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Add the chicken pieces and mix to coat. Cover and set aside in the fridge for a few hours, preferably overnight.
• Shake off the excess marinade from the chicken and cook in a very hot pan with a little bit of oil in a single layer. You might have to do this in batches . Cook the chicken pieces until it changes colour. The chicken can be also be grilled in a very hot plate, until the edges turn golden. Set aside the chicken pieces into a plate.
• Add the butter to the pan in which the chicken was cooked. Then add the sliced onions and cook onions until transparent. Add the sliced carrots, tomato purée, cashews if using, stock cube, the liquid the chicken was marinated in and half a cup of water to the pan. Simmer on low until the carrots are very tender and about half of the liquid evaporated. Cool down a little bit, then use a blender to purée the carrots until smooth. Check the seasoning and add more salt if required.
• Return the sauce to the pan, add the chicken pieces, fenugreek and cream and simmer on low until Chicken is cooked about 15 minutes.

Notes

• Serve with rice, cucumber yoghurt and warm naan bread. Garnish with coriander.