Butter Chicken

M was back from his week long abroad travel and craved Indian food, especially the curries. There is hardly any culture of curries outside India so that tends to be the dish you miss the most. That, however, was just driver of timing for making this dish. 

It was in N's mind for a really long time. You are hardly an expert Indian cuisine cook if you can't make a good Butter Chicken. It is the omnipresent dish in menus and probably one of the most hot selling Indian chicken curries. And, it is so for a reason: the depth and sweetness of the tomato gravy goes so well with the well-cooked chicken cubes. However, there are many ways to make it and many recipes around. After a lot of research - including tracing back the Moti Mahal recipes to the new generation recipes - N, finally decided on her own adaptation which would create the version she wanted to achieve. Not only N cooked this magical dish but made it to perfection, certainly made M lick his fingers !!

Try this for the perfect homemade butter chicken. Slurrp!



Ingredients (Serves 2-3)

300 gms boneless chicken thighs

For Marination
2 tbsp curd
4-5 cloves of garlic minced
2 inch piece of ginger grated
1/2 tsp deg red pepper
1 tsp oil
salt

For Gravy
3 tbsp white butter (oh yeah!)
6-8 plum red tomatoes - boiled, peeled and pureed (very important to pick the right tomatoes, don't cheap out here)
5 cashews
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp fenugreek leaves
2 Green chillies
4-5 cloves of garlic minced
2 inch piece of ginger grated
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp sugar
salt

Dry masala
6 green cardamom
1 black cardamom
4 cloves
1/2 tsp cumin
1 piece of cinnamon
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds


Method:

1. Marinate chicken for atleast 2 hours or preferably over night

2. In a pan, dry roast masala ingredients for 1-2 mins and then roughly grind it.

3. Now, in a pan, heat white butter and add dry masala and let it cook for 2 mins.

4. Add ginger, garlic and green chilli to it.

5. Add tomato puree to it. Let tomatoes caramelize. It may take up to 45-50 mins to reduce it into thick paste

6. Meanwhile, we are preparing gravy, cook chicken in oven over grill. Cook till it is 3/4th done (say for about 7 mins on high)

7. Grind cashews with water and add paste to gravy. Also add milk to it.

8. Let it cook for another 3-4 mins.

9. Now, once it cools down a bit, sieve the gravy to avoid lumps. You may use water to get maxium out of it.

10. Add garam masala, salt and sugar to gravy and let it cook till it begins to boil. At this point add chicken and in another 5-6 mins, gravy will reduce to get desired consistency and also chicken will be cooked to perfection.

Serve with crisp tandoori roti or garlic naan and yes...dont forget to top it with white butter while plating




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This blog is from the kitchen of Neha Gupta and Mridul Karkara. We go about our days pretending to be HR Managers and Business Consultants respectively, though in reality, just thinking about our next big meal! This food blog is a representation of our experiments in the kitchen and for the simple joy of cooking and sharing!

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