Food Porn: Butter Chicken

[jenniferarrr]

I had a craving for curry, and decided to make Butter Chicken from scratch. Although we looooove curry, and have made several different kinds from scratch and with lots of pre-packaged kits, I've never tackled Butter Chicken, the Queen of all curry dishes in North America.

Firstly, this isn't a recipe you can just make on the spot. I started it at 5, and we only just finished eating at 8 pm. The two hours of marinating means you either need to plan ahead, or plan for a late dinner... or work from home. You might be able to skip the first marinating step though, as I describe below.

I've also been watching Master Chef (which is awesome btw). We don't get the food channel, so this is really the first Gordon Ramsay thing I've ever watched as I didn't really enjoy the few minutes of Hell's kitchen I've watched. It's definitely inspiring, and helping me to know some basic technique that I'm completely lacking.

I think there's a lot I could do with this recipe - it's certainly a good basis! I give it a solid 7/10 but with potential to be a 10. Incredibly savoury, rich and creamy all at the same time, just as butter chicken should be! I would try to kick it up a notch next time, as well as cooking the 'gravy' down a little more.

Ingredients

• 1 kg boneless chicken skin removed
  
• Juice of 1 lime
  
• Salt to taste
  
• 1 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to suit your taste) this was a very small amount in my opinion!
  
  
• 6 cloves
  
• 8-10 peppercorns
  
• 1" stick of cinnamon
  
• 2 bay leaves
  
• 8-10 almonds I left this out... I'd be interested to see what difference it would make
  
  
• Seeds from 3-4 pods of cardamom
  
  
• 1 cup fresh yoghurt (must not be sour)
  
• 2 tsps coriander powder
  
• 1 tsp cumin powder
  
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  
  
• 3 tbsps vegetable/canola/sunflower cooking oil
  
• 2 onions chopped
  
• 2 tsps garlic paste
  
• 1 tsp ginger paste
  
  
• 1 can (400g or 14 oz) of tomato paste
  
• 1/2 litre chicken stock
  
• 2 tbsps kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) couldn't find this in the grocery and wasn't sure if fenugreek itself would substitute...
  
  
• 3 tbsps unmelted, soft butter
  
• Salt to taste needs salt for suuureee!
  
  
• Coriander leaves to garnish again, I was without but it would have been a nice addition. I'm assuming they mean cilantro here.

Proof it's made from scratch!



The finished product - our new stove has a Fab overhead light for sexy food photography. The pakoras were gross - from the refrigerator section but the chutney the came with was a welcome addition!

Directions

1. Mix the chicken, lime juice, salt and red chilli powder in a large, non-metallic bowl. Cover and allow to marinate for 1 hour. I think you could skip this step by simply rubbing the chilli powder into the chicken
   
2. Heat a flat pan or griddle on medium heat and gently roast (stirring frequently) the cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, bay leaves and almonds till they darken slightly. Cool and add the cardamom seeds. Now grind into a coarse powder in a clean, dry coffee grinder. what a great spice mix! I would make a lot of this for future speed in the recipe. I burned them a bit, next time I'd be more patient and use a cooler pan. The clove burned especially fast. I ground it in our mortar and pestle because we so rarely use it...
   
3. Mix the yoghurt, above whole spice powder (from previous step), coriander, cumin and turmeric powders together and add them to the chicken. Allow to marinate for another hour. I think if you substituted the lime juice in here, it would be okay still... the flavour of lime was a bit overpowering in the final dish when it marinated for two hours. However, by combining the steps and marinating all day/overnight instead of a few hours I think it would be aammmmaaazing!
   
4. Heat the oil in a deep pan on medium heat. When hot, add the onions. Fry till a pale golden brown in color and then add the ginger and garlic pastes. Fry for a minute. I only used one onion and it still felt like tons, but in the final mix they were def a bit lost.
   
5. Add only the chicken from the chicken-spice mix and fry till sealed (chicken will turn opaque and the flesh will go from pink to whitish in color).
   
6. Now add the tomato paste, chicken stock, kasuri methi and remaining part of the yogurt-spice mix to the chicken. the tomato paste is totally the key ingredient here, adding colour and thickening the sauce overall
   
7. Cook till the chicken is tender and the gravy is reduced to half its original volume. I could have cooked it a bit longer and it would have been awesome!
   
8. Melt the butter in another small pan and then pour it over the chicken. this step seemed a bit extra, but I guess it did make a difference to the overall consistency, plus it couldn't really be 'butter' chicken without some butter!
   
9. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with Naan and Kaali Daal.
   

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