Butter chicken might call for simple ingredients, but the deliciously flavoured sauce is also quite complex, with a tomato base that makes for a dish that's both tangy and sweet when cooked right. A good butter chicken has three components: the right gravy, the right chicken, and importantly the mixing of both of those, and how it is finished. All three combine to give you this dish that's gone from Delhi in the 1950s to all over the world, imbibing different influences and amazing flavours on it way.
Ingredients
Tandoori Chicken
400gm boneless chicken leg
Marinade
2 ½ tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp lime juice
A pinch turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Tandoori masala
150gm hung yoghurt
20g Kashmiri chilli powder
2 ½ tsp garam masala powder
2 tsp mustard oil
A pinch roasted cumin powder
Salt to taste
Makhani gravy
500gm ripe tomatoes
5gm ginger
5gm garlic
100gm red onion
100gm cashewnuts
50gm butter
20gm whole garam masala (cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf)
10gm Kashmiri chili powder
10gm garam masala powder
2 ½ tsp ginger garlic paste
2 tsp honey
Salt, to taste
Butter Chicken
400gm tandoori chicken
400ml makhani gravy
40ml cream
80gm butter
1 tsp fenugreek powder (kasoori methi)
Makes two portions
Method
Tandoori chicken
1. Wash and rinse the boneless chicken leg and pat it dry using a paper towel. Cut into pieces of 40 to 50 grams each.
2. To a mixing bowl, add the chicken pieces along with the ingredients of the marinade.
3. Mix well and let the chicken rest for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
4. Meanwhile in a separate bowl mix the ingredients of the tandoori masala - the result should be a thick light-red paste.
5. After the chicken has marinated for 2 hours, mix in the tandoori masala to get an even coat of the masala on the chicken pieces.
6. Rest in the refrigerator for half an hour.
7. Meanwhile preheat your tandoor/oven to 180°- 250° C.
8. Thread the chicken pieces on a skewer, place in the tandoor and roast for 12 minutes, turning the chicken halfway through the cooking time.
9. To roast chicken in the oven, arrange the pieces on a grill rack and roast for 12 minutes, turning the chicken halfway through the cooking time.
10. Make sure the chicken is cooked through and has a nice char on the surface. Set aside for later use.
Makhani gravy
11. Wash the tomatoes and cut them into quarters. Peel the garlic, ginger and onion and roughly cut them.
12. Boil water in a saucepan.
13. Make a bouquet garni of whole spices in a piece of muslin cloth.
14. Add the pouch to the water, followed by tomatoes, onion, ginger, garlic and cashew nuts with some butter and cook well till tomatoes are thoroughly mashed.
15. Remove the bouquet garni of garam masala, then blend the mixture and strain. Keep the puree aside.
16. In a separate pan, heat the remaining butter, add in the ginger garlic paste and cook for 1 minute.
17. Add in the Kashmiri chili powder, garam masala powder and the puree from the above step.
18. Add in the honey and salt and let the gravy cook on low heat.
19. Cook till the oil separates and starts to float on the gravy. Set the gravy aside for finishing.
Butter Chicken
20. Cut the tandoori chicken into bite-size pieces.
21. Heat the makhani gravy in a pan and cook the chicken pieces in it until hot.
22. Add in the butter, cream and kasoori methi. Add honey and adjust the seasoning with salt.
23. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with cream and a sprinkle of kasoori methi.
24. Serve deliciously hot with garlic naan or butter naan!
- This article was first published in April, 2021.
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