Video guide to perfect butter chicken recipe


Video guide to perfect butter chicken recipe

Top chef gives you all the restaurant tips and tricks



Video Credit: Anas Thacharpadikkal/Gulf News

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

Guide to Butter chicken
Ingredients for marinade Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

2 ½ tsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp lime juice

A pinch turmeric powder

Salt to taste

Tandoori masala

Guide to butter chicken
Ingredients for tandoori masala Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

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

Guide to butter chicken
Ingredients for makhni gravy Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Guide to Butter chicken
Ingredients for makhni gravy (the gravy is pictured in the centre)

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.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 2 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

3. Mix well and let the chicken rest for 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 3 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

4. Meanwhile in a separate bowl mix the ingredients of the tandoori masala - the result should be a thick light-red paste.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 4 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

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.

Guide to Butter chicken
Step 5 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

6. Rest in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Butter chicken
Step 6 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

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.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 8b Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Guide to butter chicken
Step 8c Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

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.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 9a Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Guide to butter chicken
Step 9b Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

10. Make sure the chicken is cooked through and has a nice char on the surface. Set aside for later use.

Guide to butter chicken
Chicken cooked in the tandoor Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Guide to butter chicken
Step 10: chicken cooked in the oven Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

Makhani gravy

11. Wash the tomatoes and cut them into quarters. Peel the garlic, ginger and onion and roughly cut them.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 11 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

12. Boil water in a saucepan.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 12 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

13. Make a bouquet garni of whole spices in a piece of muslin cloth.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 13 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

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.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 14a Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Guide to butter chicken
Step 14b Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Guide to butter chicken
Step 14c Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Guide to butter chicken
Step 14d Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

15. Remove the bouquet garni of garam masala, then blend the mixture and strain. Keep the puree aside.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 15b Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Guide to butter chicken
Step 15c Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

16. In a separate pan, heat the remaining butter, add in the ginger garlic paste and cook for 1 minute.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 16a Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Guide to butter chicken
Step 16b Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

17. Add in the Kashmiri chili powder, garam masala powder and the puree from the above step.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 17a Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News
Guide to butter chicken
Step 17b Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

18. Add in the honey and salt and let the gravy cook on low heat.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 18 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

19. Cook till the oil separates and starts to float on the gravy. Set the gravy aside for finishing.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 19 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

Butter Chicken

20. Cut the tandoori chicken into bite-size pieces.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 20 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

21. Heat the makhani gravy in a pan and cook the chicken pieces in it until hot.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 21 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

22. Add in the butter, cream and kasoori methi. Add honey and adjust the seasoning with salt.

Butter chicken
Step 22 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

23. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with cream and a sprinkle of kasoori methi.

Guide to butter chicken
Step 23 Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

24. Serve deliciously hot with garlic naan or butter naan!

Guide to butter chicken
Hot butter chicken all ready to be scooped up with hot naan Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News

- This article was first published in April, 2021.

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