Butter chicken recipe
Butter chicken is an Indian dish that is ranked among the top most delicious dishes around the world. There is not a single place in the cuisine world where it is not known. India is so specialised in curry that in the whole world the word Curry signifies India, among all those curries the one that stands at the top that is globally recognized is butter chicken, which we are going to make today. Hello, I am Dr. Pill, Lets start.
chicken: 500 gm(curry pieces)
Green chilies:2-3
Ginger-garlic paste: 1/2tbsp for marination + 1 tbsp for cooking
Onion: 2 medium sized
Tomato: 5 cardboard (bulk-marketed) tomatoes or 2 regional (desi) tomatoes
Green cardamom: 4-5 (for garam masala)
cumin seeds: ¼ tsp(for garam masala)
coriander seeds: ½ tsp (for garam masala)
Black peppercorns: 6-7 no.(for garam masala)
Salt : As per taste(for garam masala)
Dry fenugreek leaves (Kasoori methi): 2-3 tbsp(for garam masala)
Coal: 1 small piece
Dry red chili powder: 1 tsp
Turmeric powder: a small pinch/(1/6)th tsp to be accurate
Coriander powder: ¼ tsp
Curd: 2 tbsp
Ghee: 2tbsp
Refined oil: 1 tbsp
Honey:1 tbsp
Cream: 1 ½ tbsp
A small sized charcoal
tsp: tea spoon
tbsp: table spoon
Do take note that this is not the traditional butter chicken where you add
cashew(kaju)nuts to make it thick and they jut bind your taste bud anyway, this is a homemade recipe
which is affordable daily-driver if you wish to use it as one. You can use ready-made tandoori chicken
or even chicken tikka.
For this recipe. First, we are going to marinate the chicken. For that we are going to
first add 2 middle spliced green chili, 1/2 table-spoon ginger garlic paste, Salt
according to taste, lemon juice 1 table-spoon, then mix these properly. Set aside this
1st marination for 20 to 30 minutes and it would have been a lot better if you could
leave the marination over-night as well only if you have sufficient time. By setting
these aside you will get really flavor full meat pieces as salt will absorb the water
and lemon juice will enter the chickens and the ginger garlic paste will tenderize the
meat.
Next we are going to finely chop the onion into very small pieces, then prepare
a puree of the tomatoes as butter chicken masala needs to be fine in order for it to
taste better, look better.
Dry toast the spice mixes for masala and salt for 5-10 minutes
a medium heat pan. Separately dry toast the fenugreek leaves (Kasoori methi) in the
pan at low flames, then finely grind them along with the pre-prepared masala mix.
Start charring the lump of coal in a low flame.
Now let us come back to our chicken,
squeeze out the water from the chicken meat and keep it in a second bowl for second
marination. For second marination we are going to take dry red chili powder,
turmeric powder, coriander powder and curd. The second marination is really important
for curry as the first marination was for chicken meat. Set aside the marination and
let’s start preparing for gravy of the butter chicken masala.
Now take your kadhai or
wok and set it on flame. In their add ghee, oil at a medium flame. The oil is added so
that the ghee does not burn, as ghee is high dense material and it sticks to the kadhai
if taken as a singular for cooking. Add the finely chopped onions in the heated
ghee/oil mix (at medium flame/heat). Cook the onions until transparent, do not cook
the onions until they turn golden. After the onion becomes tender and transparent,
add ginger garlic paste. Do keep in mind that you can not add ginger garlic paste at
the start as they catch color really quickly during cooking. Maintain medium flame
throughout the process, if other levels are required it will be highlighted near the
sentences. I am putting emphasis on color because the actual color of butter chicken
is not crimson, but brownish yellow if it becomes crimson then it will look like
chicken tikka masala and that is not what we are making right now, now is it. After
the ginger-garlic paste is cooked but not charred (crimson colored), add coriander
powder (1 heaped tbsp), add dry red chili powder 1 tbsp, curd 3 tbsp, tomato puree
1 ½ cups. Mix them properly and cook them at medium flames. After the raw smell
goes away add water 1 cup, curd 3tbsp, and mix them properly. Keep cooking the
mixture gradually at medium flames. Add some salt to it for taste (Check before
adding as we also have salt in our previously prepared garam masala). After the
gravy is cooked to its 50 percent (that’s when the raw smell of curd goes away),
we are going to let it sit at low flames or you can even set it aside if you have
a single flame.
Take a fry pan on another flame for roasting. Add refined oil
(2-3 tsp) in it and properly coat the cook pan. Now roast the chicken in the pan.
You can cook the chicken in air fryer or oven, that depends on you but doing it
on a pan is kind of a desi style, so let’s stick to it. Do not cook the chicken
to 100 percent as it will get cooked along with the gravy which is also at
50-60%.
How would you know when the chicken gets 50% cooked, well keeping the
flame at a medium the outer part of chicken gets brownish red and the sizzling
sound is not coming out of it anymore and the raw smell has gone away, well that’s from my
experience, you can use your own way of judgement.
Next add the roasted chickens to gravy.
Scrape the left-over masala from pan and add them to your gravy as it elevates the taste of
chicken gravy. Now cook it for 10-15 minutes at medium flame until the chicken gets done. After that
add the garam masala mix we previously prepared (2-3tsp). Mix them properly to get that deep
taste you all so much adore. If you crave for a sweet and tangy taste then add 1 tbsp of honey,
sugar or jaggery, but if you don’t like the slight sweet taste in curry then skip this step. Do not
add honey in the beginning or in the middle of the process as it has proteolytic property which
breaks the meat and softens them. After that add some cream (1 ½ tbsp) for finishing touches.
Now for the smokey taste part, take a small bowl and put the charred coal in it and add ghee
to it, then cover it completely so that the gravy can absorb the smokes arising from the coal.
This process will mostly take 45 to 50 minutes if marination step has been completed before.
Now serve and enjoy.
Photo by Raman on Unsplash