Category: Chicken, Main Course, Meats
Cuisine: Indian, North Indian, Punjabi
Yields:
8 Servings
Difficulty: Medium
Prep Time: 4 Hr
Cook Time:
40 Mins
Total Time:
4 Hr 40 Mins
One of the most popular Indian dishes is the butter chicken. It finds a place in most Indian restaurants all over the world. Here is my version of this popular dish. I cook the onions, cashew nuts and tomatoes in water and then grind this into a fine puree. This method uses less butter but the texture of the gravy remains as good! This simple trick was given by a chef friend who worked at an Indian restaurant. Hope you enjoy this restaurant style butter chicken at home.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Mix in sour cream/yogurt with the tandoori masala, chilli pd., turmeric, cumin and ginger - garlic paste to the chicken pieces and marinate for at least 4 to 5 hours or even overnight.
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the chicken in an oven safe dish for about 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can fry the chicken in a little butter in a non stick skillet turning over occasionally until it is evenly cooked. Set this aside.
- In a large saucepan, bring 2 to 3 cups of water to a boil and add in roughly chopped onions. Cook onions until soft and translucent about 10 minutes. Add a little salt if necessary.
- After 10 minutes of cooking the onions, add cashew nuts, a few green cardamoms, 1 inch cinnamon stick and a pinch of nutmeg. Cook this for 5 minutes. Finally add in the roughly chopped tomatoes and cook until tomatoes turn mushy. Cool this mix for few minutes and then grind it all in a blender to a fine puree.
- Melt butter in a large non stick pan and add the onion and tomato puree. Cook this gently on low to medium flame for about 15 minutes stirring in between until the paste is browned and the raw smell of onion evaporates and until the butter starts leaving the sides.
- Add the cooked chicken pieces along with the fenugreek leaves and a tsp of ketchup/sugar.
- Finally, add in the cream and cook it on low flame for about 10 minutes until the spices and chicken are evenly blended and cooked thoroughly. Adjust seasonings at this stage and your butter chicken is ready to be served.