MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja - Butter Chicken

Butter Chicken

Butter Chicken- the most sought after chicken dish, again a famous dish of the Punjabi cuisine. It is my daughter’s favourite and I have arrived at a recipe of my own after a lot of trials, errors and experimentation, maybe not a very authentic one. In most of the hotels, you will get butter chicken with tandoori chicken pieces in it. I do not put tandoori chicken pieces but cook chicken in masala. So, here is my recipe for butter chicken, hope you all enjoy and relish it too. Earlier, I used food colour too, but, nowadays refrain from doing so.

Ingredients

Chicken (broiler) – 1 kg with bones

Onions – 4 medium sized

Tomatoes – 2 medium sized

Ginger Garlic Paste – 2 teaspoons

Cashewnuts – 20-25 nos

Milk Cream- 1 cup

Garam Masala Powder- 1 teaspoon

Red Chilly Powder – 1 teaspoon

Sugar – 1 teaspoon

Tomato Ketchup – 1 tablespoon

Bay Leaves (Tezpatta) – 2-3 nos

Big cardamoms- 2-3 nos

Kalonji (onion seeds or caraway seeds) – ½ teaspoon

Ghee/Oil – 3 tablespoons

Salt – As per taste

Charcoal (optiona) - One piece

Water – 2- 3 cups

Kasoori Methi(optional) – 1 teaspoon

Method

Wash chicken and set aside. Make a paste of onions and keep aside. Make a paste of tomatoes and cashews and keep aside. Heat oil in a pan and temper with bay leaves, big cardamoms and kalonji. Then add onion paste and fry till it becomes light brown, then add ginger garlic paste and fry for about 2 minutes. After this, add the tomato cashew paste and chicken and stir well for about 2-3 minutes. Add garam masala, red chilly powder, salt, sugar, tomato ketchup and stir well for 2- 3 minutes. Finally add milk cream and give a good stir. Add one cup of hot water, cover and cook on medium flame for about 12-15 minutes. Check occasionally and stir once in a while as cashew paste tends to burn at bottom. If required add more warm water.

If you wish to give tandoor taste to the butter chicken, then heat the charcoal piece on gas flame and once it turns red hot, place it in a small bowl. Pour a teaspoon of ghee over the hot charcoal and immediately place this bowl on top of the chicken in the pan and cover the pan. The chicken will get a smoky flavour. If you wish you may add kasoori methi to the prepared chicken if you like its flavour.

Butter chicken tastes good with any kind of roti, naan and bread.

Note - This quantity is sufficient for 5-6 persons. If you like less spice, use less quantity of chilly powder and garam masala. You can choose to make low calorie variant of butter chicken  by using skimmed milk(triple quantity of cream)  to replace cream. For vegetarians, you can substitute chicken by paneer to make Butter Paneer Masala.
For Garam Masala, please refer to http://mymusings-sangita.blogspot.in/2015_01_01_archive.html