Butter Chicken Recipe

 Introduction:

Recently, while in India, I visited a restaurant with my family for dinner. I noticed a 3-4 year old child chattering excitedly on her father’s lap. In fact, she gave her own order to the waiter, and I am sure the waiter figured it out eventually. She kept saying “Butta Chicky,  “Butta Chicky”. She was also a fan of parathas, and I am sure the waiter figured that out too. 

When her order was served, piping hot butter chicken along with steaming parathas, she patiently waited until her father broke off the pieces so she  could dip them in the curry and savor them.

That got me thinking! How about preparing your own butter chicken at home? I tried them at home, and have been experimenting with the Butter Chicken recipe, and trying different variations and combinations of the Indian dishes recipes, perfecting them until I felt confident in posting them in Kalavara, the best cooking channel.

Origin and history of the dish

The Butter Chicken, also known as Murgh Makhani is a fairly newer dish when compared to the other recipes that I’ve discussed in previous blogs. This recipe is more than a hundred years old, and it became popular right around the time the British started consuming Indian food, but did not want the dishes to be too spicy for their palettes. Butter chicken was thus born in an undivided India, and secured a prominent role among Indian dishes recipes. However, I read in some articles that the Butter Chicken was popularized in the post partition period. The dish was born in Peshawar, and was later introduced to Delhi by two chef geniuses who wanted to open their own restaurant.

There is another interesting article that I found online that talks about Kundan Lal Gujral, a chef from Kolkata. He had another partner, Kundan Lal Jaggi, and the two of them opened a restaurant in Delhi. They prepared the most popular dish in their restaurant – tandoori chicken. On certain days they had left overs with the tandoori chicken, and this ended up dry. That was how they figured out how to try this preparation. The chef found himself short of butter when he was about to prepare the dish, and tweaked the dish by adding tomato puree to his chicken dish.

Butter Chicken was reinvented several times, and the major attraction of the dish is that it delivers a delectable tantalizing taste without burning your tongue, like many popular Indian flavors. The dish was hugely popular in North India, before it became widely accepted in the rest of the country, and later, globally.

The reason for the popularity was understandable – Chicken tandoori pieces simmering in creamy tomato gravy and butter just made it super aromatic and yummy. This concoction was thus well-liked and accepted, and eventually accepted everywhere as Butter Chicken or Murgh Makhani.

You can try your own spin on the dish with your choice of quantity for butter and tomato sauce.

Key Ingredients for This Recipe

These are the ingredients that I used to prepare the butter chicken recipe. You can use the same.

Boneless chicken – 450 grams

Salt – to taste

Ginger garlic paste – 1 ½ teaspoon

Kashmiri chili powder – 2 ½ teaspoon

Onion- 1

Tomato – 1

Flavourless oil

Butter – 1 tablespoon + more

Water – 1 cup

Sugar – ½ teaspoon

Vinegar – ½ teaspoon

Fresh cream – ½ cup

Kasuri Methi – ½ teaspoon

Step-by-Step Guide to Butter Chicken

So now that I have listed the ingredients, I would like to go ahead and read the step-by-step guide to how I make the dish. Here you go!

1. Take 450 grams of boneless chicken. Marinate the chicken first.
2. Now we can add the masalas to marinate the chicken. Add enough salt, one teaspoon of ginger garlic paste, 1 ½ teaspoon of kashmiri chili powder. Mix this well. Rest for at least 10 minutes.
3. Shallow fry the marinated chicken in a pan.You can use very little oil for frying the chicken. Flip the chicken and fry the other side. Transfer to a plate when the chicken is ready.
4. Heat another pan, and add one tablespoon of butter. Add one teaspoon of sunflower oil as well.
5. Add one medium sliced onion into the pan. To this add half teaspoon of ginger garlic paste, one medium size sliced tomato, salt, one teaspoon of Kashmiri chili powder and one cup of water.
6. Switch off the stove when the tomato and onion are cooked well.
7. Add ground cashew nuts.
8. When this cools, we can grind the gravy and sieve it. This will remove the portions that arent ground enough.
9. In the same pan, add the ground gravy.
10. Add more salt if needed.
11. Next, add half teaspoon of sugar, half teaspoon of vinegar to the dish. When the gravy boils, add more butter and half teaspoon of garam masala powder.
12. Next, add the fried chicken, followed by half a cup of fresh cream.
13. Finally, add half teaspoon of heated and crushed Kasuri Methi. Switch off the stove.

You can watch the making of Butter chicken in my YouTube channel, Kalavara, the most sought spot for Indian food recipes Malayalam.

Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Butter Chicken Experience

Once I got the basic recipe for the Butter Chicken recipe,  I tried various tips and perfected them to make the dish super tasty and yummy. My family likes their gravy thick, so sometimes, I add a bit of cornflour to thicken the gravy.

1. Marinate the chicken for a longer time

Unless you are in a super hurry, make sure to marinate the chicken for at least two hours and leave it in the refrigerator to have juicy and flavorful chicken. You can even marinate the chicken overnight.

2. Don’t skimp on the butter

Well, it’s butter chicken, so butter the highlight of the dish. It is the distinct taste of butter that adds to the taste, so make sure you have enough butter and fresh cream at home.

3. Using tomato puree or sauce

Use fresh tomatoes because that adds to the vibrancy and authenticity to the taste of the chicken, but be very careful not to burn it in the gravy. You can also use crushed tomatoes, and sometimes, tomato puree. The tomatoes have to be cooked well, and if you feel they are drying out, you can add a bit of water. And one more thing, avoid tangy tomatoes.

4. Cashew Nuts are a must

Cashew Nuts elevate the flavor profile, so soak them well in advance in order to grind them well.

5. Use water judiciously, not liberally

The gravy has to be rich and thick, not watery, so make sure to add only the amount of water that I specified. Adding more water would dilute the flavors and alter the taste of the dish.

6. Be careful with the spices

Butter chicken is a mild-flavored curry, so don’t add too many spices because that could alter the taste of the curry and defeat its purpose.

Sides and Accompaniments

Butter chicken is the perfect match to Ghee rice, Jeera rice, Turmeric rice, plain rice made with Basmati, Naan, Parathas, Chapatis and Roti. Make one of these options as dinner. Pair this with some green salad or pickle. And as dessert, you can prepare mango milkshake, falooda, or chocolate cake. I have explained the making of all these dessert goodies in Kalavara, the best cooking channel on YouTube.

Serving Suggestions for Butter Chicken

The flavor packed Butter Chicken is a must-try recipe for foodies. It is a comfort food, and a very simple dish that will be easy on the stomach. The creamy curry sauce adds to its scintillating flavor, making the chicken buttery, juicy and infinitely delightful. Butter chicken is perfect for lunch and dinner, especially when you have an event at home. Serve it hot, and serve it well!

Conclusion: Enjoying Butter Chicken’s Enchanting Charm

The perfect preparation of the Butter Chicken opens the doors to an unparalleled tasty delight. Bursting with flavors, yumminess and aroma, the butter chicken is pure delight in every bite.

This comforting, decadent dish can be cooked with chicken thighs or breast meat, either with bones or without. It is a luxurious dish, because the taste of the dish can vary depending on the kind of spices used. You can also substitute butter with milk and yogurt, but it will not give you that same buttery warmth. The texture and flavor is certainly special when you have butter and cream in the dish.

I am certainly thankful to the little girl at the restaurant who relished the entire bowl of Butter Chicken placed before her. Her happy face as she lip smacked the chicken was motivation enough for me to try out my own version of the dish and share it here at the best cooking channel. I am sure the dish dug up nostalgic memories of many restaurant-based family dinners. Now, you can try the same at home!

Extra notes

Here are a couple of different ways to prepare the dish. You can follow these options or follow the steps I have described above.

1. Using the tandoori oven

For those who have the oven, grilling the marinated chicken in a tandoori oven adds to the depth of its flavor.  For this post, I used the pan to roast the chicken. You can also grill the chicken in an open grill or even bake it with minimal oil/butter.

2. Grinding or blending to make the puree

If you have a really powerful blender, you can blend the tomato and the cashew nuts together. Otherwise they might not blend well, and you will have large chunks or tomatoes floating about with coarse pieces of cashew nuts. You can blend them separately too, if needed.