RECIPE: INDIAN BUTTER CHICKEN

This is one of my favourite Indian dishes but I am not sure if it is authentic butter chicken. Since I have started blogging and checking out dishes that my Indian cyber friends have prepared, I have found that most of the recipes that I consider to be Indian, have had some Malay influence. As my friend SWEETBITES recently commented, it must be the fact that Malaysia is so cosmopolitan, that most of the food has also become cosmopolitan! So, I hope that I am not ‘insulting’ any of my Indian friends from the subcontinent by calling this dish INDIAN BUTTER CHICKEN. What I can say is (it is not my intention to brag here, or as they say in Malay, “masuk bakul angkat sendiri”) in my opinion, it tastes a heck site better than some good Indian restaurant that I have eaten in.


This is how I make my Indian Butter Chicken.


Ingredients

1kg chicken breast or boneless thigh fillets – cut into large cubes
125g roasted cashews
50g butter
1 tbsp ghee (optional) – if not using ghee, add an extra tbsp of butter
1 tbsp veg oil
2 medium onions – finely diced
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 to 2 cinnamon stick/s
1 Indian bay leaf* or normal bay leaf
2 tsp sweet paprika
425g can tomato puree*
125ml (1/2 cup)chicken stock – I mixed 1 tsp chicken stock powder with 125ml hot water
250ml (1 cup) thickened cream

Marinade – combine the following in a large bowl
125ml (1/2 cup) natural yoghurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp turmeric
2 to 3 tsp garam masala
2 tsp chilli powder (lessen to 1 tsp if you don’t want it hot)
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, crushed

Method

Add the marinade to the cubed chicken and mix well. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Reserve half the cashews and place the remaining cashews in a food processor. Process until finely ground.


Heat the butter, ghee and oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion, cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaf and cook for 2 minutes until the onion starts to soften. Reduce heat to low, add the chicken and marinade, paprika, tomato puree, ground cashew and stock. Simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in cream and cook for a further 10 minutes.


Garnish with cashews, chopped coriander and serve with rice.

Hints:

Begin this recipe the day before. The longer you marinade the chicken, the nicer the dish! If you can’t wait, make sure that you leave the marinade for at least 2 to 3 hours.

You can find Indian bay leaf at Indian grocers in Canberra.

Use only tomato puree. Do not substitute with tomato paste or tomato sauce/ketchup.