Butter Chicken

How much butter is actually in butter chicken??

I'd always just assumed that there was a lot, after all, there must be a reason why they name it butter chicken! I mean, butter cakes have a lot of butter in them. Butter cookies also use plenty of butter. And buttercream is made of butter!

Funnily enough, it didn't really occur to me until after I made this butter chicken, that there was no butter in this recipe at all! (this can be explained- it's actually replaced with cream!) I chose this recipe because there were only two spices I needed to buy, but only found out that I didn't have half the ingredients after I decided to make this. And I did make a huge mess in the kitchen. But it was all worth it because it tasted really delicious, with my sister accusing me of making her fat afterwards ;)

Butter Chicken
Recipe from Almost Bourdain

140 g (1/2 cup) Greek-style yoghurt
3 cm piece ginger, peeled, finely grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp garam masala
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra, to grease
1/4 cup roughly chopped coriander, plus extra leaves, to serve
800 g chicken thigh fillets, cut into 3 cm-wide strips
2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
2 onions , thinly sliced
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
2 long red chillies, seeded, finely chopped
260 g (1 cup) passata (sieved pureed tomatoes)
300 ml pouring cream
1 bunch mint, leaves picked, finely chopped
Basmati rice and pappadams, to serve

1.Combine yoghurt, ginger, garlic, 1 tbsp garam masala, lemon juice, oil and half the coriander in a large bowl, then season with salt and pepper. Add chicken and toss to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours.
2.Preheat a lightly greased barbecue or chargrill pan over medium-high heat. Remove chicken from marinade and cook, in 2 batches, turning for 6 minutes or until almost cooked through.
3.Heat ghee in a large saucepan over medium heat, add onions, turmeric, tomato paste, chillies and remaining garam masala, and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onions are soft. Add passata and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Reduce heat to low, add cream, mint and remaining coriander, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add chicken and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until sauce thickens. Scatter with extra coriander and serve with rice and pappadams.