Saturday, September 4, 2010

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.

19 Comments:

WendyinKK said...

I totally salute you.
There's so much ingredients in there and you did the dish!!!

Can you do some for me, hahaha.
I'm too lazy to gather all the ingredients.

Cooking Gallery said...

I think butter chicken is called so because it tastes creamy and buttery (at least that's my interpretation), love butter chicken for its buttery flavour ;)!

ching said...

butter + chicken = MY NEW FAVE MEAL! :D

ann low said...

I don't care whether there is butter in it or not. I want to eat it first ;DD

MaryMoh said...

Looks very delicious and interesting to know there's no butter in it. Worth gaining weight as it looks really good :D

Anonymous said...

This is one of my favourite Indian curry dishes. I am glad you enjoyed it! Your dish looks really good. Well done!

Gem4life said...

Nice job!

Honey @ honeyandsoy said...

Ooh yum. I'm quite picky with butter chicken- there are very few that I actually like. But this looks fab! :)

grace said...

your cream chicken looks delicious--all those spices and herbs must make for an extremely flavorful dish!

Faith said...

Your butter chicken looks amazing! This is actually my favorite meal in the whole world. This recipe is a bit different from mine and I would love to try it next time a craving for butter chicken hits me!

Iron Chef Shellie said...

hehe I used to wonder the same thing!
i Luuuurrrve butter chicken! thanks for sharing the recipe!

tiina { sparkling ink } said...

Looks like the perfect comfort food for a fall day! Love the atmosphere of your blog - so welcoming and warm!

Viv said...

hehe omg - i made this recently as well...and i was pleasantly surprised that there are no butter in this! we learn new things everyday eh?

Adriana said...

I've heard of butter chicken, but never actually tried it. Since I'm not into cooking much, I'm going to ask my mom about making this. It looks SO good!

SteelCityFlan said...

Meh. My family accuses me of making them fat all the time =]

As for your question on the chocolate cake, the recipe I posted is what I followed, and I didn't double it. I'm not sure why it fell flat for you, I'm so sorry. Maybe it was the fact you didn't have enough cocoa powder? I'm sure that would have altered the structure. When you have more cocoa powder lemme know how it goes! XD

Anonymous said...

Wow... what a great recipe. Thanks for sharing.

laurie said...

No butter in butter chicken? Thats funny! It looks wonderful!

Anita said...

That looks like a pretty perfect butter chicken. I have made butter chicken with a bit of butter - but not as much as you would think goes into it... :0

tigerfish said...

I like Indian food but I find Butter Chicken less common in Indian menu over here.

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