Butter Chicken

Butter Chicken or Chicken Makhani is one of the most popular chicken dish originated in Delhi, India. This would be the favourite dish for many of us❤

When I searched about the origin of this dish, I found something interesting. The dish was developed in 1947 by the founders of Moti Mahal Restaurant, Delhi. They made it by using the leftover chicken in a creamy, buttery, mildly spiced tomato sauce.

The authentic style of making butter chicken requires the following steps- marination, grill or frying, cooking in a rich-creamy-buttery tomato sauce and adding fresh cream in the end to give some more richness to the gravy.

The recipe I have shared today follows the same steps as above. Though the recipe includes many steps, it’s worth trying because it ends up in a mouth-watering, restaurant-style dish!!

This butter chicken goes well with naan, chapati, jeera rice, basmati rice, paratha etc..,



INGREDIENTS

Marination:

  • Boneless chicken- 500 gms
  • Ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp
  • Red chilli/Kashmiri red chilli/paprika powder – 1 tsp
  • Jeera powder- 1 tsp
  • Fennel seeds powder- 1 tsp
  • Pepper powder- 1/4th tsp
  • Yogurt- 2 tbsp
  • Lemon juice- 1/2 lemon
  • Salt- as needed.

For Gravy:

  • Onion- 1 medium sized ( 1 cup, finely chopped)
  • Tomato- 3 big( finely chopped)
  • Red chilli/Kashmiri red chilli/ paprika powder- 1 tsp
  • Butter- 3 cubes
  • Ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp
  • Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
  • Cashews- 10
  • Kasuri Methi- 1 tsp
  • Fresh Cream- 2 tbsp
  • Salt- as needed.

PROCEDURE

Clean the chicken well and cut it into cubes as shown in the picture.

Marination:

Add 2 tbsp yogurt.
Add ginger garlic paste, all the spices from the marination list.
Squeeze the juice from half lemon.
Mix everything together and marinate for atleast 30 minutes.

Frying:

Heat 1 tbsp of oil and 1 cube of butter in a pan.
Fry all the pieces with gap inbetween them to golden brown on all the sides. Add oil and butter if required.
Once the chicken pieces are cooked to golden brown, drain it on the kitchen towel.

For Gravy:

Heat 1 tbsp oil and 1 cube of butter in the same pan in which we fried the chicken pieces.
Add the finely chopped onions and saute till it is translucent.
Add the ginger garlic paste. Saute till the raw smell of the ginger garlic goes away.
Add the finely chopped tomatoes. The key for making good butter chicken is to saute the tomatoes till they are very soft. The masalas should get mixed with tomatoes and oil should be separated on top.
Once the tomatoes are soft, add red chilli powder, garam masala, salt.
After 1 minute, add the cashews and mix everything together.
Tomatoes are cooked well and the oil is separated on top. Keep it out from flame and cool it down.
Move it to the mixer.
Grind it to fine smooth paste.
Heat 1 cube of butter in a pan.
Add the grinded smooth tomato paste.
The tomato paste will be very thick. Add enough water( I added 400 ml.) to the left paste in the mixer jar and pour it to the paste in a medium flame. Butter chicken gravy will be in little thick consistency.
Once you could see bubbles on top and the gravy gets cooked well, add the fried chicken cubes.
Mix it with the gravy.
Crush Kasuri methi in hands and sprinkle it on top of the gravy.
Pour 2 tbsp of fresh cream on top. Cook for 1 more minute in medium flame.
Ready.

TIPS

  • 1 tsp of sugar can be added if you would prefer.
  • Using kashmiri red chilli powder gives good colour.
  • Tomato paste should be grinded to fine smooth paste in mixer. If not, the paste should be sieved before using it for gravy.