Butter Chicken

Butter Chicken

Murgh makhani, 45 min, serves 4

Ingredients

The marinade
chicken thighs   800g, boneless, in chunks
yoghurt          150g
garlic           6 cloves, crushed
ginger           thumb, grated
garam masala     2 tsp
ground turmeric  1 tsp
kashmiri chilli  2 tsp
lemon            1/2, juice
salt             1 tsp

The sauce
tinned tomatoes  2 tins, good ones
cashews          75g
butter           100g
ginger           thumb, grated
garlic           4 cloves
green cardamom   4 pods
kashmiri chilli  1 tsp
double cream     150ml
kasoori methi    1 tbsp
garam masala     1 tsp
honey            1 tsp

Kasoori methi is dried fenugreek leaves and there is no substitute. It is the thing that makes it taste like a restaurant rather than a creamy tomato sauce. Any Asian supermarket, about £1.50 for a bag that lasts a year.
The cashews are not optional either. They are what makes it silky. Cream alone gives you a thinner, sharper sauce.
No onion. The original Delhi makhani is tomato, butter, cream and cashew, and the cashews do the job onion would. Plenty of good modern recipes do add it, so it is a choice rather than a rule.

Recipe

1. Mix with the chicken and leave in the fridge 30 minutes, or overnight if you are organised:

[yoghurt 150g, garlic 6 cloves crushed, ginger thumb grated, garam masala 2 tsp, ground turmeric 1 tsp, kashmiri chilli 2 tsp, lemon 1/2 juiced, salt 1 tsp]

The yoghurt tenderises it. Skip this and the chicken is just chicken in sauce.

2. Spread the chicken on a foil lined tray and grill on high for 12 to 15 minutes, turning once, until charred at the edges.

The char is the whole dish. Butter chicken was invented in Delhi in the 1950s to use up leftover tandoori chicken, so the smokiness is the point, not a bonus.

3. Meanwhile melt the butter in the Dutch oven and fry for 4 minutes:

[butter 100g, green cardamom 4 pods, cashews 75g, garlic 4 cloves, ginger thumb grated]

4. Add the tomatoes and chilli, lid on, simmer 12 minutes:

[tinned tomatoes 2 tins, kashmiri chilli 1 tsp]

5. Blend until completely smooth, then push it through a sieve back into the pot.

The sieve is 2 minutes of annoyance for a sauce that is properly silky. This is the step restaurants do and home cooks skip.

6. Crush the kasoori methi between your palms and stir it in. Cook 2 minutes:

[kasoori methi 1 tbsp crushed, garam masala 1 tsp, honey 1 tsp]

Crushing wakes it up. Straight from the bag it just tastes bitter.

7. Stir a few spoons of hot sauce into the cream first, then pour the lot back in.

Cream straight into a hot pan splits. Warming it first stops that.

8. Chicken in, simmer 5 minutes, done.

It should be neither sweet nor hot. The honey is there to balance the tomatoes, not to sweeten it.
Not strictly one pot, since the chicken goes under the grill while the sauce cooks. You can brown it in the Dutch oven instead and it will be fine, just not as good.

❄ Freezer
Freeze: before the cream goes in, 3 months.
Reheat: from frozen on low, then add the cream at the end as in step 7.

Sources: Swasthi’s Recipes.