EASY BUTTER CHICKEN

Butter chicken is one classic Indian dish loved by Indians and non Indians as well. We never fail to order this whenever we gorge on North Indian cuisine. Recently my Mother in law got a butter chicken recipe from a professional chef. She tried it at home and we all enjoyed it to the fullest. But that recipe calls for lots of ingredients and the entire process took one half day!!!So I never ever wanted to give it a try by myself. Though I love cooking, I don’t like to spend much time in kitchen. Then I happened to see this recipe here . Immediately i tried it with slight modifications.  I did  not use cream, instead I used milk. However it turned out as delicious as the one we get in Punjabi  dhabbas or restaurants .The actual recipe calls for the use of home made tandoori masala..The deliciousness of this curry greatly depend on that masala.I strongly recommend you to make it rather buying from stores.

While reading the methods you may wonder is this the easy butter chicken??Trust me only description seems elaborate, but the work involved is very less!!!

Ingredients For the tandoori masala

1.      Garam masala- 2tbsp

2.      Cumin powder-2tbsp

3.      Coriander powder-1tbsp

4.      Kashmiri chilly ppowder-4 and ½ tsp

5.      Kasuri methi-2tsp

6.      Turmeric powder-1tsp

just mix everything up by using mixie or even with a spoon.

Ingredients for the marinade

1.      Ginger,garlic- finely chopped,1tbsp each

2.      Curd-1cup

3.      Tandoori masala-1tbsp

4.      Tomato paste-1/4 cup

5.      Salt

6.      Ghee or butter-2tbsp,melted

Chicken-cleaned and cut into medium sized pieces,around750gm

Mix everything and marinate the chicken pieces well. Keep the marinated chicken in fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. Arrange the chicken pieces along with the marinade in a baking tray and bake in a preheated oven 200◦C for 30 minutes.

 Ingredients For the gravy

1.      Ginger ,garlic-chiopped,2tbsp each

2.      Tomatoe-4 medium sized,chopped

3.      Tandoori masala-remaining masala after the marinating process

4.      Kashmiri chilly powder-1/2tsp

5.      Salt

6.      Milk-1cup( see notes)

7.      Kasuri methi-1tbsp

8.      Coriander leaves-1tbsp,chopped

9.      Water- 1/2cup

10.  Butter-2tbsp+2tbsp

11.  Sugar-1/2 tsp

Method of preparation

1.      Heat butter in a pan. Saute ginger and garlic for a minute or until the raw smell disappears. Add in chilly powder and tandoori masala powder. Stir .Add chopped tomatoes and salt. Cook until it turns mushy. Let this cool down. Grind this into smooth paste by adding little water. Pour it back into the pan along with ½ cup of water. Bring it to boil.

2.      Add baked chicken along with the juice into the gravy. Close the pan and cook in medium or law flame for about 10 minutes. Check for saltiness. Add milk ,kasuri methi,chopped green chilly.mix well. Do not let it boil. Just heat it up. Lastly add chopped coriander leaves,sugar and remaining butter.Give a gentle stir. Switch off the flame. Keep it closed for some time.

Enjoy with any  flat  breads…

Notes: the actual recipe uses cream instead of milk. Since I did not have it on hand I substituted it with milk. If you use cream reduce the amount by ½ cup. If the gravy is too thick, more milk can be added.