Butter Chicken

[rxrfrx]

Butter Chicken

Serves 6 as Main Dish.

There are a bunch of good recipes floating around for butter chicken (proto-tikka-masala). A lot of these utilize a marination step, which I find unnecessary. This preparation is optimized for an efficient generation of flavor.

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Browned Items

• 4 T butter
  
• 2 medium onions, sliced thinly
  
• 4 inches ginger, peeled and chopped roughly
  
• 6 cloves garlic
  
• 1 T salt
  

Nut Milk

• 1/4 c almonds and/or walnuts and/or cashews
  
• 2 c water
  

Dry Spices

• 2 tsp cumin powder
  
• 1 T garam masala powder
  
• 1/2 tsp dry mint
  
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
  
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
  
• 1-1/2 tsp corriander seed powder
  
• 1/2 tsp black pepper powder
  
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
  

Meat

• 2 lb chicken thighs
  

Other Ingredients

• 1-1/2 c tomato puree
  
• 1/2 c yogurt
  
• 1/3 c chopped cilantro
  

Run the garlic and ginger in a food processor until chopped very finely. Put the butter, garlic and ginger, onions, and salt in a large, heavy pot and fry at medium heat for quite some time until the garlic and ginger have formed a crust on the bottom of the pot, and the onions are a deep brown. Let the crust and onions get darker than you might think necessary- the crust will give a nice smoky flavor when scraped up into the sauce later.

While these ingredients are browning, cut the chicken into small pieces (about 1/2" square).

Run the nuts and water in a blender until fairly smooth (about a minute).

When the onions are ready, add the chicken and fry for a few minutes until lightly browned. Add the dry spices and fry for 15 seconds. Add the nut milk, yogurt, and tomato puree. Turn heat to low and cover. Simmer until chicken is just tender, about 30 minutes. Add salt to taste.

At this point, you can stir in the cilantro and serve. However, this dish is much better if you let it sit, covered, overnight. It's even better if after that, you stick it in the fridge and let it sit for another day or two.

Before serving, make sure to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom. Optional: serve topped with a couple pats of butter.

Keywords: Main Dish, Intermediate, Chicken, Dinner, Hot and Spicy, Indian

( RG1839 )