Butter chicken

 


Chicken Makhani, made either with tikkas -- derived from the Hindi word tukra and meaning pieces -- or quarters of chicken, is the most popular dish in Indian restaurants both in India and overseas. It is essentially a restaurant and not a homestyle dish, because there are no tandoors in Indian domestic kitchen, and this dish consists of tandoor-cooked chicken in a sauce.

However, since the dish is so popular, many would like tor recreate it at home, and I give a simplified way to do so here, cooking the chicken in a skillet. Alternatively, it is possible to roast a whole small chicken, marinating it first, then quartering and adding the juices from the roasting pan into the makhani sauce.

Butter chicken originated in the 1950s at the Moti Mahal restaurant in Delhi where they made the sauce by adding butter and tomato to the leftover chicken juices in the marinade trays from which they used to sell hundreds of portions of Tandoori Chicken every day.

Notes

If butter is cooked for as long as 3 minutes, it will turn into ghee and become a grainy emulsion. So, start with chilled butter and cook for less than 2 minutes after the butter has melted. 

You can cook the chicken ahead of time (steps 1-3). But the makhani sauce takes only 5-6 minutes to prepare and should be made right when the dish is about to be served.

Recipe

2lb chicken, skinned quarters, smaller pieces on the bone or boneless pieces
4-5 tablespoons oil

For the marinade
2 cups plain yoghurt
6 cloves garlic
1/2" square of fresh ginger
2/3 tsp red chile powder or paprika
1/4 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
Pinch of tandoori coloring (optional)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp fresh lime juice

For the makhani sauce
1 1/2 lb tomatoes
1/2 tsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
3oz chilled butter
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp garam masala
salt
1 1/2 fl oz light cream

1. First prepare the marinade. Puree the ginger and garlic in a blender or food processor, then combine with the yoghurt, salt, marinade spices, and lime juice and mix well. 

2. Make shallow cuts in the chicken if using bone-in pieces. Marinade the chicken in the yoghurt mixture for at least 1 hour, preferably for 2, with best results overnight.

3. Heat the oil in a large, thick-bottomed skillet and put in the chicken with the marinade. Cover and cook over a low heat until done, periodically turning the chicken. 

4. Scald the tomatoes for the makhani sauce and peel off the skin. Reduce to a semi-pulp with a fork or potato masher. Put the kasuri methi in a grinder and reduce to powder. 

5. Put the tomato pulp into a separate skillet and cook for 5 minutes or so until liquid has evaporated slightly. Add the chilled butter and paprika. Once the butter is melted, let it cook for just 1 minute. Add the kasuri methi, garam masala pwder, and salt to taste. After 30 seconds, add the cream, and stir. The sauce is now ready - pour it into the skillet with the chicken and mix well, serving immediately. 

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