Yummy Butter Chicken!

Butter chicken is one of my favorite dishes to eat! I think butter chicken comes under the category of foods I can eat on a daily basis! One day I thought I would try and make butter chicken at home and it turned out so well! Over the years, I have made it many, many times at home. At first I was intimidated by the thought of making this at home, but it’s been easy to make! Butter chicken is a mild, rich curry dish. It is supposed to be made with lots of butter, ground cashews, and cream, but I make mine a bit differently!

I’ve tried many different recipes, but I think this one is my favorite! This dish is quick and easy to make, but popping with fragrant flavors that you’ll be having a party in your mouth with every bite!

To start off I am going to write down all the ingredients needed. Sorry I don’t have exact measurements on the ingredients

– a little bit of olive oil
– 2 medium sized onions chopped as small as you can get it (use a chopper if you have one)
– 3 tablespoons of garlic paste
– 2 tablespoon of ginger paste
– tomato paste
– cumin seeds
– garam masala
– red chili powder
– turmeric
– 4-5 cloves
– cardamom that is taken out of the casing
– cinnamon
– 1 star anise
– salt
– 3 chicken breast(cleaned and cut into cubes)
– plain yogurt
– some water
– Shaan Tandoori Mix
– Lemon Juice
Here are the steps to making the butter chicken.

Step One
Take the chicken and put it into a dry bowl. Add two spoons of the shaan tandoori mix (the number of spoons varies based on your spice preference). Add, a spoon of the ginger and garlic paste, a spoon of yogurt, and lemon juice. Mix it all up and keep aside to marinate. (If you remember to do this the day before, it’ll be better! Otherwise just let it marinate for an hour) Preheat your oven to 450. Lay the chicken cubes as one layer on a baking tray and cook for 15 minutes. Then turn the setting to broil and broil it for 5-7 minutes. After this is done, keep it aside.

Step Two
Heat up a frying pan and toast the cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise. Once it is toasted use your spice grinder and grind all of this into a fine powder. If you don’t have a grinder then you can buy powders of each item. (Or you can cheat and just buy the spice mix for Butter Chicken)
Step Three
Heat up some oil, don’t use too much.. maybe 2 tablespoons and let the oil heat up. Once the oil is heated up, add cumin and let it cook for about 45 seconds.. make sure you don’t burn the cumin in the hot oil. Add your onions and mix it all. Let the onion cook for a few minutes and then add remaining of the ginger and garlic paste and let it all cook until the onion has turned a lighter color and glossy.

Step Four
Next we need to add the spices. Add the turmeric, chili powder, garam masala. Mix it all and then add the powder of cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise that you made. Stir and fry for about a minute or two. Make sure that this does not burn! Stir in the tomato paste and mix it so it will form a nice paste and let it cook for another minute or two.

Step Five
Add your chicken pieces into the mixture and mix it all together gently so that the tomato mixture covers the chicken evenly. I let it sit for about 3 minutes.

Step Six
I take half a cup of yogurt and mix it so it is a little watery and add it into the pot with the chicken and mix it all together. This will help create the gravy of the chicken. If you want to have a richer flavor you can always add some heavy whipping cream. When we have guests, I usually add this, but when I make it for just The Husband and myself, I add the yogurt. You can add as much or as little yogurt you want depending on how much gravy you want at the end. Let it cook for another 5 minutes and your butter chicken should be ready! Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

Side Note: If you think you need to add more seasoning, then chop up some onions quickly and heat up a frying pan with oil, add the onions and all the masala’s and let it cook. Add some tomato paste and mix it to form a nice paste. You will know it is ready to be removed from the heat with the oil and tomato begin to separate. When you see this happening, just add this into your curry and re-taste. You can add more yogurt/cream if you want. If you think the butter chicken is too spicy and the cream is not helping, add a teaspoon of brown sugar to it! Hopefully this works.

You can serve with some hot basmati rice or warm naan bread! If you want to get extra fancy, you can plate it into a bowl and add some coriander/cilantro leaves as a garnish. As you can see I didn’t do anything, I just made some rice and put the curry on top of it because after smelling and taking small tastes, I couldn’t wait to dig in!

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the steps or ingredients.