Romy Gill BUTTER CHICKEN

[Martin_Zwick]

In november I read the lovely article „Butter Chicken has helped me at every stage of my life and has always united my family“ by Romy Gill in the GUARDIAN. She is a British/Indian chef, food/travel writer and broadcaster.

I made already several versions of Butter Chicken in the last years, but her version is clearly the most comforting one and my new favorite version.

Ingredients

marinade:
1kg chicken breast, diced (4-5cm cubes)
80g greek yoghurt
15g ginger, grated
3 cloves of garlic, grated
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp tandoori masala
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp red Kashmiri chilli powder (me: Pimenton de la vera dolce+hot)
1 tsp salt
1/2 juice lemon

sauce:
50g butter
20g ginger, roughly chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
750g tomatoes, roughly chopped (me: 400g canned tomatoes)
75g cashew nuts
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp tandoori masala
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp red Kashmiri chilli powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
100ml heavy cream
6-8 green cardamom seed, crushed
2 tsp methi dried fenugreek leaves (me: fenugreek seeds crushed)

Preparation

1. First make the marinade. Combine spices with yoghurt and lemon juice

2. Add chicken pieces and combine. Marinate for several hours or best overnight

3. The next day put butter in a big sauce pan or Casserole and heat. Then add chopped ginger and garlic and cook for 2min on medium heat

4. Add fresh or canned tomatoes and cook around 10min

5. Add cashew nuts, spices, salt, sugar and stir, cook for another 5-10 min. Remove from the heat and let it cool down. Then put it in a blender and back to the sauce pan. Also pre-heat the oven to 200 C or 400 F

6. Put the chicken pieces on a baking tray with parchment paper and put in the oven for 15min

7. Now add cream, water, crushed cardamom seeds, fenugreek leaves to the sauce pan and cook with lid on low heat for 15min

8. After 15min add chicken pieces and cook for additional 12min on low heat with lid

9. Serve with rice or Naan bread. Optional also with pickled onions.

[Arv_R]

It’s always interesting to see how other cultures prepare Indian flavored dishes. Although I personally cook with lots of dairy, my Punjabi mom generally doesn’t. Great pictures and description of process.

I made a stovetop chicken tandoor last night, and the grillpan is a real mess, defying the first scrubbing.

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

Made this on Friday. Everyone thought it was outstanding. I had to make a few substitutions. My wife does not like heat, although she loves aromatic spices, so I ground the garam masala from raw spices and left out all the hot peppers. I then sprinkled on some ground Kashmiri pepper on my own plate at the end. I also didn’t have any cashews left, so I really cheated and added the last of the pecans and the bottom of the jar of almond butter instead. Not as creamy as cashews but worked well.

The reason I like these recipes is that they are as much about technique as they are about specific ingredients. I marinated over night as you suggested. I normally do not puree the sauce after I make it, but I did it twice and it worked very well. First, I ran it through the blender at the time when you describe, and then later, when the almond butter got a little clumpy, I hit it with an immersion blender… I also normally do not put the chicken in the oven, but I followed your directions for that. When it first came out, I was concerned that the yogurt in the marinade ruined the texture when I pulled it out of the oven, but when I added it to the sauce for the final cook, it was perfect.