Butter Chicken Recipe

I hate adding artificial colours to my food hence the colour of my butter chicken is not very bright.

I just love a decent, flavourful curry that doesn't burn your mouth and you can actually savour the flavours. Indian curries are famous worldwide for their unique, rich taste and texture and Indian Butter Chicken is one of the most popular curry dishes as it has a creamy, milder yet amazing aromatic taste. After trying many different masala and curry paste brands and many trials and errors I came up with my own butter chicken masala and believe me it turned out so good that I have never bought pre-mixed butter chicken masala or paste ever since. Though I am open to trying some nice ones so you can go ahead and recommend your favourite brand of butter chicken curry masala. Anyway, here I am sharing my recipe from scratch!

Butter Chicken Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 kg of chicken

2 large onions

2 large tomatoes

3 cloves



1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste

1/2 cup yogurt

1 tbsp oil

a pinch of turmeric powder

1 tbsp red chili powder

1 tbs sugar

salt as per taste

2 tbsp butter

fresh for topping

for masala:

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 1/2tsp fennel seeds

1 1/2tsp coriander seeds

1/2 fenugreek seeds

2×1″ pieces of cinnamon

seeds from 5 cardamom

Method:

1. Wash and place tomatoes and cloves in a pressure cooker. cook for 2 whistles and let cool down.

2. Roast all the ingredients for masala on a griddle and then grind coarsely in a coffee grinder. Take it in a small bowl and keep aside.

3.Clean and wash chicken well then melt butter in a griddle and roast chicken pieces till slightly golden on both sides. (takes about 15 minutes)

4. Meanwhile, finely cube the onions, heat oil in wok/pot and let onions cook till turns just golden.

5. Discard the cloves and peel and puree the tomatoes.

6. Add ginger-garlic paste to the onions and saute for a minute then add turmeric powder, red chili powder, salt, sugar, the masala and fry stirring constantly then add yogurt and after few seconds add tomato puree and let it cook for 3-5 minutes then add chicken with all the butter bits sticking to the griddle.

7. Add water to adjust the consistency and cook covered for 10 minutes.

8. Aah! the aromatic feast! (^_^) top it with fresh cream and serve with chapati/paratha.