I need a pretty damn good reason to put 500 gm of full fat butter in anything. I got two.
England made it to the rugby World Cup finals. And the British chicken tikka masala celebrated 60 years since inception.
Plans for the evening were being hatched by hubby and his brothers. So 25 emails later, they were as clear as mud.
Sis-in-law sensibly kept mum. But I stepped in once offering to cook curry for the big night. Which then led to another flurry of emails:
Hubby: “Mallika has offered to cook a curry. Don’t know if it’ll be good, but it’ll be edible.”
Brother 1: “I’d rather go for a vindaloo down the road instead…”
Brother2: “I LOVE Mallikita’s curries!!”
Ignoring it all, I took to Butter Chicken or Murgh Makhani. The mother of all chicken tikka masalas.
As I guzzled vino and vodkas, the bunch of adults raced in and out of the kitchen for fourth helpings.
Quite rightly. It was sinfully delicious and effortlessly simple to make. A third pretty damn good reason.
This recipe feeds 10:
2 kg boneless chicken breasts
250 gm + 4 tbsp natural yogurt
142 ml soured cream
500 gm salted butter
1.3 kg passata (the best you can get)
8 green cardamoms
16 whole black peppers
4 inches cinnamon
16 cloves
2 inches ginger
16 cloves garlic
2 tsp kassori methi (dried fenugreek)
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Preheat the oven to a high heat (200 degrees centigrade). Start cutting the chicken into large bite-sized chunks and piling them up in a mixing bowl.
Place the whole spices on a baking sheet and dry roast them for about 10 minutes until you can smell them strongly in the kitchen.
In a blender, whizz together the roasted spices with the ginger and garlic. Add a little bit of water to get a smooth paste. I would ask you to powder the spices et al but it’s too tiresome.
Don’t worry if the paste is a little grainy. Add it along with salt, lemon juice and the 250 gm of yogurt to the chicken and mix the whole lot together well.
Leave this to rest for at least two hours. I left it for three. When you are ready to eat, preheat the oven to 190 degrees centigrade or gas mark 5.
Spoon the pieces of chicken into two shallow baking sheets and bake for twenty minutes until they are white all the way through. Soak the kasoori methi in two tablespoons of hot water.
In the meantime, bring the passata to heat in a large pot over a medium heat. Mix in the remaining yogurt, sour cream and butter.
When you can see the melted butter on the surface of the curry, mix in the cooked chicken with all its juices.
Finally, stir in the kasoori methi and its hot water. Serve immediately with jeera pulao and Cobra beer for ultimate satisfaction.
PS = 500 gm of butter for 10 people isn’t too bad…. Or is it???
PPS = Murgh makhani has featured a lot on blogs recently. Try this version too.
18 Comments
Ok, so I have to ask, oh-she-of-seldom-used-chicken-breast. Why breasts? I’m working on converting to thighs et al., and you go and throw this monkey wrench into my mix? Argh. I’m so confused…
Wow it looke really delicious. Winning rugby or not i would love to have it.
I am certain brother 1 would never dare to say no to your cooking.
Absolutely luv this. Thx for the recipe. Lovely pic.
Hi Krista
Well spotted! I used chicken breasts here because the recipe requires marinating, which means the masalas will have ample time to seep into them and tenderise the usually hard-as-rock part of the chicken. If you’re just stir frying chicken or cooking them in a quick curry please please please don’t use chicken breasts. They are as bland as a a piece of rubber, only paler…
Chrs
M
I mix both dark and white meat for Butter chicken. Kids love just the breasts. Looks great Mallika. It is more than “edible”, did you rub some on your hubby’s face? ;D
And starve that brother 1 next time!:P
Ah, your mysteriuos ways revealed.
Many thanks.
I use a coffee grinder exclusively to grind whole spices. It works great. (Just don’t ever use it to grind coffee!
chuck that brother who didn’t want to eat something that looked this heavenly..am sure next time round he won’t open his mouth..:)
Hey Mallika…. It looks delicious!!! And you have good reasons to celebrate is’nt it
And don’t mind abt the comments… going into the kitchen for 4th helping says every thing
Looks absolutely delicious!.
im sure its pretty good!! thanx 4 sharin
aaargh mallika why didn’t you post this 2 days ago?
i was looking for a butter chicken recipe! i eventually found one, and made one. it was delish, but not quite the butter chicken the hubby was expecting!
I shall be making this again, so i’ll try your recipe. i have a story to tell about a terrible date and butter chicken!
ah, did i say i was the terrible date?
Mallika, I am an avid reader of your blog! Absolutely love the dishes! I do have a question about this recipe - what exactly is passata? Google says:
http://www.ochef.com/409.htm
But I am sure you would never involve pancetta in Indian cooking! Thanks!
Hi Naz
So nice to hear that! Now to your Q.
As you know I would rather poke my eyes out than skin, boil and sieve a kg of tomatoes. Passata does exactly that. In a bottle. At a pretty good price.
Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/glossary/p.shtml?passata for a very good explanation.
This stuff saves my life with pastas, soups, casseroles and the odd curry. Buy the very best quality available in the tinned tomato section of your local supermarket.
Hope this helps!
Chrs
M
Sounds delicious, and this is the first time I’ve heard of passata. Love learning about new things!
This looks delicious and your descriptions of hubby and brothers are so funny. I love reading your blog and am planning to make this on the coming weekend. Thanks for posting the recipe.
Butter chicken looks so good. The colour is so tempting. mmmm, never made it, though had it lots of time. In Delhi its a staple resaurant food.